BIB_10: Hoft, N. (1999). Global issues, local concerns. [Introducation]. Technical Communication, 46(2), 145-148.

This article is the introduction to the special issue of Technical Communication on international technical communication. In this introduction, Hoft maps out the challenges globalization has posed to technical communicators. She starts with the problem of cultural categorization, critiquing three common ways of categorizing cultures in among technical communicators and in the business world in general: categories by history, markets, and languages. Acknowledging that all these ways of categorization have an impulse to generalize, on which technical communicators should reflect. She points out that the standardization of writing that has been taking place is at once useful and insensitive to cultures. After giving an overview of the articles in the issue, Hoft concludes the introduction by proposing collaboration among technical communicators with different background and experiences as a way to address the issues arise from the complexity of international technical communication. 

This article offers a critical perspective on international technical communication. Specifically, Hoft brings on the table some important issues in international/cross-cultural technical communication such as the difficulty of even beginning to define cultures in meaningful ways, and the sort of tension between the pragmatic approach to international communication in business world and the more reflective and careful views on cultures and communication most commonly found in academic community.