Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
The genre of technical description is seeing a resurgence, particularly in online locations, where new, hybrid versions have emerged. The technical explanation, one such hybrid, proliferates on the social message board site Reddit and the message board “Explain Like I’m Five,” in which answers to complex questions are crowdsourced. This study examines 233 such questions and their answers, identifying the effort needed to generate technical explanations as distributed and coordinative technical communication work.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder (2016) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: