Narrative & Storytelling

The acceptance of narration and storytelling as a rhetorical framework in TC has gained traction since the 1990’s. Historically, narration and storytelling has been devalued in the field of TC, being deemed as non-academic and non-scientific in structure. Traditionally, narrative has been viewed as being in opposition to TC, where TC exposition is seen as the opposite to literary narrative (Barton and Barton, pp. 39-40). And, as Nancy Small notes, “Stories may be viewed as too personal, too incomplete, too anecdotal to qualify as formal research in our field” (p. 235). Yet, more and more researchers into narrative are coming to the consensus that narration and storytelling is at the heart of technical communication (Vealy and Gerding, p. 1).

Defining Narrative and Storytelling
The words storytelling and narrative are often used interchangeably. However, narrative can be both a framework and a device. Some researchers argue, as a framework, narrative can be seen in almost all types of writing, and is always present in a rhetorical situation that conveys information. They argue, storytelling and narration already are present in TC (Barton and Barton, pp. 39-40).