Abstract

I trace briefly how readers have been paid increasing attention, especially as they have become more active in text-making, rather than just text-reading. In particular, I talk about the rhetorical roles that readers assume in texts, and how those roles contribute to the success or failure of communication. The talk will conclude with the work Prof. Steehouder from the University of Twente and I did on analyzing reader and writer roles as they go online.

About the Author

Mary Coney is a Professor of Technical Communication at the University of Washington. She is the author of numerous works in reader response theory as it applies to technical communication, including "Role Playing on the Web: Guidelines for Designing and Evaluating Personas Online" (with Michaël Steehouder in Technical Communication 47:3, August 2000).

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