Ethical norms for technical communication

Abstract

In his "Ethics in Technical Communication: A Rhetorical Perspective," Gregory Clark argues convincingly that academicians and practitioners proceed from diametrically opposed assumptions in discussing ethics in the context of technical communication. Furthermore, Clark offers his essay as an example of an approach that might, were it widely imitated, promote the disciplined, progressive discussion on this topic that to this point has failed to evolve. But while Clark's intentions are admirable and his basic approach sound, the conclusions he reaches -- that an ethics for technical communication must be founded on a principle of cooperation -- cannot be derived from the approach he models. Clark's argument that the rhetorical tradition sanctions an ethics based on the principle of cooperation rests on misreadings of both Plato and Aristotle; and the Challenger case, which he sees as illustrating the need for a cooperative approach to communication, in fact proves just the opposite. A more realistic ethics for technical communication would begin in the acknowledgement that rhetoric more often spurs contention than cooperation and then take up the task of investigating the conditions that promote creative, rather than destructive, debate.