Who makes the box?

The field of technical communication has renamed and even reinvented itself to open the box of being stereotyped as merely “technical writing” or “editing”. At the same time, however, the field may be creating a new stereotyped box, limiting itself to high technology as both tool and subject matter. To counter this new stereotype and realize more opportunities for practitioners, this paper offers a more inclusive definition of the field as communication that matters to the audience. In support of this definition, the paper identifies other areas that can be opened to technical communicators and the principles that will carry them from one to another successfully