The nuclear power industry is undergoing a renaissance, led by initiatives from the Obama administration and several states. In light of this development and the growing information economy, it is crucial that the public be well-informed, effective, and responsible regarding important technological issues. For this reason, undergraduate education, whether for technical or non-technical majors, must include an awareness of the complexity, ambiguity, and interestedness of the use of technical language and information. This is particularly important in communication involving public discourse and perceptions. I discuss here how I foster such awareness in my junior-level technical writing course for non-majors. We focus on the concept “safe” in relation to radiation and nuclear power. This is done in the overall context of making a recommendation for nuclear power as an energy source for the state of Florida for the next two decades, a realistic and urgent technical communication situation. Students see that standards and even the definitions of crucial terms shift depending on context and social circumstances, and that real-world choices involve trade-offs and balances between advantages and disadvantages.

The connection between language and empiricism is a central issue in technical writing and communication, more so than in other fields. Our field deals with technical and scientific knowledge which is oftentimes very definite and objective, yet there has been increasing recognition over the past few decades that this knowledge is socially constructed and rhetorically negotiated. Debates have ensued over the rhetoricity of technical communication in contrast to its empirical and instrumental aspects. W. V Quine, one of the most influential American philosophers of the twentieth century, however, rejected the distinction between empirical knowledge and knowledge stemming from language and social negotiation. Understanding technical writing and communication through the lens of Quine's theory ameliorates the tension between instrumental and rhetorical/humanistic views of technical discourse by recognizing the validity of both views and integrating the two. This understanding in turn will facilitate our pedagogical interactions with technical and scientific majors.

Rhetoric of science reveals the role of rhetoric in the complex social enterprise that is standard science. Rhetoric plays a role in non-standard science too. The recent elucidation of the human genetic code calls to mind an earlier, tragic episode in the history of genetics, Lysenkoism in Stalinist Russia. It involved the repudiation of standard science in favor of an insular, intuitive, and anti-intellectual “science” called agrobiology which supposedly could shape agricultural productivity to political will. The tragedy is that careers were ruined and millions suffered starvation as the new “science” failed to bear its predicted fruit. Whether seen as a debased rhetoric of science or as a rhetoric of debased science, it assumed that language is plastic and can support a plastically reconceived “science” that reflected the plasticity of nature itself. This plastic rhetoric is strikingly similar to Plato's view of sophism, which of course differs considerably from contemporary views of sophism.

Ethics as a topic in technical communication has grown in interest in the past quarter century as the field itself has matured. We now understand technical communication as involved in communicating not only technical information but also values, ethics, and tacit assumptions represented in goals. It also is involved in accommodating the values and ethics of its many audiences. This understanding is linked to an awareness of the social nature of all discourse and the root interconnectedness of rhetoric and ethics. This article presents an introduction and annotated bibliography of articles from technical writing and communication journals over this period, arranged in categories of professional, academic, and systematic approaches. Ethics is broadly conceived to include not only particular theories but also systems of values and principles.

The Presentation of Technical Information. 3rd ed. Reginald Kapp. Letchworth, Hertfordshire, UK: The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators, 1998. 136 pages. User‐Centered Technology: A Rhetorical Theory for Computers and Other Mundane Artifacts. Robert R. Johnson. Albany: SUNY P, 1998. 195 pages. Ethics in Technical Communication: Shades of Gray. Lori Allen and Dan Voss. New York: Wiley, 1997. 410 pages. The Dynamics of Writing Review: Opportunities for Growth and Change in the Workplace. Susan M. Katz. Vol. 5 in the ATTW Contemporary Studies in Technical Communication. Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1998. 134 pages. Essays in the Study of Scientific Discourse: Methods, Practice, and Pedagogy. Ed. John T. Battalio. Vol. 6 in the ATTW Contemporary Studies in Technical Communication. Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1998. 264 pages. Outlining Goes Electronic. Jonathan Price. Vol. 9 in the ATTW Contemporary Studies in Technical Communication. Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1999. 177 pages (including bibliography and indexes). Wiring the Writing Center. Ed. Eric H. Hobson. Logan, Utah: Utah State UP, 1998. 254 pages. Inventing the Internet. Janet Abbate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. 264 pages.

Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing. Johndan Johnson‐Eilola. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1997. 272 pages. Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace: The Online Protests over Lotus Marketplace and the Clipper Chip. Laura J. Gurak. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1997. 181 pages. Fundable Knowledge: The Marketing of Defense Technology. A. D. Van Nostrand. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997. 241 pages. Rhetoric and Pedagogy, Its History, Philosophy, and Practice: Essays in Honor of James J. Murphy. Ed. Winifred Bryan Horner and Michael Leff. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995. 337 pages. Of Problematology: Philosophy, Science, and Language. Michel Meyer. Trans. David Jamison, in collaboration with Allan Hart. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. 310 pages.

One meaning of postmodernism is the recognition and inclusion of the previously excluded and suppressed. Recent developments of a generally humanistic nature in technical communication—the rhetoric of science, social constructionism, and feminist and ethicist critiques of science—are instances of such recognition. These developments deflate some traditional assumptions about and privileges associated with scientific and technical knowledge and practice, while they elevate previously denied aspects. Thus, surprisingly, postmodernism reveals itself in technical communication as the resurgence of humanism.

Paul Feyerabend elucidated the role of prior adherence to scientific theory in shaping subsequent perceptions of data. Thus one's theory choice shapes data, rather than data shaping theory, as is traditionally held. Feyerabend's philosophy also downplays the role of raw data, emphasizing instead debate among competing theories. This iconoclastic philosophy yields important new insights into the Challenger disaster, insights consonant with yet distinct from those of social constructionism. We learn from it the salience of meaning rather than raw data; the powerful role of prior conceptualizations in shaping the data of experience; and the surprising need for debate and pluralism for the wholesome pursuit of science and technology.

New Visions of Collaborative Writing. Ed. Janis Forman. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1992. 197 pp. (Inter)views: Cross‐Disciplinary Perspectives on Rhetoric and Literacy. Ed. Gary A. Olson and Irene Gale. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1991. 269 pp. Constructing Rhetorical Education. Ed. Marie Secor and Davida Charney. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1992. 452 pp. Nineteenth‐Century Rhetoric in North America. Nan Johnson. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1991. 313 pp. The Interpretive Turn. Ed. David R. Hiley, James F. Bohman, and Richard Shusterman. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991. 322 pp. Technical Writing: Student Samples and Teacher Responses. Ed. by Sam Dragga. St. Paul: University of Minnesota, Department of Rhetoric/Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, 1992. 326 pp.

Rhetoric, Innovation, Technology: Case Studies of Technical Communication in Technology Transfers. Stephen Doheny‐Farina. Cambridge: MIT, 1992. 279 pp. Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America. M. Jimmie Killingsworth and Jacqueline S. Palmer. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois UP, 1992. 312 pp. Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization. Lee Sproull and Sara Kiesler. Cambridge: MIT P, 1991. 212 pp. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth. Richard Rorty. Cambridge UP, 1991. 226 pp. Color for the Electronic Age: What Every Desktop Publisher Needs To Know About Using Color Effectively in Charts, Graphs, Typography and Pictures. Jan V. White. New York: Watson‐Guptill Publications, 1990. 208 pp. Eye on the News. Mario R. Garcia and Pegie Stark. St. Petersburg: The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 1991. 86 pp. Looking Good in Print: A Guide to Basic Design for Desktop Publishing. Roger C. Parker. 2nd ed. Chapel Hill: Ventana, 1990. 371 pp. The Makeover Book. Roger C. Parker. Chapel Hill: Ventana, 1989. 278 pp. Graphic Design for the Electronic Age: The Manual for Traditional and Desktop Publishing. Jan V. White. New York: Watson Guptill, 1988. 212 pp. Technical Editing. Joseph C. Mancuso. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1992. 191pp.

In my technical writing class, I examine two “meanings” from the Challenger disaster to illustrate the social contingency of meaning even in science and technology. These instances are the “anomalous” charring of the O‐rings and the reconceptualized assumption of flightworthiness the night before the launch. The social contingency of these meanings shows that the “object” of technical communication is not the material object as a pre‐existent isolate but in its social interpretation, significance, and meaning. Ultimately, technical communication is about people communicating about and to the interests of other people.

Tullio Maranhao, Therapeutic Discourse and Socratic Dialogue. University of Wisconsin Series in Rhetoric of the Human Sciences. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986. J. Max Patrick and Robert O. Evans, eds. with John W. Wallace and R. J. Schoeck. Style, Rhetoric, and Rhythm: Essays by Morris W. Croll. Woodbridge, Connecticut: Ox Bow Press, 1989. Rpt. Princeton University Press, 1966. 450 pp. Stephen M. North. The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1987. 403.