11/10 Discussion (Class Overview)

1. Survey (15 minutes). This essay comes from:
   

   Dragga, Sam. “"Is This Ethical?": A Survey of Opinion on Principles and Practices of Document Design.” Technical Communication 43.3 (1996): 255-265. Print.
   



2. Small group discussion/ Discussion of survey and ethical implications (2 groups of four) – (15 minutes)


3. Go over survey results (10 minutes)


4. Contextual questions about readings– (30 minutes)
   
   
   
   • How are these two works in conversation with each other?
   
   
   • What are/where are the fundamental frictions?
   
   
   • Are these readings different from others that broach the subject of ethics? If so, how?
   
   
   • What is/are the envisioned role(s) of technical communicators in Katz and Dragga and Voss? (Transmitter, Translator, Articulator?)
   
   
5. Close reading questions – (15 minutes)
   
   
   
   • Katz – Erin:
     
     
     
     • As far as the Holocaust document being a “nearly perfect document” in terms of technical communication, do you agree that the style of the document promotes a shift in responsibility from the writer and reader to the ethos of the organization “whose voice they now speak with”? This is window-pane, transmission style of technical communication – upon reading the framework of ethics (in regard to the Holocaust) as provided by Katz in this article – is “Just” still to blame?
     
     
     • What, then, is an ethos of expediency in Katz’s terms? Where do we draw the line? Where is the line between humanism and getting things done in organizations? Do ethics only matter when they concern themselves with possible loss of life (i.e. Ford Pintos, Pan Am Flight 103, the Challenger explosion, the Holocaust)?
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Voss and Dragga – Andrea:
     
     
     
     • How was TC ethics approached before this article? What did it involve?
     
     
     • Are these pies "cruel"? How? What might be a conflicting stance?
     
     
     • How effective (or expedient) do you think are the proposed approaches are? "There might not be an appropriate graphic or text/ graphic solution for every case of an inhumane illustration. It is therefore also important to keep in mind that, though technical communicators are typically encouraged to incorporate visuals, using no graphics would be clearly superior to displaying cruel graphics" (272). See Weather.com | iCasualties
     
     
     
     
   
   
6. Transitional question – “The question for us is: do we, as teachers and writers and scholars, contribute to this ethos by our writing theory, pedagogy, and practice when we consider techniques of document design, audience adaptation, argumentation, and style without also considering ethics?” “Do our methods, for the sake of expediency, themselves embody and impart the ethic of expediency?” (10 minutes)


7. STC Code of Ethics (30 minutes)


8. What does all this mean for us as future teachers of tech com? (5 minutes)