Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 1992

Between efficiency and politics rhetoric and ethics in technical writing

Cezar M. Ornatowski San Diego State University

Abstract

Traditional textbook rationales for the technical writing course locate the essence of technical writing in objectivity, clarity, and neutrality, and the need for teaching it in its usefulness to employers. Such rationales, however, are unable to accommodate a notion of ethics and responsibility: if the writer merely serves the interests that employ her by reporting facts in an objective way, how can she exercise choice when ethical problems arise? An alternative view is to see technical writing as always rhetorical and involved with potentially conflicting agendas and interests, with objectivity, clarity, and neutrality serving merely as stylistic devices in the writer's rhetorical toolbox. Technical writers are rhetoricians who continually make ethical choices in serving diverse interests and negotiating between conflicting demands. The recognition of the fundamental rhetoricity of technical writing is the first step towards accommodating a meaningful notion of ethics into the technical writing curriculum.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
1992-01-01
DOI
10.1080/10572259209359493
Open Access
Closed
Topics
technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (17)

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  4. Boedy (2017)
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  5. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
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  1. Frost (2016)
    Apparent Feminism as a Methodology for Technical Communication and Rhetoric
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Lutz et al. (2007)
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  3. Lutz et al. (2007)
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  4. David (2001)
    Mythmaking in Annual Reports
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  5. Smith (2000)
    Strength in the Technical Communication Journals and Diversity in the Serials Cited
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  6. Dombrowski (2000)
    Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century
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  7. ORNATOWSKI (1998)
    2 + 2 = 5 If 2 Is Large Enough
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  8. Henson et al. (1998)
    A Service Learning Approach to Business and Technical Writing Instruction
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  9. Savage (1996)
    Redefining the ResponsibiIities of Teachers and the Social Position of the Tech…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  10. THOMPSON (1996)
    Competence and Critique in Technical Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  11. Johnson-Eilola et al. (1996)
    Policing ourselves: Defining the boundaries of appropriate discussion in online…
    Computers and Composition
  12. Scott (1995)
    Sophistic ethics in the technical writing classroom: Teaching<i>nomos,</i>delib…
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Cites in this index (2)

  1. Southard (1990)
    Interacting Successfully in Corporate Culture
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Winsor (1990)
    The Construction of Knowledge in Organizations: Asking the Right Questions abou…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Also cites 2 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1080/03637758109376063
     ↗
  2. 10.2307/377955
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 28 View in citation network →

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