Careers In Communication: Ethics In Technical Writing

Careers in Communication: Ethics in Technical Writing

Careers in Communication: Ethics in Technical Writing

Karyn N. Lewis

Dr. Keith B. Jenkins Foundations of Communication 0535-200 Fall Quarter 20081

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Careers in Communication: Ethics in Technical Writing From early in life I’ve been fascinated with people’s rigid inaccessibility and their failure to listen to reason, their disregard of facts, their indifference that prohibits discussion, and their defensive attitudes that build walls around them. Through simple observation, I’ve realized that communication—whether intended or not—is capable of transmitting a universe made up of disconnected images, remarks, statements and commentaries whose accepted principle is incoherence. Day after day, in fact, communication seems to undo a myriad of learned relations and principles in an untenable juxtaposition of elements as sweeps along in its flow. From this realization, no urge has ever seemed stronger to me than that for communication with others. My fascination with the subject pushes me to go beyond audience, purpose, and context and attempt to address more complex ideological, cultural, and historic forces that shape specialized discourse. It has become the driving force of my professional career choice in Advertising and Public Relations (APR) and my genuine interest in the ethical implications within the field of technical communication.

Professional Field My six-year history with Rochester Institute of Technology has been an adventure, to say the least. It’s been one that has consisted of intense and inadvertent personal and professional exploration, leading me on the path of three separate majors before settling on APR with a concentration in writing studies. I made this final decision based on advising and the efficient transfer of credits, though I learned later that perhaps Professional and Technical Communication (PTC) might have been the better program choice for my skills and preferences. After taking a wide array of required and elected courses across the campus, Technical Writing has become my passion and career goal upon graduation. I find the field absolutely fascinating even though it’s assumed to be dry and formulaic. Not only is technical writing more mathematical and structured than creative writing or journalism (a huge relief to the creatively oppressed mind), the new responsibilities of the modern technical writer allow much more freedom in the design of information that spans all areas of writing and document design (Dragga, 1996). Imagination is still applicable, as creativity is innate in the new design of information (Carr, 2008). Technical writers work to distill complex scientific or technical information into a form understandable by a non-technical audience (“So you want to be,” 2002). Their job essentially consists of serving as a bridge between specialists and a variety of people—other specialists, scientists, decision makers, and the general public (Hirst, 2003). They produce user guides, installation and maintenance manuals, training materials, marketing materials, presentations, proposals, technical reports, product advertisements, pamphlets, brochures, in-house publications, and so on (“So you want to be,” n.d.). They use a range of tools to generate help files, web pages, and multimedia presentations, and can manage the

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inclusion of illustrations, photographs, diagrams, and charts. They often work with a business to understand and document their policies and procedures, which they can enhance with navigation controls, tables of contents, and indexes. They can even produce ergonomically designed layouts, assist with user interfaces, and contribute to technology magazines and web sites. Professionals in the field of technical communication work in a diverse range of environments and deal with people at all levels in an organization. But while technology will always be changing, the reason for technical writing stays constant: to make the complex simple (Carr, 2008). Technical writers get to write for a living in a pretty standard 40-hour work week, with a salary typically in the mid to high five-figure range, depending on geography, employer, and experience (Carr, 2008; “Occupation Outlook Handbook,” 2008). There is growing demand for technical writers and those with training in a specialized field in areas such as law, medicine, or economics as well because of the continuing expansion of scientific and technical information and the need to communicate it to others (“Occupation Outlook Handbook,” 2008). However, while it’s possible to be a good technical writer without being a good creative writer, it’s impossible to succeed in the career without a strong interest in technology (Carr, 2008). The field is competitive, but I consider myself technology-savvy and passionate about consumer-generated media—a good fit for a society increasingly driven by the newest gadgets. From my reading, a good technical writer will have a range of traits that allows them to churn out beautifully rounded, meticulously researched, eminently readable documentation at the drop of a hat (“So you want to be,” 2002). An effective technical communicator must have a clear understanding of what distinguishes good jargon from bad jargon and from all the other ugly conditions of language (Hirst, 2003). When I consider the myriad array of work technical writers are involved in, it is no surprise that they need an equally varied array of skills and attributes, technical, personal, and artistic. A good technical writer is the “da Vinci of the current age” (“So you want to be,” 2002, para. 4)—and my ultimate goal at this point.

Current Issue “Before the computerization of verbal and visual communication—the days of pencils and typewriters—technical communicators were technical writers. The writer’s only job was composing words” (Dragga, 1996, p. 29). More and more often, however, the modern technical writer is a technical communicator—in charge of choosing typography and graphics as well as words, designing pages as well as checking spelling (Dragga, 1996). Technical writers have a whole new host of judgments to make, all of which affect a document’s meaning: format, wording, paragraphing, and placement (Dyrud, 1998). This new ability to design information has given the technical communicator a new rhetorical power, and with it new ethical obligations. Contemporary technical communication is involved in communicating not

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only technical information but also values, ethics, and tacit assumptions represented in goals. Today’s technical communicator must not only assume responsibility for his/her role as a communicator with technical aptitude, but also understand the idiosyncrasies and sensitivities associated with communication in a multicultural world (Whiteside, 2003). In this way they are involved in accommodating the values and ethics of its many audiences—an understanding that is linked to an awareness of the social nature of all discourse and the root interconnectedness of rhetoric and ethics (Dragga, 1996). The role of the modern technical writer is expanding rapidly and will continue to do so, along with the ethical scope of the technical writer's responsibility. The technical writer is now seen as an information developer in the formative stages of creating technical information, as a communicator in disseminating information, as an interpreter in explaining information, and as a usability expert in guiding the application of information (Dombrowski, 2007). As a result, ethics have become involved in technical writing in many ways: traditional and new, obvious and not so obvious. Ethics has always bee an important subject because it involves decisions and judgments about how we relate to one another, whether in a technical or social realm. We expect others to behave ethically toward us, and they expect likewise of us. We all are aware, too, of dramatic contemporary lapses of ethical practice and debate about advances in the scientific and technical world. Professional technical communication is increasingly important as the globalization of commerce, transportation and communication progresses (Dombrowski, 2007). This change is also happening among cultures and therefore value systems, requiring increased awareness and sensitivity to ethical differences within corporations and institutions in order to remain competitive and successful. Over the last two or three decades, an expansive understanding of the concept of ethics in technical discourse has evolved (Dombrowski, 2007). In journal articles in the field of professional technical communication, ethics was not a significant presence until the 1970s. Even then, ethics appeared mainly in the form of the values of correctness, clarity, and impersonality. Since those early days, however, ethics has become an integral part of our understanding of professional technical communication as a practice. Our view of ethics in professional technical communication has evolved, paralleling developments throughout society. Earlier views on ethics and values have grown into a broad perspective of complex gradations with people at many levels affecting eventual practical outcomes. The technical communicator is becoming an important voice in determining how the issues involving technology, as well as particular technologies, are framed and approached (Whiteside, 2003). As a result, it is now common to think in terms of social context and historical circumstances as much as individuals and events alone.

Reflection

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It’s hard to say where the profession is headed, except that current trends are unlikely to slacken (Dombrowski, 2007). I is likely, however, that the understanding of how ethics and values play a fundamental role in discourse will continue to expand in scope—as will the continued expansion of investigations into ethics be coupled with those of rhetorical character of professional technical discourse. This frame of mind is bound to pervade our field as communicators committed to technology and science also become increasingly concerned about the ethical dimensions of they communicate about—at least in the manner of their communication—as the ethically aware technical writer is expected to develop a sensitivity to the connotative meanings of words and to potentially ambiguous language (Dyrud, 1998). This frame of mind is supported by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) in their Code for Communicators: As a technical communicator, I am the bridge between those who create ideas and those who use them. Because I recognize that the quality of my services directly affects how well ideas are understood, I am committed to excellence in performance and the highest standards of ethical behavior. I value the worth of the ideas I am transmitting and the cost of developing and communicating those ideas. I also value the time and effort spent by those who read or see or hear my communications. I therefore recognize my responsibility to communicate technical information truthfully, clearly, and economically. My commitment to professional excellence and ethical behavior means that I will 

Use language and visuals with precision.

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Prefer simple, direct expression of ideas.

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Satisfy the audience's need for information, not my own need for self-expression.

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Hold myself responsible for how well my audience understands my message.

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Respect the work of colleagues, knowing that a communication problem may have more than one solution.

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Strive continually to improve my professional competence.

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Promote a climate that encourages the exercise of professional judgment and that attracts talented individuals to careers in technical communication.

The Society for Technical Communication (http://www.stc.org/) is a professional association for technical writers where newcomers to the field can find continuing education resources and nearby networking opportunities (Carr, 2008). The STC Code for Communicators, listed on the STC website as updated in 2007 under registered membership access, reveals the concerns for the integrity of the

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technical communication profession, for honesty, for avoiding conflicts of interest, for maintaining confidentiality, and for ultimately promoting the public good (Dyrud, 1998). Technical writers often work for large companies or hierarchical organizations, thereby sacrificing some degree of autonomy, and have ethical boundaries imposed by a sense of social responsibility. It is helpful, therefore, to connect a discussion of ethical uses of language to a professional code of ethics for technical writers. The STC Code for Communicators was established with the understanding that ethical precedents might help to improve a technical writer’s chance of being able to make ethical decisions in the workplace. While an awareness of ethical codes does not, of course, guarantee ethical actions, codes do provide positive support to those with an ethical dilemma, as well as offer inspiration and guidance. If adhering to ethical standards is a sign f a field’s professional status, then the Society for Technical Communication with its ethical precedents and guidelines might give individual technical communicators more leverage in objecting to something considered unethical. The STC Code for Communicators treats technical communication as the work of specialists who function within organizations (Clark, 1987). The Code’s professional perspective on ethics in technical communication confines ethical issues within the immediate boundaries of the professional’s work: legal and moral questions remain beyond it. Technical communicators obey the law, and moral decisions in organizations where technical communicators work are typically resolved in collaboration with management. The ethical issues that remain for technical communicators to confront are professional ones that can usually be resolved with adherence to the practical ethics of the STC Code for Communicators intended to guide their professional conduct and ensure good work. These ethics are built on a definition of the communication process that is inherent in the Code’s description of the technical communicator as “the bridge between those who create ideas and those who use them.” Functioning as a “bridge,” in the words of the STC Code, an ethical communicator is one who transports information “truthfully, clearly, and economically,” using appropriate language precisely and unambiguously without understating or overstating facts (Shimberg, 1978).

Final Thoughts Given the centrality of the art of discourse to human, social, and political endeavors, it is not at all surprising that academics, politicians, entrepreneurs, and an almost incalculable host of others have all attended closely to the problems and possibilities of human communication. This breadth of attention to the power and art of discourse by groups and individuals with fundamentally different purposes and orientations has produced a wide range of approaches to the study of human communication. The development of a better understanding of the very act of communication in all professions inherently involves ethical considerations, however—including the field of professional technical communication.

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The understanding of the professional technical communication field as ethically engaged is important both for its credibility with the audiences technical communicators encounter and the field’s own professional identity and legitimacy. As Dombrowski stated, “In the end, regardless of theories or critical analyses, we have only ourselves” (2007, p. 317). Ethics is an old subject but not an obsolete one. Communication has always been fundamentally about people interacting with other people, and ethical communication has always been about our responsibilities in relation to others. Part of being human is having a sense of responsibility for what we do.

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