Portland State University (PSU) is proud to announce the publication of Busting the Myth of the Communication Metaphor: How Technical Writing Conventions Perpetuate Injustice, a book by Sarah Read, professor and director of PSU’s Technical Writing Program.
Published by State University of New York (SUNY) Press, the book questions long-standing beliefs about technical and scientific communication, showing how they can unintentionally reinforce inequality.
Read's research takes a closer look at a common idea in technical writing, i.e., that “good” writing should always be clear, concise, and to the point. While this advice may sound harmless, Read calls it the “Communication Metaphor” and argues that it’s become an unquestioned rule in science and technical fields.
"The problem with that is that it has all these blind spots in it," Read said.
She argues that unquestioned belief has significant, and often harmful, consequences, particularly for women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines.
"Like any question that only has one answer, it dawns on you eventually that this is because everyone has long stopped thinking about it," Read remarked in a SUNY blog post.
Her book is a direct response to this realization, driven by a desire to explore where this belief came from and why it matters. Drawing on research across fields like writing, communication, and linguistics, Read shows the historical and cultural roots of this belief. The book details how seemingly neutral ideas like "clarity" and "objectivity" are tied to history—like when the 17th-century Royal Society promoted a "plain style" that put more work on readers instead of writers.
Along with ideas like the “conduit metaphor” (treating ideas like objects passed along effortlessly) and the “Standard English fairy tale” (believing that there is a single, correct form of English), this history created blind spots that still exclude people.
Read's twenty years of teaching introductory technical communication to STEM students and preparing master’s level students for technical writing careers has provided a unique perspective. Her collaboration with colleagues across the English Department and in PSU’s STEM programs, such as the Microbial Motility lab led by Dr. Nadeau, highlights the interdisciplinary nature of her inquiry. The book's genesis was also profoundly influenced by PSU graduate student Jesse Johnson, whose work on “rhetorical sovereignty” showed how Western communication has harmed Indigenous communities, including through laws and treaties. This personal discomfort fueled Read’s decision to make visible and critique these pervasive practices.
"This book is really a synthesis of everything I've thought about for the last twenty years," Read said. The book aims to make readers aware of the "water that we swim in", encouraging them to question assumptions. By teaching “critical language awareness” (CLA), PSU is preparing its graduates to make more thoughtful, ethically grounded choices in writing and communication.
"We believe that our current, widely held assumptions about how communication works and what makes it successful are, first, harmful, and second, not the only ones possible," Read states in the preface. The book offers a way to imagine communication that is more inclusive and better reflects how people share knowledge.
Busting the Myth of the Communication Metaphor is not just for academics; it is written for technical and scientific professionals, as well as their students and mentors. It serves as a vital resource for anyone seeking to understand and dismantle systemic injustice within the conventions of technical writing. This publication reflects PSU’s strength in producing scholarship that not only advances academic understanding but also equips professionals with tools to communicate more effectively in complex, real-world contexts.