Technical Standards and a Theory of Writing as Infrastructure

Authors

Jordan Frith, Clemson UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2020

Publication Title

Written Communication

Volume

37

Issue

3

Publisher

Sage

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088320916553

Abstract

Infrastructures support and shape our social world, but they do so in often invisible ways. In few cases is that truer than with various documents that serve infrastructural functions. This article takes one type of those documents—technical standards—and uses analysis of one specific standard to develop theory related to the infrastructural function of writing. The author specifically analyzes one of the major infrastructures of the Internet of Things—the 126-page Tag Data Standard (TDS)—to show how rethinking writing as infrastructure can be valuable for multiple conversations occurring with writing studies, including research on material rhetoric, research that expands the scope of what should be studied as writing, and research in writing studies that links with emerging fields. The author concludes by developing a model for future research on the infrastructural functions of writing.

Comments

Publisher's page: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0741088320916553

Recommended Citation

Frith, J. (2020). Technical Standards and a Theory of Writing as Infrastructure. Written Communication, 37(3), 401–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088320916553