Människa, text, teknik : Tekniska handböcker som kommunikationsmedel

Sammanfattning: Technical manuals are often analyzed as purely instructional artifacts. In this thesis, however, they are analyzed as texts with multiple aims; instructional, descriptive and motivationaL They are also analyzed as texts written within a specific communicational context and regarded as an important part of the technology introduction as a whole.This thesis is divided into three parts. The first section is an analysis of the manual genre or genres, consisting of text definitions and typical features of the communicational context. Technical manuals are discussed as (more or less) genre dependent, audience designed, related to the technology and to the organizational context for text production.The second section presents a text analysis, based on manuals for microwave oven cooking and for word processing. These manuals were chosen because they are part of the introduction of a new or relatively new technology. The analysis showed that users of microwave ovens are regarded as novices to a greater extent than the users of word processing; the microwave cooking manuals had more emphasis on describing the technology and giving the users motivation for use. In the thesis, the various stylistic devices used are presented and discussed.The third section presents a field study, consisting of a set of interviews with the technical writers responsible for the analyzed manuals. They described their work as dependent on genres, audiences, technologies and organizational contexts, but they also added- with emphasis- two other major forces: concern for "Swedishness" (Swedish language and culture as presented in the manuals) and a strong personal interest in the function and development of the technologies.