IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Mar 2022

Building Toward More Just Data Practices

Catherine C. Gouge ; Erin Brock Carlson West Virginia University

Abstract

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Introduction:</b> This tutorial offers technical and professional communication (TPC) professionals a heuristic designed to support more just data practices. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Key concepts:</b> Understanding how data contribute to discussions of public problems matters, especially in times of crisis during which multiply marginalized communities are disproportionately affected. Critical Data Studies clarifies how data practice and priorities emerging from various domains of power exacerbate structural inequalities. If we recognize, reveal, and reject data practices that cast data as if they were neutral or fixed, we can ensure that our data practices as TPC professionals are more just. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Key lessons:</b> 1. Recognize that data are socially constructed and often incomplete. 2. Reveal the overarching social, political, cultural, and economic conditions that shape data collection and by extension, data itself. 3. Reject faulty or biased processes for data interpretation and analysis that perpetuate inequality. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Implications for practice:</b> By acknowledging the relationship between data and context, we can promote better, more just data practices, preparing TPC professionals to work alongside community stakeholders in intersectional coalitions and challenging the conditions that lead to unjust data that fail to represent, over-represent, or blatantly misrepresent the realities of vulnerable communities.

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
2022-03-01
DOI
10.1109/tpc.2021.3137675
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
professional writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Chehab (2025)
    Complex Data Visualization Decision-Making: The Case of a Circular Dendrogram o…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  2. Swarts (2025)
    The Construction of Data Usability
    Technical Communication Quarterly

References (58) · 11 in this index

  1. Wells (2015)
    The Red Record Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States
  2. Eubanks (2018)
    Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
  3. Onhuoa (2019)
    Advice to my younger self: Mimi Onuoha
  4. Sawyer (2020)
    Visualizing the racial disparities in mass incarceration
  5. 10.7551/mitpress/11805.001.0001
     ↗
Show all 58 →
  1. 10.7551/mitpress/11543.001.0001
     ↗
  2. Gitelman (2013)
    Introduction
     ↗
  3. Frith (2017)
    Big Data, Technical Communication, and the Smart City
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Wolfe (2015)
    Teaching Students to Focus on the Data in Data Visualization
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Haas (2018)
    Introduction
  6. 10.4324/9780429198748
     ↗
  7. (2021)
    State COVID-19 data by race
  8. (2021)
    Risk for COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death by raceethnicity
  9. Carlson et al. (2021)
    Rural Health and Contextualizing Data
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  10. Godoy (2020)
    What do coronavirus racial disparities look like by state
  11. Atherton (2021)
    “Missing/Unspecified”: Demographic Data Visualization During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. Doan (2021)
    Misrepresenting COVID-19: Lying With Charts During the Second Golden Age of Dat…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  13. Severino (2020)
    Data shows West Virginians of color disproportionately affected by COVID-19
  14. 10.1080/1369118x.2012.678878
     ↗
  15. Dalton (2016)
    What does a critical data studies look like, and why do we care Seven points for a critic…
  16. 10.2307/j.ctv5vddsw
     ↗
  17. 10.1007/s10676-014-9351-8
     ↗
  18. Drucker (2011)
    Humanities approaches to graphical display
    Digital Humanities Quart.
  19. 10.1007/s13347-017-0270-6
     ↗
  20. 10.1080/1369118x.2019.1593484
     ↗
  21. 10.1080/1369118x.2019.1606268
     ↗
  22. 10.1177/2053951717736335
     ↗
  23. Rahm (2000)
    Data cleaning: Problems and current approaches
  24. 10.1145/2882903.2912574
     ↗
  25. Segal (2005)
    Health and the Rhetoric of Medicine
  26. Kostelnick (2008)
    The Visual Rhetoric of Data Displays: The Conundrum of Clarity*
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  27. 10.1515/9781400839902
     ↗
  28. 10.4324/9781315631011-38
     ↗
  29. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.015
     ↗
  30. 10.1007/s00127-016-1276-6
     ↗
  31. 10.1080/19359705.2017.1320739
     ↗
  32. 10.2307/j.ctt1pwt9w5
     ↗
  33. 10.4324/9781315831824
     ↗
  34. Agboka (2014)
    Decolonial Methodologies: Social Justice Perspectives in Intercultural Technica…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  35. Itchuaqiyaq et al. (2021)
    Decolonizing decoloniality: considering the (mis)use of decolonial frameworks i…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  36. Gonzales (2015)
    Translation as a user-localization practice
    Tech. Commun.
  37. Walwema (2018)
    Transliteracies in Intercultural Professional Communication
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  38. Frost (2016)
    Apparent Feminism as a Methodology for Technical Communication and Rhetoric
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  39. 10.4324/9781315232584
     ↗
  40. Sano-Franchini (2017)
    What can asian eyelids teach us about user experience design: A culturally reflexive fram…
    Rhetoric, Professional Comm., Globalization
  41. Wickman (2014)
    Wicked Problems in Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  42. Reisman (2018)
    Algorithmic impact assessments: A practical framework for public agency accountability
  43. Hopkins (2018)
    West Virginia behavioral risk factor surveillance system report
  44. ONeil (2016)
    Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
  45. Ogbe (2020)
    Monongalia county to hold free COVID-19 testing at the organtown farmers market and local…
  46. (2021)
    COVID-19 precautions
  47. Calkins (2021)
    WV COVID-19 testing sites
  48. 10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.03.009
     ↗
  49. 10.1056/nejmsa2011686
     ↗
  50. Santhanam (2021)
    COVID-19 has already cut U.S. life expectancy by a year. For black Americans, its worse
  51. Luna (2021)
    WVU researchers find disparities among COVID-19 testing, positivity rates in black commun…
  52. Severino (2020)
    COVID-19 tore through a black baptist church community in WV. Nobody said a word about it
  53. 10.7312/schw19310
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 5 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Computers and Composition Jun 2026
    “Article laundry” or “tutor in pocket?”: Multilingual writers’ generative AI-assisted writing in professional settings ↗
    Qianqian Zhang-Wu
    writing pedagogy teacher development professional writing qualitative research digital rhetoric artificial intelligence multilingual writers
  2. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly May 2026
    Communicating Diversity and Inclusion in LinkedIn Job Advertisements ↗
    Rashid Ashraf; Said Badreddine; Mohamed I. Albeshr; Hamsa Al Ammari; Malik Muhammad Sheheryar Khan; Pranav Naithani
    discourse analysis professional writing race and writing
  3. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly May 2026
    Andrew Carnegie and the Rhetorical History of Business and Professional Communication ↗
    Joe Edward Hatfield
    rhetorical criticism teacher development professional writing archival research
  4. Written Communication May 2026
    Categorizing Human Identity in Writing Research: A Case for Participant Self-Identification in the Disaggregation of Data ↗
    Jennifer Burke Reifman
    modern rhetorical theory professional writing empirical research
  5. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Apr 2026
    Bridging Curricula and Workplaces in China: A Needs-Based Model for Arabic Business Communication ↗
    Suo Yan Mei; Suo Yan Ju; Zarima Mohd Zakaria
    discourse analysis teacher development professional writing