16. Hidden Arguments: Rhetoric and Persuasion in Diverse Forms of Technical Communication

This chapter explores how persuasion and rhetoric appear within technical writing forms in nuanced and unexpected ways—and in ways that new graduates are not prepared to successfully navigate. Even though the field agrees that technical writing is rhetorical, this isn’t always the case in discipline-specific courses that ask students to perform technical writing forms. This qualitative, IRB-approved investigation explores interviews from three professionals who perform technical writing daily—a physician assistant, a CPA, and a labor and delivery nurse. We find that even within practical forms of writing, such as medical records and accounting documents, hidden arguments exist, and that these professionals recount that learning to write persuasively in these forms was a complex, disorienting process that took place entirely on the job. Drawing from these results, this chapter argues that by producing writing prompts and instruction centered on detailed, realistic case study situations and problem-solving, instructors can diminish the disparity between abstract classroom audiences and stakes and concrete workplace audiences and stakes, better preparing our students for real-world writing contexts.