Ethos: character and ethics in technical writing

Abstract

Technical writing tries to be objective and audience-oriented, but it neglects an element of persuasion known in ancient rhetoric as ethos. This concept translates from the Greek as character, but that English word does not convey the concept's richness; nor does the Latin persona, a term sometimes used to describe the narrative voice in technical prose. Ethos is the root of ethics, which tends to objectify values and choices, alienating them from the people making them. In this paper, I suggest that an understanding of ethos in all its richness can help writers of technical prose to produce work that, in relation to traditionally objective prose, is both more readable and more ethical. >