Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • SEACS 2022 Presentation
    • SEACS 2023 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • February 13th: Introduction to User Design
    • February 15th: Instructions for Users
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • February 20th: The Rhetoric of Technology
    • February 22nd: Social Constructions of Technology
    • February 6th: Plain Language
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
    • March 13th: Introduction to Information Design
    • March 15th: More on Information Design
    • March 20th: Reporting Technical Information
    • March 27th: The Great I, Robot Analysis
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • February 14th: Fascism and Other Valentine’s Day Atrocities
    • February 21st: Fascism Part 2
    • February 7th: Fallacies Part 3 and American Politics Part 2
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
    • March 7th: Fascism Part 3
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • How to Lie with Statistics
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication » January 11th: More Introduction to Class

January 11th: More Introduction to Class

Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”

I have all my classes read this one-page article that’s 40 years old, but still seems relevant. It might be less related to this course and more relevant to the cultural studies courses I teach. I still think it’s important for education in general, so I’m assigning it.

The great Isaac Asimov is a major figure in science fiction. He wrote more than science fiction (he was quite prolific), including popular press articles of which “A Cult of Ignorance” is one. Unfortunately, when doing cultural studies analyses, we often uncover bad or unsettling aspects of our culture. Many people deride cultural studies for this, but it’s important to understand that not everything about our system has benefited everyone else. Fortunately, because American culture is based (in part) on freedom of speech, we’re free to critique the system without fear of repercussions…that’s a system I’m glad to live under!

But Asimov doesn’t think Americans think critically enough. In fact, in 1980, he told us we didn’t read enough, so we couldn’t possibly have a right to know because we put no effort into knowing.

Consider the following themes of Asimov’s short article:

  • Anti-intellectualism
    • What might be contemporary examples of this? Consider the anti-vaccination and COVID-19 quarantine protester crowds.
    • For further information, beyond the scope of this class, check out evidence that the public trust in higher education has fallen.
  • Elites
    • Who are the elites? What’s the difference between economic and intellectual elites?
  • Right to know
    • With great rights come even greater responsibility…
    • What’s Asimov’s point about the public’s assumption they have the right to know?
  • Credibility and trust
    • What are credible sources? Who are credible people?
    • How might you rank the following people in terms of credibility?
      • Teacher
      • Politician
      • Parent
      • Veteran
      • Celebrity
      • Scientist
      • Uber/Lyft Driver
      • Hedge Fund Manager
  • Asimov claims reading scores have dropped, but he doesn’t provide any evidence
    • The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been tracking reading (and math) scores since 1971.
    • This NAEP graph (pdf) shows some improvement for particular age groups, but is it significant improvement, or does it look pretty much the same since 1971.
  • Drop in magazine readership
    • Consider Asimov writing in 1980…the internet wasn’t in anyone’s home, so newspapers, magazines, and network (not cable) news was how people got their information.
    • Although debatable, one could get news information from more media these days (although not necessarily in-depth reporting), there are a good portion of Americans who don’t read books.
  • Ignorance vs willful ignorance
    • Consider “ignorance” in the non-pejorative sense to mean “not knowing.” We are all ignorant in that we don’t know everything. I’m extremely ignorant on nuclear physics, organic chemistry, fishing, among other things.
    • The problem is willful ignorance or celebrating your ignorance as a badge of honor. Willfully ignoring the facts because they don’t fit one’s worldview is beyond ignorant; it’s just plain stupid.
  • “true concept of democracy”
  • Asimov is claiming at the end of his article that, without striving to learn, without having an educated citizenry who doesn’t celebrate their ignorance, we don’t have a true democracy or rule be the people.
  • Oh well, what does he know. He’s just a sci-fi writer.* It’s not like he can predict the future…

*For those of you who don’t know me, this bullet point needs to be read in a sarcastic tone.

Why not trust the experts? Also, what’s wrong with highway signs having pictures instead of words?

Questions about Technology

This page is an introduction to thinking broadly about technology and beyond technologies’ uses. We’re moving towards an understanding of technology as a product of the culture from which it comes and in which it’s used. Again, this is an introduction, so, if it’s confusing at first, don’t let that confound you. We’ll revisit this throughout the semester.

Consider the following when you’re reading:

  • How would I define my/our culture?
  • What constitutes cultural norms, values, ideologies?
  • Is there any validity to the term “conventional wisdom”?
  • What do the products I use say about the person I am in regard to my social place?
  • What makes the Internet uniquely…
    American…
    Western…
    Global…
    Capitalist…
    Individualistic?
  • What do nuclear weapons say about society?

We must understand the impact science and technology have on our world. But to do that, we have to understand the social and cultural values that created sciences and technologies.

Below are a few terms that will help us think about technologies critically–think about their meaning beyond just use.

  • Ideology: prevailing cultural/institutional attitudes, beliefs, norms, attributes, practices, and myths that are said to drive a society.
  • Hegemony: the ways or results of a dominant group’s (the hegemon) influence over other groups in a society or region. The dominant group dictates, consciously or unconsciously, how society must be structured and how other groups must “buy into” the structure. For example, the former Soviet Union was the hegemonic power influencing the communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
    {Of course, hegemony isn’t just between nations. What hegemonic values are prevailing in American culture?}
  • Systemic: (adjective) pertaining to an entire system, institution, or object; something ‘systemic’ cannot be removed from the system.

Envisioning 21st Century Work

Have you ever thought about telecommuting and virtual teams? What about Instant Messaging as a collaboration tool?

Have any of you thought about the ways in which you’ll communicate in the future? How do you think collaboration will happen (and will it)? What’s the importance of collaboration and good communication in science, technology, and industry.

Interface Design and Imagination in Technical Communication

According to several journal responses I’ve gotten over the years, there appears to be no place for imagination in technical communication. Apparently, facts are facts and they’re unambiguous. Unfortunately, facts aren’t just given; they’re constructed and interpreted. One’s perception or a group’s adherence to “truth” (often called myth) can cause a person to misinterpret facts or misinterpret what is a fact.

Interfaces are perfect examples of hi-tech objects (screw ups) that rely on a user’s mental model (an individual thought process or ways of viewing the world from a subjective perspective). A growing concern in design these days deals with usability. Instead of having the tech experts decide what goes into an interface, the firm brings in users to test products or documentation for products to determine if the interface or documents are effective. In other words, can users get from Point A to Point B without issue?

Your Turn on Technology

Next week, I’ll have a Canvas prompt for you to do related to this topic. Below I have questions that I’d ask about specific technologies we’d discuss in class if we were face to face. For now, consider these questions, and I’ll address them below by commenting on mobile phones:

  • What are the social values that appear embedded in the technology? In other words, if technology is mediated (comes to be) because of prevailing cultural values, from what cultural values does the technology come?
  • What are the social implications of its design or use? Is it gendered?
  • Is it systemic (meaning, a product of the ever-present “system” aka the man, the culture, ideologies)? Consider if it would “work” in another culture.
  • What does your technology say about the culture that created it?

Mobile Phones from this Perspective

How can something as simple as a phone generate so much discussion? You will find that somewhat simple items can have enormous back stories. You could write a brief set of procedures for any number of goals users have for mobile communication devices; you could write articles on the latest devices, comparing them in fact; or you could write a history of communication where you identify the key players and contexts for mobile devices being created. Those are a bit beyond the scope of this class, but I wanted you to be introduced to the ways of thinking about these devices.

The basic thing to remember about critical technological awareness is that the concept asks you to look at technologies not for how to use them but to consider how they might use you. Although there are many approaches we could take to investigate this, I’m going to present two ways for now:

  1. We adopt technologies to conform to broader cultural norms;
  2. Technologies don’t change values, but they certainly affect behaviors and may alter certain practices.

Let’s stick with #2 for now. Cultural attitudes inform ways of doing things within a society and ways of accepting ideas—including technology. Technologies that don’t follow a culture’s values and practices most likely won’t get realized unless they alter the ideology (or in some cases are at least presented as being in accordance with social values and practices). For instance, mobile phones haven’t caused an instant communication craze; they simply fit into a world that already has a demand for it. Instant communication has been a part of Western society and much of the industrialized world long before mobile phones, but the popular phrase “wireless” has crept back into our vocabulary in the last 20 years. Besides certain companies with “wireless” in their names, connecting to the Internet via wireless network adapters is ubiquitous. Colleges, businesses, and homes have vast wireless “infrastructures,” allowing users to get online virtually anywhere. As with many technologies, wireless access has gone from a mere convenience (circa 2005) to an absolute “necessity” today.”

It’s important to remember, though, humans and their ancestors lived for hundreds of thousands of years without any means of wireless communication, but “I couldn’t live without my cell phone” or other “necessary” technologies is a common contemporary phrase. There are many behavioral changes related to mobile phone use, but consider the assumption we have as members of society: Prior to 2010, a perfectly valid question before getting someone’s contact information was, “do you have a cell phone”; now, that question is unthinkable, and one would state, “let me text you, so you have my number.”

That’s a subtle difference, but it identifies a major cultural change in practices. Think about this, in high school, when we called someone, we often asked, “what are you up to?” Now, you might text or call and ask, “where are you?”

What are some practices that you can think of that have changed or been influenced by the plethora of mobile communication devices out there? Growing up, science fiction narratives claimed we’d have flying cars and video phones by 2000. Well, it’s 2023, and we have all kinds of video calling capabilities…no flying cars, though.

Next Week

Make sure to get on Canvas and respond to the week’s prompt before Thursday, 1/12 at 11:00 pm. I won’t have a page up for Monday, 1/16, because it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Read Ch. 1 and 2 in Tebeaux and Dragga.

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