Influences on Creativity in Technical Communication: Invention, Motivation, and Constraints
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2015
Abstract
© 2015 © 2015 Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. Interviews with 14 technical communicators reveal that skills in rhetorical invention help them creatively address communication problems they define creativity in relation to four interrelated exigencies of invention: thinking like a user, reinvigorating dry content, inventing visual ideas, and alternating between heuristic and algorithmic processes they recognize intrinsic factors such as curiosity and sympathy as motivations for their creativity, while being conscious of the external factors (people, money, and time) that may restrain creativity.
Publication Title
Technical Communication Quarterly
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Y.,
&
Saari Kitalong, K.
(2015).
Influences on Creativity in Technical Communication: Invention, Motivation, and Constraints.
Technical Communication Quarterly,
24(3), 199-216.
http://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2015.1043028
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/9414