Ethics in technical communication: A rhetorical perspective

Professional technical communicators and academicians who study and teach technical communication have opposing perspectives on the ethics that should guide the work of communicating technical information. Valuing most the well-being of their profession and the organizations in which they work, the professionals advocate an ethics in which competence is the principle and market success the purpose that guides good technical communication. The academicians, valuing most the well-being of the larger society in which all technology is situated, advocate an ethics in which responsibility is the guiding principle and the protection of that society's interests the guiding purpose. An alternative perspective founded upon rhetoric might be acceptable to both. Valuing the protection of all interests involved in a communication situation, this perspective makes cooperation the principle and compromise the purpose that should guide technical communication, suggesting an ethics in which open interaction and collaborative judgment become the context in which technical communication functions.