ABSTRACT
The modern age was the age of the professional while the postindustrial favors the consultant. The technical and professional communication (TPC) in the postindustrial context cannot rely on documenting emergent digital technologies to provide a steady wage. To force a definition of commonality is to leave too many opportunities unpursued and to relinquish the power of the technical rhetor, defined as a trickster nimbly anticipating change, deftly working not to define the terms at play nor finally to solve wicked problems but to meaningfully engage stakeholders. Interests in public understanding of science and technology, of the workings of institutions and the people who animate them, of cultural attunements, and the limits as much as the potential means of persuasion, all these elements are necessary components in a responsible engagement with postindustrial places in order to meaningfully write amid change.
