technical writing paper improvement

Ethical Dilemmas in Technical Communication

Submitted to:

Computer Science Majors

Oregon State University

Corvallis, OR 97331

Submitted by:

Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Computer Science Major

Oregon State University

Corvallis, OR 97331

January 31, 2014

ABSTRACT

Xxx Xxxx, a computer science student at Oregon State University, in his review “Ethical Dilemmas in Technical Communication” (1/31/14) suggests that Paul M.

Dombrowski’s “Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century”

offers a variety of valid opinions on the importance of ethics in technical writing

and asserts that its information is valuable for those pursuing computer science.

Xxxx summarizes, analyzes, and discusses the applicability of Dombrowski’s article by exploring its aspects. Xxxx’s purpose is to highlight the importance of technical communication in computer science in order to urge his audience to

consider the subject with great care. Xxxx is writing for an audience of people in his major—computer science—using a dramatic yet professional tone.

Keywords: Technical communication, ethics, analysis, computer science

INTRODUCTION

Aspiring computer scientists don’t often think about the importance of technical communication

in their career path. Paul M. Dombrowski’s “Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past

Quarter Century” explores the complex idea that although technical writing is meant to get

information across clearly and accurately (without any ‘fluff’), a writer has the power to alter

information so that it is received in a certain way. This may be a great way to get a point across

to certain audience, but it becomes an ethical problem when information is misrepresented. By

summarizing and analyzing Dombrowski’s article, this topic’s importance will become clear.

SUMMARY

“Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century” by Paul M. Dombrowski is a

compilation of article reviews that discuss ethical communication in the technical world.

Dombrowski begins with a brief history on how our understanding of technical communication

has evolved to include discussions on the role of language, values, rhetoric, and now ethics. He

also claims that ethics is “a topic without sharp boundaries,” meaning that it is a subjective

subject—something that is ethical to one person is unethical to the next (Dombrowski, 2000, 2).

Because of this, there are a plethora of differing takes on the topic. After the introduction, the

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article becomes an annotated bibliography split into three sections—the professional perspective,

the academic perspective, and the systematic perspective. Each of the 66 articles that are

reviewed falls into one of these three categories (minus a few in the addendum), so there are 66

valuable opinions to consider. Dombrowski’s purpose is to contribute to the conversation about

ethics in communication, as well as to compile what he feels are the most relevant opinions on

the subject from all different fields. He hopes to share with his audience, anyone that’s involved

with technical communication, the wealth of knowledge on this complicated topic. His tone is

academic yet excited.

ANALYSIS

Organization

The way Dombrowski organizes this article brilliantly reflects his purpose—to illustrate the fact

that this topic is relevant to professionals in all disciplines, that the topic is too broad and

subjective to have a simple answer, and that there are a variety of valid opinions out there.

Splitting the article into three main perspectives shows a lack of bias, and it allows for a great

variety of articles to review. The first category Dombrowski includes is the professional

perspective, which is “characterized by relativist values, a concern for pragmatic usefulness, and

the avoidance of theory and history in favor of immediate applicability” (Dombrowski, 2000, 3).

In this section, Dombrowski reviews articles that discuss technical communication in the

workplace, wherever that may be. This is an opportunity to discuss ethical dilemmas in technical

communication as they apply to multiple professions; the marketing, science, and technology

fields are all explored. The next category, the academic perspective, is characterized by

“concern for theory, history, complexity and social contingency, abstraction, comparatively fixed

values, and teaching” (Dombrowski, 2000, 3). This section includes opinions on human subject

testing, education, and even includes an article about how The Challenger explosion could have

been prevented had technical information been conveyed with more urgency. Theoretical works

make up the majority of this portion of the article. Finally, articles with the systematic

perspective “neutrally and methodically review, describe, and categorize many disparate systems

without taking sides” (Dombrowski, 2000, 3). Articles in this section cover a broad range and

look at the big picture of ethics instead of focusing in on particular situations. Each of these

perspectives offers thought-provoking and noteworthy commentary, and the fact that all three are

included allows for a more complete understanding of the subject.

Summaries

Dombrowski annotates every article he includes, and he does a great job of extracting the main

points that relate to ethics in technical communication. It’s clear that Dombrowski chose articles

from a wide range of authors with a wide range of opinions, so that no opinion is left

unrepresented. For these summaries, Dombrowski spends a sentence or less providing the

original article’s structure, organization, or language, and then spends the rest of the paragraph or

more discussing the implications of the article. He is always objective, and he offers each

author’s opinion without interjecting with his own. For example, when reviewing C.R. Miller’s

“Technology as a Form of Consciousness: A Study of Contemporary Ethos” (1978),

Dombrowski states that the article “explores the way technology itself reflects if not embodies an

ethical system” and that “Miller decries the impersonality, non-responsibility, narrowness, and

closed-system thinking so often associated with technology” (Dombrowski, 2000, 16).

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Dombrowski’s objective, detached descriptions make for an excellent collection of opinions.

The audience will not feel like this author has ‘an agenda’ to convince people to agree with him,

he’s simply offering opinions that aren’t necessarily his own, and that’s admirable.

Language

Dombrowski’s use of language, much like the topic he’s exploring, is technical yet excited. It’s

clear that the author is passionate about both ethics and technical communication. In his

introduction, Dombrowski claims that “though the transmission of concrete technical

information lies at the core of technical communication, we now realize that there are successive

layers to the functions and purposes of technical discourse rippling well beyond this core”

(Dombrowski, 2000, 1). Dombrowski’s word choice here is professional and precise, but his

colorful illustration of ethical communication having a core that causes ripples reinforces his

point even more. After the introduction, Dombrowski maintains his accuracy and enthusiasm

throughout the entirety of his review. This makes for a much more interesting read, and

highlights the topics being discussed.

APPLICABILITY

Technical communication is essential to effective problem solving in all fields, but especially

engineering. Ethical dilemmas are commonplace in all engineering fields, even computer

science. A stereotype that is often associated with computer scientists is that they’re introverted

loners that would rather fix a problem on their own than ask for help. But if computer scientists

don’t take the time to consider possible repercussions of their actions, crises will be imminent.

The world is being consumed by computers and software more and more each day, and computer

scientists are the ones making it happen. One failure in communication could be costly.

Consider the study of robotics. Perhaps a programmer codes a military android equipped with

massive amounts of weaponry, and pays no attention to roboethics. A simple bug could cause

significant casualties. It may be an extreme example, but this situation isn’t going to be science

fiction much longer. People rely on computer scientists to develop safe, ethical software that

meets their needs, and ethical technical communication is a great place to start.

Dombrowski reviews an article relating to Computer Science entitled “Intel’s Pentium Chip

Crisis: An Ethical Analysis” by C. Williams (Dombrowski, 2000, 9). Back in 1994, an error was

found in Intel’s Pentium Chip that would only affect a small portion of its consumers. Instead of

doing the ethical thing and admitting the problem to its customers, Intel brushed the problem

aside claiming that it didn’t matter. The result was an outrage from Intel consumers across the

country, and it took a while before Intel could gain its customer’s trust back (Dombrowski, 2000,

9-10). The point is, the ethical approach will usually pay off in the long run; not only for the

company, but for everyone involved. People appreciate honesty and resent deceit—these are

serious issues computer scientists need to think about.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, Paul M. Dombrowski’s “Ethical and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter

Century” offers well-written, compelling, and relevant opinions on the issue of ethical dilemmas

relating to technical communication. Its organization, summaries, and language all contribute

nicely to this conversation. This article applies to many people, but especially those pursuing a

Ethical Dilemmas in Technical Communication | 4

career in computer science. Anybody that has or will participate in any form of technical writing

should take a look at it.

REFERENCES

Dombrowski, Paul M. (2000). Ethics and Technical Communication:

The Past Quarter Century. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 30(1) 3-

29.