From Black Codes to Recodification: Removing the Veil from Regulatory Writing - Hardcover

Williams, Miriam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895033763 ISBN 13: 9780895033765

Publisher: Routledge, 2010

Synopsis

Miriam F. Williams

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book examines Texas regulations from the Texas Black Codes of 1866, some of the most deceptive regulations in Texas history, to contemporary Texas Child Care Licensing regulations, which perhaps symbolize some of the most audience-friendly contemporary regulations in Texas. The author focuses on the contemporary African-American audience, often categorized as distrustful of government. The rationale for looking at these two extremes of regulatory discourse is to highlight regulatory invention and style in a relatively closed system from 1866 to Post-Reconstruction labor regulations, where comment and input from the true public was not always obvious, and in a current, somewhat open system, where public comment and opinion on the content and style of regulations is more obvious. Just as clinical trials test patients' responses to new medications during various stages of injury or illness, the case studies presented in this book test the effects of contemporary Plain English translation on the various stages of regulatory writing, with the Texas Black Codes representing the most severe case of injury and the Child Care Licensing regulations representing a much healthier system. The user groups examined here are African-American contracting parties whose work or labor is regulated by government entities. A discourse analysis of historical regulations and contextual inquiry into contemporary public policy writing will show how regulatory invention has evolved and how changes in these processes affect the perceptions of a contemporary African-American audience—an audience with an oral tradition for whom regulations were an introduction to technical documents, and an audience negatively affected by historical regulations. Intended Audience: Undergraduate and graduate programs in Technical Communication and Composition and Rhetoric. Undergraduate and graduate programs in public administration and public policy; the book can help public policy students understand the complexities of intercultural communication and negotiation in public policy development and implementation.

From the Inside Flap

IN PRAISE OF "Williams makes the case for rhetorical sensitivity in the writing of government regulations, by demonstrating in vivid fashion with examples both touching and riveting that the one-size-fits-all solution of Plain English could offer neither clarity nor credibility to historically marginalized (and historically deceived) communities. This is a vital book for truly understanding the social and political implications of the canon of style and for recognizing the dexterities necessary for effective communication." Sam Dragga, Texas Tech University "Miriam Williams's groundbreaking new book conducts a poignant and much needed rhetorical analysis of the highly discriminatory Texas Black Codes that operated with racialized impunity during the late 19th and early 20th century. Her additional multi-ethnic analysis of contemporary Texas Child Care Licensing regulations, coupled with findings from African American focus groups, further points us in new directions by showing how liberating discursive analyses in Technical Communication Studies can be. The impact this important work will have on writing and analyzing governmental regulatory texts promises to open up how technical writers for these agencies can help rather than hurt the people most in need. Williams's careful, comprehensive work will, without question, deliver us from evils that should never have a place in a democratic society." Jaime Armin Mejía, Texas State University

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0895033763
• ISBN 13: 9780895033765
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160