Monday, Jan. 13

Rhetoric, Publics (5)

Foundational concepts: technical communication is both rhetorical and public-oriented

Porter, "Rhetoric"

• Rhetoric refers to effective communication that happens in a variety of situations and involves all forms of symbolic interaction; an area of study

• Linked to Ancient Greece and Rome, but also stretches further back; many of the Greek and Roman rhetoricians had African influences on their thinking

• Increasing influence on cultural rhetorics and posthuman rhetorics; CR: how rhetoric is related to race, gender, sexuality, ability/disablity, culture; PH: how rhetoric is expressed through non-human technologies

Moore, "Public"

• The term "public" is often drawn in distinction to several other concepts, which represent (false) dichotomies that are nevertheless useful for thinking through communication problems

• public vs private: a traditional idea about technical communication, historically not necessarily thought of as part of the private sphere; tech comm often mediates between public and private spheres

• public vs. publics: while TCs are often faced with creating a document for a "general public" that document usually has multiple, distinct audiences, and may break down problems into groups and stakeholders, while also employing general strategies designed to maximize accessibility

• public vs. counterpublics: in distinction to the general public, there are marginalized or oppressed publics who are unequally positioned to navigate political and institutional spaces; TCs should think about how power and oppression affect the public sphere

• public vs. community: community suggests a more connected group of individuals, rather than disconnected strangers; communities may provide frameworks for engaging counter publics

RR #2 (10)

Liam

The Flint Water crisis of 2014 is an example of a technical communication failure because it failed to solve racial issues within the city. The city's decision to cut costs using the Flint River water was terrible because the water was corrosive and had lead from aging pipes enter into the water supply, exposing thousands of residents to dangerous levels of lead which mainly affected low-income black families.  The city failed to give technical communication to both the city residents and those directly affected which caused people to get very sick from the toxic exposure from lead. Furthermore, the city gave very misleading information and failed to technically communicate the danger and health risks of exposure to lead. Instead, the city told its residents that the water was safe to drink and continued to promote this narrative, this decision shows that ethical decision-making was ignored. The failure to effectively use technical communication led to the city residents not trusting information from the city because of their unethical decision-making.

Henry

I also learned about stakeholder theory in an earlier ethics class, and it fits with Moore's idea of publics and counter-publics. Stakeholder theory stresses the importance of listening to opinions that aren't being heard as much, like how counterpublics are often left out of dominant narratives. Moore's talk about homeless people in public transit systems is similar to stakeholder theory's call for the needs of vulnerable groups to be taken into account when decisions are being made. Similarly, James Porter's study of rhetoric's moral duty to truth and inclusion is related to ideas we talked about in a communication studies class where we used communication as a tool for social justice. Both stress that communication styles need to change to fit national and social situations in order to be moral and useful.

Kira

Recently in my Statistics and Methods course, we talked a lot about ethical data visualization which I saw connections to in this reading about rhetoric. We discussed how data visualizations can be manipulated to benefit an organization, group of people, or individual’s goals. This not only connects to the idea of rhetoric being the art of effective communication, but also how we must consider issues of power, status, and inequity. Ensuring that technical communication, such presenting data, is ethically visualized is crucial to making its findings understandable for everyone in the audience. We talked specifically about a gun violence graph that was presented in a very confusing way in order for an organization to get funding. Thinking about how this is benefiting, working against, and what issues underlie this are important in technical communication.

Anabelle

Both sociology and Porter’s ideas show that pretending to be neutral can worsen things. This makes me wonder: Should technical communicators always speak up about unfairness, or are there times when staying neutral is more appropriate? Understanding this better could help people in communication jobs do their work more ethically.

Collaboration (5)

Foundational concepts: technical communication is both rhetorical and public-oriented

Estes Brewer, "Collaboration"

• Collaboration is fundamental to tech comm

• Technologies can change collaboration

• Collaboration involves developing information

• Ongoing, continual communication

• Serial —> Collaboration where participants work sequentially, one person after the other, typically contributing one after another in a linear fashion.

• Parallel—> Collaboration where participants work on different parts of the project simultaneously, often with a shared goal, but without interacting on the same tasks at the same time.

• Collective —> A collaborative model in which individuals work at the same time on different parts of a project while coordinating the whole. 

• Contextual —> A collaborative model that involves using existing artifacts like forms, templates, and genres

• Hierarchical —> A highly structured collaborative model in which individuals have specific, defined roles

José, Stronger Together

• Examples

  • • SME gives information to a writer for a technical report or instructions

    • two people research and draft a grant

    • an employee drafts documents for clients with a boss

• José’s recommended process for working in groups

1. Establish common ground, verbalize expectations

2. Select a collaboration method and distribute work to maximize individual strengths and skills

3. Identify tools and consider their affordances

4. Consider how you will communicate and protocols for meeting/communication

5. Develop a team contract and specific deadlines and outcomes

• In cases of conflict or lack of contributions/communicaiton

  • • Ask the team member to explain the situation

    • Consult a team contract and schedule

RR #3 (10)

Kathan

One question I have after these readings is, what do you do when conflicts among teammates occur? I understand asking them about their situation and consulting them, but what if that does not work? This has not happened to me directly, but I have heard many examples from my friends about conflicts causing the entire project to turn out mediocre. In a company, I would expect a problem like this to be resolved by bringing it up with the boss, so bringing up a problem to the professor giving out the project would probably be the best option if the conflict cannot be resolved after having conversations with your partner for the project.

Helen

The Jose reading touches on what to do about unresponsive members or members who don’t do their work, but what should be done about group members who do too much?