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Article: Uncovering the CYA ("cover-your-ass") phenomenon in organizational writing: initial findings. (Current Research in Technical Communication)
- Article from:
- Technical Communication
- Article date:
- May 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Society for Technical Communication. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CYA (cover your ass): As professional technical communicators, you are no doubt familiar with the term CYA, and, depending upon your definition of it, you may either frequently practice or assiduously avoid it in your writing. But just what is CYA?--when, why, and by whom is it used, and how is it manifested within written texts? And, perhaps most important, is "CYAing" an ethical or unethical practice?
These were only a few of the questions with which I began my study of the CYA phenomenon in organizational writing. My purposes in this article are not to answer all of those questions, but rather to report some of the highlights from the first phase of a long-range ...