In the pre-Internet era, magazines were an important resource for computer hobbyists to obtain useful technical information. The August 1994 issue of PC Computing above was a treasure trove of DOS and Windows 3.1 computing information. My original copy was dogeared and contained copious notes in the margins.While there are still many computer magazines being published, most finding help, tips, and other technical information has shifted to the Internet and found through search tools like Google or through inquiries placed on social media (e.g., Reddit). That information, how it’s presented, and how it is found are all examples of technical communication.
For this week’s class:
- Weekly Reading Report Exercise
- Reminder About Google UX Researcher’s Talk Tonight
- Let’s discuss your LinkedIn Profiles
- Publish your work on CUNY Academicworks, and link to that work in the Projects section of your LinkedIn Profile.
- Discuss this week’s readings
- Perform Peer Review on last week’s deliverable
- Use Feedback to begin writing Report deliverable
- Review syllabus about next week’s readings and work
TO: Professor Ellis
FROM:Khaled Akam
DATE:October 20, 2022
SUBJECT: 6 Principles
We have a set of principles that we must live by legality, honesty, confidentiality professionalism, fairness, and quality of work we produce. The decisions we make should follow these principles to make us moral. It should be clear, the rules we follow in our society as technical communicators. Always fall back on these six guidelines if you are ever in a predicament. As technical communicators we must be able to explain things it terms that people use every day. Our basic function should be to simplify an item for the masses in a professional manner, we are communicators after all. Using all our methods for the purpose of providing clear communication for our work. To do this, we must have the knowledge and tricks/tips from an abundance of technical communicators. Though we should not manipulate and be dishonest it does not mean we cannot do an excellent job and research/study to support our work. A workable solution to a task should be derived from knowledgeable explanations imploring the readers. These different forms we manifest to get the work done as a technical communicator should utilize all our tools available. Technical communicators simplify the terminology if needed to produce a viable solution to the work received. Do not forget to use your principles in relation to the work we produce every day, so we will not get complacent and lose what we built.
TO: Professor Ellis
FROM:Khemraj Persaud
DATE:October 20, 2022
SUBJECT: Six Ethical Principles
In the article, “Reddit’s Explain Like I’m Five”: Technical Descriptions in the Wild” by Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, he discusses how technical writing has gained a strong presence outside of the work place, or “in the wild.” He mentions several different online sites that are being used to discuss how things work in lay terms. He breaks down several posts from the subreddit, r/ELI5 (which is a subreddit I have subscribed to for years) and how they are constructed. Technical communications in this forum are typically less dense linguistically as opposed to professional documents, and offer crowdsourcing for information. Many of the “explained” topics are a collection of information from various writers that ultimately come to a consensus about said topics, using “plain language” that has been simplified so that the redditors (readers) can understand without knowing complicated jargon.
The second piece we went over was a comic entitled, “Up Goer Five” which breaks down the construction of the Saturn 5 rocket using only the “ten-hundred” most used words in the English language. This visual document was particularly enjoyable to read as it demonstrated how complex mechanisms and machinery can be explained in the most basic way. It was kind of funny to read descriptions like “thing to help people escape really fast if there’s a problem and everything is on fire so they decide not to go to space” and “fire comes out here.” This is important to show that things as complex as “rocket science” can be explained in such simple terms.
The third article comes from the Society for Technical Communication and gives the definitions of the six ethical principles for the professional activities of the technical writer. They are Legality, Honest, Confidentiality, Quality, Fairness, and Professionalism. It gives direct definitions of these concepts and how they should be followed by the STC.
The fourth and final article “Why Ethics?” from D. G. Ross is a more in-depth interpretation of the six ethical principles of the STC. He provides analysis of each concept, what they mean, and how they should be practiced in real world settings. This article provides appropriate context to the definitions from the Society for Technical Communication, which help give a better understanding of the principles as opposed to just concrete definitions of the words.
TO: Professor Ellis
FROM: Naila Butt
DATE: 20 October 2022
SUBJECT: Ethical Principles & Redditors as Technical Communicators
Hello Professor Ellis!
I hope you are staying warm as we approach these colder temperatures.
I enjoyed the readings we had for this week’s class—specifically, the ones on ethical principles. Derek G. Ross gives some good background on ethical principles. I found it interesting when he discussed “deontological ethics” and how it refers to an agent’s duties or obligations if any given scenario focuses on the action’s consequences. He also uses the example of moral standing regarding biocentric living things. Inherently we may know that we shouldn’t pollute the lake upon society’s standing, but merely because of others’ opinions on you and not the consequence of the ecosystem. This concept hasn’t crossed my mind, so it was an eye-opening read.
On the other hand, the article “Explain Like I’m Five” presents some cool data about Redditor’s ability to collaborate on technical documents. From this text, most Redditors don’t consider themselves technical communicators, but as a lurker on Reddit, I disagree. Certain subreddits hold an incredible amount of information due to the sheer number of individuals commenting on others’ opinions, questions, and thoughts. The sharing of information is a form of technical communication itself. It is impressive to see how technical communication exists in many forms and in all areas of our lives.
Be well,
Naila
To: Professor
From: Timothy B
Date: October 20, 2022
Subject: Weekly Reports Ethical Principals
In this weeks readings we studied how technical communicators navigate following ethical principals in the professional environment. Looking on the surface level when you have business or place pf professional practice there are ethical principals or a code of conduct that individuals must follow in order for the business to operate and function. However the readings came to be very insightful when analyzing deeper forms of ethics. In Derek G. Ross’s article it was interesting how “virtue ethics” relating to an individuals moral character and anthropocentric ethics focus on moral standing”(Ross 2018). It is part of a technical communicators job to know the parallel between the two and how they differ better effectively carry out their professional activities.