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

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Charlotte Debate
  • Conference Presentations
    • Critical Theory/MRG 2023 Presentation
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS 2024 Presentation
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SAMLA 2024 Presentation
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • SEACS 2022 Presentation
    • SEACS 2023 Presentation
    • SEACS 2024 Presentation
    • SEACS 2025 Presentation
    • SEWSA 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • April 10th: Analyzing Ethics
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • April 12th: Writing Ethically
    • April 17th: Ethics Continued
    • April 19th: More on Ethics in Writing and Professional Contexts
    • April 24th: Mastering Oral Presentations
    • April 3rd: Research Fun
    • April 5th: More Research Fun
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Research
    • 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
    • May 1st: Final Portfolio Requirements
  • 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 23rd: Introduction to the Class
    • August 30th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • December 6th: Words and Word Classes
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2023)
    • November 15th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • November 1st: Stylistic Variations
    • November 29th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Rhetoric of Fear (prose example)
    • November 8th: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • October 11th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 18th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 4th: Form and Function
    • September 13th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 27th: Coordination and Subordination
      • Parallelism
    • September 6th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275/WRDS 4011: “Rhetoric of Technology”
    • April 23rd: Presentation Discussion
    • April 2nd: Artificial Intelligence Discussion, machine (super)learning
    • April 4th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • April 9th: Tom Wheeler’s The History of Our Future (Part I)
    • February 13th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 15th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 1st: Technology and Postmodernism
    • February 20th: Technology and Gender
    • February 22nd: Technology, Expediency, Racism
    • February 27th: Writing Workshop, etc.
    • February 6th: The Religion of Technology (Part 1 of 3)
    • February 8th: Religion of Technology (Part 2 of 3)
    • January 11th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 16th: Isaac Asimov’s “Cult of Ignorance”
    • January 18th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 23rd: Technology and Democracy
    • January 25th: The Politics of Technology
    • January 30th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • Major Assignments for Rhetoric of Technology
    • March 12th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 3
    • March 14th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 3
    • March 19th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 3 of 3
    • March 21st: Writing and Reflecting: Research and Synthesizing
    • March 26th: Artificial Intelligence and Risk
    • March 28th: Artificial Intelligence Book Reviews
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 11th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 18th: Feminisms, Rhetorics, Herstories
    • April 25th:  Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • April 4th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • February 15th: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • February 29th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • February 8th: Isocrates
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 1
    • March 14th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • March 21st: Feminist Rhetoric(s)
    • March 28th: Knoblauch’s Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • April 11th: McCarthyism Part 1
    • April 18th: McCarthyism Part 2
    • April 25th: The Satanic Panic
    • April 4th: Suspense/Horror/Fear in Film
    • 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 28th: Nineteen Eighty-Four
    • March 7th: Fascism Part 3
    • May 2nd: The Satanic Panic Part II
      • Rhetoric of Fear and Job Losses
  • Intercultural Communication on the Amalfi Coast
    • Pedagogical Theory for Study Abroad
  • 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
    • August 19: Introduction to the Course
    • August 21: More Introduction
    • August 26th: Consider Media-ted Arguments
    • August 28th: Media & American Culture
    • November 13th: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 3
    • November 18th: Feminism’s Non-Monolithic Nature
    • November 20th: Compulsory Heterosexuality
    • November 25th: Presentation Discussion
    • November 4: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 1
    • November 6: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 2
    • October 16th: No Class Meeting
    • October 21: Misunderstanding the Internet, Part 1
    • October 23: Misunderstanding the Internet, Part 2
    • October 28: The Internet, Part 3
    • October 2nd: Hauntology
    • October 30th: Social Construction of Sexuality
    • October 7:  Myth in American Culture
    • September 11: Critical Theory
    • September 16th: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • September 18th: Postmodernism, Part 1
    • September 23rd: Postmodernism, Part 2
    • September 25th: Postmodernism, Part 3
    • September 30th: Capitalist Realism
    • September 4th: The Medium is the Message!
    • September 9: The Public Sphere
  • Science Fiction and American Culture
    • April 10th: Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Parts III and IV)
    • April 15th: The Dispossessed (Part I)
    • April 17th: The Dispossessed (Part II)
    • April 1st: Interstellar (2014)
    • April 22nd: In/Human Beauty
    • April 24: Witch Hunt Politics (Part I)
    • April 29th: Witch Hunt Politics (Part II)
    • April 3rd: Catch Up and Start Octavia Butler
    • April 8th: Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Parts I and II)
    • February 11: William Gibson, Part II
    • February 18: Use Your Illusion I
    • February 20: Use Your Illusion II
    • February 25th: Firefly and Black Mirror
    • February 4th: Writing Discussion: Ideas & Arguments
    • February 6th: William Gibson, Part I
    • January 14th: Introduction to to “Science Fiction and American Culture”
    • January 16th: More Introduction
    • January 21st: Robots and Zombies
    • January 23rd: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • January 28th: American Studies Introduction
    • January 30th: World’s Beyond
    • March 11th: All Systems Red
    • March 13th: Zone One (Part 1)
      • Zone One “Friday”
    • March 18th: Zone One, “Saturday”
    • March 20th: Zone One, “Sunday”
    • March 25th: Synthesizing Sources; Writing Gooder
      • Writing Discussion–Outlines
    • March 27th: Inception (2010)
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • How to Lie with Statistics
    • How to Make an Argument with Sources
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Judith Butler, an Introduction to Gender/Sexuality Studies
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • 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

Topics for Analysis

Plan for the Discussion

  • Digital World
  • Database Culture
  • Cultural Studies
  • Gender Reproduction
  • Digital Humanities

Digital World

Although we can argue that information has not been static–delivered in final form, separate from the network of sources interacting with it–for a rather long time, we recognize that digital platforms offer audiences dynamic access to more information than ever possible in human civilization. What comes to mind when you hear the following:

  • Information Age
  • Information Superhighway
  • Big Data (privacy concerns…)
  • Database

About 25 years ago, database usually meant a repository of data accessible through a network.

Database Culture

We are a database culture. The texts we access have increasingly become digital outputs than print documents: These outputs are assembled into a text that’s made up of packets of data displayed to the audience.

  • Consider the simple Google search

Mediating information is the major goal of our society, and we’ve created technologies that allow instant access (and instant gratification) to an enormous amount of information, including entertainment. How might the following stock prices reveal the importance of access to information in the US and global economy?*

  • General Electric (est. 1892)
  • Ford Motor Co (est. 1903)
  • Shell (merged 1907…but much older)
  • General Motors (est. 1908)
  • Facebook (est. 2004)
  • Netflix (est. 1997)
  • Google (est. 1997-1998)
  • Amazon.com (est. 1994)

*Please note that stock prices are not the only factor in determining a company’s value. They do, however, suggest the relative importance of a company in the minds of investors. Another factor to consider is outstanding shares. Amazon has nearly 500 Million outstanding shares. The amount of Ford’s outstanding shares is close to 4 Billion–with a ‘B”. The older the company, the more likely they will have more shares, and the price will be lower. {This page makes no claim of providing investing advice.}

Cultural Studies

Although we can’t possibly cover the definition (or definitions of) cultural studies, we should have a useful definition for discussion. Please note, however, that it would take an entire semester (or longer) to delve into the intricacies and boundaries of cultural studies. Here’s my working definition:

Cultural studies is an approach to understanding the world by examining the ways in which individuals, as members of overlapping social groups, reproduce ideology (usually prevailing, dominant ideology) in their values, behaviors, and practices. By analyzing the artifacts of a culture, we can determine the values that shape culture.

Therefore, the texts, technologies, and tactics of a culture reveal shared values; however, these values aren’t universally held. When analyzing culture, we often find patterns. Ideology mediates our behaviors, entertainment, information sources, etc. Most importantly, this mediation is invisible and creates the illusion that our choices are natural, not socially constructed. (Time for psychoanalysis** refresher?)

Gender Reproduction

I debated whether or not to title this “Gender Reproduction” or “Gender Performance.” In order to conform to the language I’ve been using–cultural reproduction–I decided to go with the former heading.

Lev Manovich’s (2001) exploration of new media begins by asking, “What is unique about how new media objects create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space and time?” (p. 8)

The above quotation uses the phrase “the illusion of reality.” I believe Manovich’s perspective is that the technologies that render texts in the digital world mediate reality. I’ll add, in order to be well received by an audience, these media must reproduce versions of reality privileged by the audience. The digital world is FULL of examples of gender(ed) reproductions.

Images of Gender vs. (normal) Behavior

It seems we live in binary worlds, the feminine and masculine, the gay and straight, the liberal and conservative, the red and the blue. While there are more complex arrangements in the “real world,” our menus for gender and sexuality are usually dualistic. Those spheres (and their duality) are socially constructed–they are made up of what is considered normal, and any deviation is considered abnormal. Some say media influence our understanding of what it means to be a man or woman, but others point out that it merely reflects what is already considered normal, or, more importantly, ideal.

It’s hard to defend we’re not influenced by media, but it’s equally difficult (if not impossible) to claim that media influence every viewer the same way. However, theories allow us to explain how prevalent reproductions might influence members of a culture. If media reproduce prevailing cultural ideologies, we can locate these ideologies across texts and practices. No one text or practice will hold all meanings possible (and may hold prevailing contradictory meanings), but they can helps us identify “ideological hegemony.” This concept, derived from Antonio Gramsci, “[is] the process by which certain ways of understanding the world become so self-evident or naturalized as to render alternatives nonsensical or unthinkable” (Barker & Jane, p. 603).

In a sexist culture, one that establishes masculine and feminine gendered roles, indoctrination happens early and is reinforced by a variety of institutions: family, media, education, etc. Different gendered consumer products might seem “natural” choices for boys or girls, yet we know those choices are mediated by prevailing ideologies. Barker & Jane mention that “the toy aisles of large department stores” embody gendered reproductions (p. 382). Let’s consider the messages in the following children’s television shows, which also have material consumer products available to reproduce gendered behaviors and, more importantly, tastes.

He-Man and She-Ra

Compare the two introductions to He-Man and She-Ra. Are they the same–meaning no difference in the portrayal of the masculine character vs. the feminine character?

  • He-Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SjnG4Yr4Q
  • She-Ra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR65P73X5GI

Are the representations congruent with your understanding of masculine and feminine roles? Don’t forget your psychoanalytic hat either: What’s going on with the ways the two hold their swords? If “phallocentrism is the concept that power stems from whomever wields the phallus” or “an obsession with the phallus or phallic objects” (Toscano, 2020, p. ), how might we interpret the characters’ wielding of swords in the introductions?

Roland Barthes reading “Novels and Children”

Barthes identifies gender reproduction in Elle magazine’s decision to photograph female novelists alongside their children. He argues this is what patriarchy (unconsciously…although many would easily argue this is overt sexism) expects: Women can work, but they have to fulfill their “natural” role as mothers.

Nancy Pelosi, first Madame Speaker of the House

Take a look at these images of Nancy Pelosi and the fact that she had been surrounded by children when she took over the position of Speaker of the house (1/4/2007):

  • Gavel Raised High (New York Times)
  • Pelosi Takes Oath (Insider.com)
  • On House floor with grandchildren (Chronicle)
  • Holding baby on House floor (Cook)***
  • Search results page (Getty Images)

What might Barthes say about the choice of children surrounding her?
From where does female power come?

Notice the background when John Boehner takes over as Speaker of the House. He also cried. Then, Paul Ryan takes the gavel, 2015.

***Yes, there is a picture of Boehner holding a baby when he takes over as Speaker, but it’s no longer up.

Digital Humanities

Critique this “presentation” through a digital humanities lens. In other words, what are the pros and cons of this particular methodology?

  • What does this presentation privilege? Consider its format.
  • What digital methods enhanced your understanding of the topic?
  • What might make your understanding of the topic clearer?
  • How does this fit into your understanding of digital humanities as a discipline and/or methodology?
  • What should follow (or be added to) this presentation? In other words, does it have a future?

***Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a vast, complicated subject with contradictions, passé ideas, new ideas, more contradictions, a few reclamations, and hardly any definitive definitions. In no way should you consider this discussion as the end of the road or final say in the study of psychoanalysis. In fact, it’s one of several possible beginnings. For our purposes, like focus on the study of the unconscious and how it relates to cultural studies.

In English Studies, psychoanalytic methods of interpretation attempt to reveal the unconscious fears, desires, attitudes, and motivations of authors. For our new media/digital discussion, consider an author a writer, director, artist, architect, and creator. Their creations–which can be co-authored–reveal their unconscious, which has been shaped by their experiences. And it’s the experiences shaped by their culture(s) that we’re interested in analyzing.

Again, this is a method of interpretation that isn’t above critique.

Works Cited
Barthes, Roland. “Novels and Children.” Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. pp. 50-52.
Manovich, Lev. (2001). The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Toscano, Aaron. Video Games and American Culture: How Ideology Influences Virtual Worlds. Lexington Books, 2020

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