English 306: Introduction to Professional Writing

"The holocaust may not be so much a breach of the Platonic wall of Virtue, an aberration of Western culture, as an outgrowth of it, the final development and manifestation of something deeper and more problematic in Western civilization itself"--Steven B. Katz

"The relationship between rationalization and the excesses of political power is evident. And we should not need to wait for bureaucracy or concentration camps to recognize the existence of such relations."--Michel Foucault

Meta-comment, Week 13

Rhetoric and ethics surfaced as the major themes of discussion from the week thirteen reading assignment. Although four out of five of the launch posts created by the members of team Gorgias concentrated on the same Cezar Ornatowski article entitled, “Between Efficiency and Politics: Rhetoric and Ethics in Technical Writing,” each thread produced different ideas and focal points. This meta-comment will make an effort to summarize the topics of conversation in each thread, and to identify major points and concepts brought up throughout each discussion.

Are values and language use inextricably bound? According to James Porter in “Framing Postmodern Commitment and Solidarity,” this is the case (Peeples 202). If one believes values to be intrinsic to man, then perhaps Porter’s argument is right.

Cezar M. Ornatowski discusses “rhetoric and ethics in technical writing” (172). Ornatowski describes how other professionals explain rhetoric and ethics, comparing the classroom setting to the real world. In his teaching he noticed a large difference between the working students and full-time students.

The ethical notions involved with maintaining comprehensive documents fully capable of serving their intended audiences, while serving the best interests of those audiences, is a discourse shared by both Weiss and Ornatowski of much conflict. As Ortanowski claims, traditional interpretations of the purpose behind technical writing are incapable of accounting for issues of ethics and responsibility (172). On this same page, he suggests a utilization of the very notions of “objectivity,” “clarity,” and “neutrality” as a rhetorical stylistic device a writer incorporates.

In the first article for this week’s assigned reading, Cezar Ornatowski discusses the dilemma technical writers have with the definition of technical writing and the ethical consequences that are created from technical writing. Cezar states that there are two claims to the definition of technical writing; one being that technical writing is effective and efficient to employers, and the other being that technical writing is objective, plain, and clear.

Forum Post Week 13 - Issues in Ethics - Matthew Mohamed

“As Edwin Layton has observed, ‘Organizations like the federal government or a modern corporation have other ends in view than the best and most efficient engineering’” (Peeples 178).