"Novelty or Replication: A Pedagogical Foray into the Technical Communication Class"

About the Author

Josephine Walwema received her MA in Rhetoric and Writing from the University of New Mexico. She is now a doctoral candidate in the Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design Program at Clemson University.  Her research interests include the history of rhetoric, rhetorical theory, technology as human capacity, and mechanical technology.

Contents

Introduction

Conceptual Framework

The rhetorical situation

The Topoi

Ethos

Ethics

Concluding Thoughts

Works Cited

Introduction 

Like it or hate it, Microsoft Word is the working platform in the technical communication classroom. Word's ready-made templates are not only suitable to most technical communication documents such as résumés, but are easily available to novice and expert users. However, one of the course outcomes for technical communication is that students learn the concept of document/visual design coupled with the expectation that as they do they will demonstrate or develop ethical conduct that eschews appropriating others' work. Because Word templates bear the digital branding of the creators, at what point do users take credit for a document that replicates the template? How does adopting a template affect the ethos of the document? Can instructors help students make proper rhetorical use of the template as topoi while maintaining ethical conduct? This paper explores the role of templates as teaching tools within the field of visual design in technical communication. It draws from the ancient rhetorical concepts of topoi and ethos, as well as ethics, to develop a conceptual framework applicable to visual design in technical communication.

I begin with a conceptual framework in which I discuss the essence of templates and the rhetorical precepts that I seek to make applicable to visual design and why. In my discussion, I underscore the notion of techne (which is the craft of making) as informing of disciplines of an artistic nature, such as visual design. Further, I draw attention to the rhetorical situation, which I argue is the starting place for discourse, but which, in the context of postmodernity and mass production, needs refiguring.