Traces attitude shifts toward empirical research on writing since the 1960s, in light of changes in writing research, psychology, and rhetoric of science. Suggests postmodernist denunciations of scientific methods as immoral have Romanticist overtones. Finds critiques in technical communication suggest empirical methods should not be employed.…

Examines the critical perspective as alternative to current descriptive, explanatory research focus. Notes that critical perspective aims at empowerment and emancipation, reinterpreting relationship between researcher and participants as collaborative. Includes feminist, radical educational, and participatory action research in critical research.…

Documents the increased interest about collaboration in technical communication, identifies and categorizes research topics, notes an increasing interest in balancing quantitative and qualitative approaches, and poses a continuum as a way of organizing and characterizing research about collaboration in technical communication. Situates the…