ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), which is an industry-standard data model and markup system that is used to create componentized content and to assemble that content into a variety of output documents. After first situating the development and appeal of DITA in the context of conversations about computer documentation and the rhetorical practices of technical communicators, I focus on two rhetorical affordances: translocational meaning and bilocational meaning. Translocational meaning is that which arises from users interpreting content across contexts. Bilocational meaning is that which arises from users interpreting content in multiple contexts simultaneously. In order for writers to take advantage of DITA’s efficiencies, the model challenges writers to think about their content as having structure as well as translocational and bilocational meaning. In negotiating these meanings, technical communicators will find new opportunities for rhetorical discernment. The chapter then considers, through assignments and sample texts, how teachers can prepare their students to learn the basics of DITA, and its conceptual framing of documentation, and through that work to realize DITA’s rhetorical potential.
