Introduction



Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Five YearsKevin Van WinkleENGL 5371: Foundations of Technical CommunicationTexas Tech UniversityIntroduction In “Ethics and Technical Communications: The Past Quarter Century,” Dombrowski (2000) collects, annotates, and categorizes academic articles dealing with ethics in technical communication and published in the last quarter of the twentieth century. In the following literature review I offer a limited replication of Dombrowski’s research. Using the same journals he used and one that he did not, I located twenty articles dealing with ethics in technical communication and published in the last five years. I present these articles here, categorized under Dombrowski’s original classification system:Professional perspective – “characterized by relativist values, a concern for pragmatic usefulness, and the avoidance of theory and history in favor of immediate applicability” (Dombrowski, 2000, p. 5).Academic perspective – “characterized by concern for theory, history, complexity and social contingency, abstraction, comparatively fixed values, and teaching” (Dombrowski, 2000, p. 5).Systematic perspective – “those which neutrally and methodically review, describe, and categorize many disparate systems without taking sides” (Dombrowski, 2000, p. 5).Professional PerspectiveVoss and Flammia’s (2007) “Ethical and Intercultural Challenges for Technical Communicators and Managers in a Shrinking Global Marketplace” deals with ethical dilemmas in technical communication arising from globalization. Working and communicating effectively in foreign cultures requires an awareness and understanding of that culture; however, communicators must be cautious not to participate in stereotyping. Based on several different ethics models, the authors offer extensive guidelines for intercultural communication that is effective, ethical, and inoffensive.Amare and Manning (2009) in “Examining Editor-Author Ethics: Real-World Scenarios from Interviews with Three Journal Editors” use the results from interviews with three technical and professional communication journal editors to make the case for the use of Piercean ethics in our field. Piercean ethics encourages a review of what others have done in similar situations and to seek agreement with members of the community to solve ethical predicaments. According to the authors, this is what all three of the journal editors did when faced with ethical dilemmas. Their doing so suggests a model of ethical behavior for other technical communicators.In “Legal and Ethical Issues of the Corporate Blogosphere,” Strother, Fazal, and Millsap (2009) discuss the possible consequences and hazards of corporate blogs. The legal and ethical pitfalls are many, but the authors state that corporations cannot afford to be absent from the blogosphere. This being the case, they conclude their article with a number of suggestions for successful corporate blogging.In “Anti-employer Blogging: An Overview of Legal and Ethical Issues,” Markel (2009) points out that individuals who air their employer complaints on blogs are subject to a host of legal and ethical issues. These issues result from a conflict between an employee’s right to free speech and an expectation of loyalty to their employer. Markel recommends a conversation between employer and employee to establish standards. He maintains that such a discussion is necessary because expectations can sometimes be ambiguous or subjective and therefore need to be defined.In “Freelance Technical Writers and Their Place Outside Corporate Culture: High and Low Corporate Culture Styles” Brady (2011) answers the question: “Does corporate culture play a significant role for the freelance technical writing professional?” (p. 167). Through his research, Brady shows that corporate culture does indeed play a significant role in the work of technical communicators, but how they become familiar with the culture differs. Regardless how or to what level the freelance writer becomes familiar with corporate culture, he or she is more likely to create a successful product for doing so. In “Cooperation or Compliance: Building Dialogic Codes of Conduct,” Dragga (2011) points out that corporate codes of conduct must cover a multiplicity of variables for any given ethical dilemma and can therefore be “volatile.” In order for corporate codes of conduct to be more effective amongst this volatility, Dragga proposes Bergon’s theory of morality as a “guiding theory” for creating codes. Bergon’s theory of morality is based on a push/pull dichotomy. Rules push an individual towards ethical behavior; stories inspire and pull individuals towards ethical behavior. When paired together, the result is a dialogic code of conduct, the type Dragga believes will help corporations and their employees act more ethically.Academic PerspectiveIn “The Evolving Face of Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication: Challenger to Columbia,” Dombrowski (2007) uses disparities in the investigations performed after the Challenger and Columbia disasters to show how ethics changes over time. During the first disaster, investigators were concerned with individuals and their actions. In the latter investigation, however, the investigators were much more concerned with the structure of NASA and how its culture shaped responses to ethical problems. According to Dombrowski, this change reflects expanding and changing ethics for the whole field of technical communication.In “First Person Perspective: An Analysis of Informal and Formal External Program Review Strategies,” Sides (2007) advocates a practical ethics approach to conducting external reviews on an academic program. Practical ethics are rooted in Aristotle’s concept of praxis, which Sides claims is synonymous with “professional conduct” (p. 441). External reviewers working with practical ethics have the potential to create useful artifacts for all those involved in the program under review. In “The Ethics of Digital Writing Research: A Rhetorical Approach” McKee and Porter (2008) consider some of the problems and solutions for conducting research in digital environments. The authors point out that research into digital writing presents a host of problems distinct from traditional approaches to writing research. In order to aid the digital writing researcher, McKee and Porter offer a casustic-heruistic approach to tackling ethical dilemmas. This approach is a mix of formulaic and non-formulaic responses to the ethical dilemmas a researcher may encounter while researching in a digital environment.In “Breaking Professional Boundaries: What the MacCrate Report on Layering Skills and Values Means for TPC Programs,” Todd (2008) makes the case for technical and professional communicators teaching lawyers the ethical standards necessary for their work. In 1992 the American Bar Association released the MacCrate Report. Among other things, this document listed the skills and values every lawyer should possess. One of these was the “ability to recognize and resolve ethical dilemmas” (p. 244). Todd contends that this need for instruction in ethics, along with other desired skills, falls under rhetoric. In Todd’s view, those teaching in technical and professional communication (TPC) programs already have the pedagogical knowledge and background in rhetoric to teach lawyers these skills.In “Professional Communication and a ‘Whole New Mind’: Engaging with Ethics, Intellectual Property, Design, and Globalization,” Ballentine (2008) describes the use of a four-part thematically structured course in engineering communication. This four part thematic structure included “(1) ethics, accountability, and professionalism; (2) intellectual property; (3) design, creativity, and invention; and (4) globalization” (p. 328). Ballantine taught such a course, and provides some discussion of his efforts doing so. He also offers a list the readings, assignments, and lectures he used.Riley, Davis, Jackson, and Maciukenas (2009) developed a micro-insertion approach for teaching ethics in an engineering and science class. They describe their results in the article “‘Ethics in the Details’: Communicating Engineering Ethics via Micro-Insertion.” Micro-insertions are “low dose” lessons and learning opportunities that last only a few minutes each and take place throughout a semester. The researchers conclude that the micro-insertion has the potential to be an effective way to help students “recognize, understand, and respond to ethical issues” (p. 103).In “The Banality of Rhetoric? Assessing Steven Katz’s ‘The Ethic of Expediency’ Against Current Scholarship on the Holocaust,” Ward (2009) lists three problems that contemporary Holocaust scholars have with Katz’s (1992) “The Ethic of Expediency.” The first is that Katz gives too much credit to technological expediency for the Holocaust. The second is a difference in research sources. The third disparity is that Katz gives too much credit to Hitler as the cause of the Holocaust, and not enough to the Germans who participated in his plans. Ward concludes that Katz’s thesis is disproved, and that the Holocaust is more attributable to Nazi ideology than expediency. Despite this, though, Katz’s article still has value as a heuristic for ethics in technical communication.In “The Banality of Rhetoric? (Part 2): Alternate Views of Technical Communication and the Holocaust,” Ward (2010) returns to “The Ethic of Expediency” to ask: “What alternate rhetorical interpretations may be possible of the SS memo [Katz] analyzed?” (p. 312). Ward discusses the alternatives, before ultimately making the claim that Katz is guilty of decontextualizing the document to focus only on expediency. Ward asserts that the Nazi memo displays an ethic of ideology, not expediency. As such, it would be incorrect to universalize the ethic of expediency to all Western deliberative rhetoric, as Katz does.In “The Ethic of Exigence: Information Design, Postmodern Ethics, and the Holocaust,” Ward (2010) continues to use “The Ethic of Expediency” to discuss technical communication and ethics. This time, though, Ward considers a Nazi poster that visualizes The Nuremberg Laws (laws that restricted relationships between different ethnicities). This artifact, according to Ward, represents a constructionist approach to information design, and, as such, reflects its creators’ social knowledge, or their “exigence,” for the design process. Therefore, per Ward, one cannot accurately say that the same ethical shortcomings the Nazis demonstrated are universal to all of Western culture.In “Ethics as a Form of Critical and Rhetorical Inquiry in the Writing Classroom, Henning (2011) sees a clear link between critical thinking and ethical inquiry. She reasons that approaching writing instruction through the latter will enhance the former. She offers heuristics, approaches, and some anecdotes from her own experiences teaching this approach to help other instructors implement an ethical focus to writing instruction.Systematic PerspectiveIn “The Visual Rhetoric of Data Displays: The Conundrum of Clarity” Kostelnick (2008) shows different rhetorical approaches for creating data graphics and how each defines clarity. For Kostelnick, this shows that clarity “in data designs is a multifaceted and sometimes ambiguous and elusive concept” (p. 128). It is important that technical communicators and educators understand this elusive quality of clarity because an obscured data graphic could be considered unethical. The evolution of clarity will continue to change, especially when data graphics become more interactive via technology, so technical communicators must be prepared to make adjustments to their understanding of visual rhetoric, clarity, and ethics.Hoover’s (2010) article, “The Impact of NSF and NIH Websites on Researcher Ethics,” considers the “distinct ethics, values, and motivations” (p. 402) created in different science communities and influenced by the websites for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Using reader response theory, Hoover shows how the design and content of these websites work to create an ethos that reflects a community’s values. This can be both bad and good, depending on the values promoted by the website and interpreted by the subdiscipline community.In “Writing for the Participants of International Clinical Trials: Law, Ethics, and Culture” Botava (2010) analyzes the informed consent documents used in international clinical trials. Botava finds that, due to differences in language, culture, ethics, and laws, these documents can be unclear, or worse, misleading. Botava argues that technical communicators should be involved in the creation of informed consent documents, as one of their skills is communicating in clear and unambiguous ways. This will help ensure that future clinical research is accomplished in the most ethical manner possible.In “Legal and Regulatory Issues for Technical Communicators Conducting Global Internet Research” McKee and Porter (2010) study the legal and ethical issues that can arise when a technical communicator performs international Internet research. As such, they contend that a researcher accessing information housed in a foreign country should 1) be informed about laws and regulations; 2) be informed of customs and cultural practices; 3) be adaptable and flexible with research design; 4) be able to explain and justify research to diverse audiences; and 5) be comfortable with uncertainty (p. 294).ConclusionThis literature review does not represent the entirety of scholarship dealing with ethics and technical communications published in the last five years. It is instead a limited corpus modeled after Dombrowski’s original survey, one that showcases the diverse and expansive conversation on ethics and technical communication in the early part of the twenty first century.BibliographyAmare, N. & Manning, A. (2009). Examining editor-author ethics: Real-world scenarios from interviews with three journal editors. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 39(3), 285-303.Ballentine, B. D. (2008). Professional communication and a ‘whole new mind’: Engaging with ethics, intellectual property, design, and globalization. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51(3), 328-340.Batova, T. (2010). Writing for the participants of international clinical trials: Law, ethics, and culture. Technical Communication, 57(3), 266-281.Brady, K. (2011). Freelance technical writers and their place outside corporate culture: High and low corporate culture styles. Technical Communication Quarterly, 20(2), 167-207.Dombrowski, P. M. (2000). Ethics and technical communication: The past quarter century. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 30(1), 3-29.Dombrowski, P. M. (2007). The evolving face of ethics in technical and professional communication: Challenger to Columbia. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 50(4), 306-319.Dragga, S. (2011). Cooperation or compliance: Building dialogic codes of conduct. Technical Communication, 58(1), 4-18.Henning, S. (2011). Ethics as a form of critical and rhetorical inquiry in the writing classroom. English Journal, 100(6), 34-40.Hoover, R. (2010). The impact of NSF and NIH websites on researcher ethics. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 40(4), 403-427.Kostelnick, C. (2007). The visual rhetoric of data displays: The conundrum of clarity. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 50(4), 280-294.Markel, M. (2009). Anti-employer blogging: An overview of legal and ethical issues. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 29(2), 123-139.McKee, H. A. & J. E. Porter. (2008). The ethics of digital writing research: A rhetorical approach. College Composition and Communication, 59(4), 711-749.McKee, H. A. & J. E. Porter. (2010). Legal and regulatory issues for technical communicators conducting global internet research. Technical Communication, 57(3), 282-299.Riley, K., Davis, M., Jackson, A. C., & Maciukenas, J. (2009). “Ethics in the details”: Communicating engineering ethics via micro-insertion. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 52(1), 95-108.Sides, C. H. (2007). First-person perspective: An analysis of informal and formal external program review strategies. Technical Communication, 54(4), 440-446.Strother, J. B., Fazal, Z., & Millsap, M. (2009). Legal and ethical issues of the corporate blogosphere. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 52(3), 243-253.Todd, J. (2008). Breaking professional boundaries: What the MacCrate Report on lawyering skills and values means for TPC programs. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 38(3), 241-263.Voss, D. & M. Flammia. (2007). Ethical and Intercultural challenges for technical communicators and managers in a shrinking global marketplace. Technical Communication, 54(1), 72-78.Ward, M. Senior. (2010). The ethic of exigence: Information design, postmodern ethics, and the Holocaust. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 24(1), 60-90.Ward, Sr., M. (2009). The banality of rhetoric?: Assessing Steven Katz’s “The ethic of Expediency” against current scholarship on the Holocaust. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 39(2), 207-222.Ward, Sr., M. (2010). The banality of rhetoric? (part 2): Alternate views of technical communication and the Holocaust. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 40(3), 311-336. ................
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