Practical models for technical communication - Shannon Kelley 2021
Rhetorical awareness and digital literacy
Multimodal and multimedia communication
Technical communicators make decisions about how they will communicate rhetorically. Rhetoric is the study of how to best communicate, especially when justifying or validating a concept is involved.
Think about how you get someone to do something. If you want a new stop sign installed on your street, how will you make that happen? Rhetoric is the communication choices you make to convince the city that a stop sign is needed. You’ve probably come across the rhetorical terms of ethos, logos, and pathos in other writing classes. As a refresher, these terms represent three ways to convince an audience by appealing to ethics (ethos), logic (logos), or emotion (pathos). To use these rhetorical appeals effectively, you must understand your purpose and audience.
Rhetorical awareness means that you think about how to make choices based on the purpose of the document and its audience. Ask yourself what combination of modes will create the most meaning? As a professional, your responsibilities will include production and distribution choices. In the workplace, you most likely won’t be asked to explain rhetorical principles. Instead, you may be asked to explain the medium (or communication platform) you chose. Your employer isn’t as interested in why you chose certain colors for your civil engineering graphic, but they are interested in the usefulness and cost of an interactive blog you created for a neighborhood roadway restructuring project. Rhetorical awareness means understanding the situation and the needs that arise.
Digital Literacy
Digital literacy is your ability to locate, interpret, or generate information using a range of digital and online tools. Communication in the twenty-first century goes far beyond paper documents. Cell phones, tablets, computers, games, and virtual reality have changed the way people communicate and make meaning. If you want to remain relevant, you need to understand how to use and create multimodal content.
Digital literacy includes six essential skills:
” Knowing how to operate a computer or other digital device
” Knowing how to use a range of hardware and software
” Knowing how to keep your information secure online
” Knowing how to conduct an online search
” Knowing how to evaluate online information
” Knowing how to communicate and collaborate online
Hiller A. Spires, a professor of literacy and technology at North Carolina State University, provides another way to look at digital literacy. Spires says you can think of digital literacy as having three steps: 1) finding and consuming digital content, 2) creating digital content, and 3) communicating or sharing that content.2 Each step of digital literacy contributes to the next (figure 4.3).
Figure 4.3. Digital Literacy Skills. Digital literacy requires three distinct skill sets.
In preparing for her new job, Prathita thinks about the essential skills of digital literacy and concludes that she lacks expertise in keeping information secure online. As a result, she does some research to learn more about how to improve the security of her information, as well as the sensitive information belonging to her department. She finds ways to improve her passwords, to add login securities, and to save sensitive data more securely.
Because technology moves so quickly, it’s inevitable that you will discover gaps in your technical skills even if you grew up knowing how to code computers or hack into your sister’s Twitter account. Digital literacy is not just about knowing how to use these tools. It’s also knowing when and how to use them, how to evaluate the information you receive, and how to translate this information into forms that are useful for others. By keeping up with changes in technology, you can build your capacity for multimodal communication.
Subscribing to publications that discuss new technologies is also a good way to keep yourself from falling behind in your field. Continuing education courses give you a safe way to experiment with new technology while guided by experts. As misinformation becomes more prevalent and convincing, remembering to triple-verify facts via the most credible, relevant sources should always be your top priority as a technical communicator.