Bridging the gaps: Technical communication in an international and multicultural society

The workplace is becoming increasingly diverse in ways that are changing our understanding of who our readers are and how we can make effective communication choices to bridge the gaps between us. Communication problems arise because of differences in world experience, in the amount of common knowledge shared within cultures, in the structure of societies and the workplace, in culturally specific rhetorical strategies, and even in differences in processing graphics. Most textbooks provide little information on these topics, so the technical writing teacher needs to find ways to incorporate issues of international and multicultural communication into the classroom.