Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 1998

2 + 2 = 5 If 2 Is Large Enough: Rhetorical Spaces of Technology Development in Aerospace Engine Testing

CEZAR M. ORNATOWSKI

Abstract

This article suggests a perspective on rhetoric of technology as discursive exploitation of the margins of indeterminacy affecting the development of technologies and technical artifacts. It examines such margins by examining the development of an aircraft auxiliary engine in a California aerospace company, focusing especially on how engines are tested. It examines technical documents associated with testing as arenas for rhetorical transactions involving various factors and interests vested in a technology and as residua of compliance and negotiation. It suggests that margins of indeterminacy in technology development provide critical rhetorical spaces for agency and decision making, spaces that engineers and technical communicators must be trained to appreciate and exploit appropriately.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1998-07-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651998012003003
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism technical communication
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Fogarty et al. (2026)
    Lessons from NASA: Or, Why Technical and Professional Communicators Should Stud…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Swarts (2025)
    The Construction of Data Usability
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Wolfe et al. (2011)
    Teaching the IMRaD Genre: Sentence Combining and Pattern Practice Revisited
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Wolfe (2009)
    How Technical Communication Textbooks Fail Engineering Students
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Coppola (2006)
    Guest Editor's Introduction: Communication in Technology Transfer and Diffusion…
    Technical Communication Quarterly

References (23) · 2 in this index

  1. Bijker, Wiebe E.
    The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and His…
  2. Bijker, Wiebe
    Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change
  3. Blume, Stuart S.
    Insight and Industry: On the Dynamics of Technological Change in Medicine
  4. Bucciarelli, Louis L.
    Designing Engineers
  5. Culler, Jonathan
    Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures
Show all 23 →
  1. Doheny-Farina (1994)
    Rhetoric, Innovation, Technology
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Doheny-Farina, Stephen
    Writing in Non-Academic Settings
  3. 10.1080/00201749208602296
     ↗
  4. 10.1080/00201749208602296
     ↗
  5. Latour, Bruno
    Aramis or the Love of Technology
  6. Latour, Bruno
    Technological Choices: Transformation in Material Cultures since the Neolithic
  7. Lemonnier, Pierre
    Technological Choices: Transformation in Material Cultures since the Neolithic
     ↗
  8. Mack, Pamela E.
    Viewing the Earth: The Social Construction of the Landsat Satellite System
  9. MacKenzie, Donald
    Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance
  10. MacKenzie, Donald
    The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got Its Hum
  11. 10.1080/10510977809367983
     ↗
  12. Miller, Carolyn R.
    Writing in Non-Academic Settings
  13. Ornatowski (1992)
    Between efficiency and politics rhetoric and ethics in technical writing
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  14. —. “Between Politics and Efficiency: The Rhetoric and Politics of Technical Information in a Multinational Ae…
  15. Paré, Anthony
    Writing in the Workplace: New Research Perspectives
  16. Pinch, Trevor
    The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and His…
  17. Quilici-Pacaud, Jean Francois
    Technological Choices: Transformation in Material Cultures since the Neolithic
  18. Zappen, James P.
    New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication: Research, Theory, and Practice
CrossRef global citation count: 7 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication May 2026
    The User Experience of Virtual Reality for Longitudinal Writing: A Diary Study of Immersive Graduate Dissertation Composing Experience ↗
    Jason Tham; Rich Shivener; Niveditha Pookkottuvariam; Sarah Riddick
    rhetorical criticism graduate education technical communication archival research empirical research qualitative research
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Mar 2026
    Canon to Code: Rhetorical Rulemaking for Generative AI Content Audits and Governance ↗
    Miriam F. Williams
    classical rhetoric modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism assessment technical communication artificial intelligence
  3. Computers and Composition Mar 2026
    Shifting rhetorical agency in multimodal UX composition with AI: Sharing rhetorical authority with technologies ↗
    Nupoor Ranade; Daniel L. Hocutt
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy technical communication multimodality
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2026
    Increasing Literacy on the Scams Targeting Latines: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Digital Technologies, and the Latine Community ↗
    Gabriel Lorenzo Aguilar
    rhetorical criticism technical communication artificial intelligence literacy studies
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2026
    Lessons in Security Logics from Cold-War Guatemala ↗
    Brittany Halley; Elizabeth Velasquez
    rhetorical criticism decolonial rhetorics technical communication gender and writing