ABSTRACT
A variety of perspectives could allow us to discuss metaphor in technical
communication. Many studies of the power and uses of metaphor have been
carried out in psychology and in education, especially those that explore how
metaphor aids, or interferes with, reading and other cognitive processes. The
rhetorical perspective is an appropriate focus for metaphor because of the role
that rhetoric has played in the shaping of academic technical communication
programs. Indeed, rhetoric has been instrumental in shaping technical com-
munication programs, which have adopted the rhetorical canons, especially
invention, arrangement, style, and delivery. Metaphor is a stylistic element, so
why is technical communication’s perspective on it somewhat uneven? It could
be argued that science has embraced metaphor, but this book will offer evidence
that the use of metaphor in science is largely unconscious, rather than self-
conscious, as it should be if it were used more effectively.
