ABSTRACT
Technical communication has as its primary rhetorical objective persuading users that the materials presented are accurate, instructive, and useful as well as possibly changing users’ attitudes, behavior, or both while helping them meet their information needs. Gaining compliance with this rhetorical objective in the communication situation requires that technical communicators develop persuasive documents using the best tools from communication theory, rhetoric, and documentation processes (e.g., cultural user analysis). But which of the many theories of communication, which of the many rhetorical strategies, and which cultural elements should technical communicators select?
