From Textbooks to Safety Briefings: Helping Technical Writers Negotiate Complex Rhetorical Situations

University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2008 From Textbooks To Safety Briefings: Helping echnicalT Writers Negotiate Complex Rhetorical Situations Brian Blackburne University of Central Florida Part of the Rhetoric Commons, and the Technical and Professional Writing Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Blackburne, Brian, "From Textbooks To Safety Briefings: Helping echnicalT Writers Negotiate Complex Rhetorical Situations" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 3802. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/3802 FROM TEXTBOOKS TO SAFETY BRIEFINGS: HELPING TECHNICAL WRITERS NEGOTIATE COMPLEX RHETORICAL SITUATIONS by BRIAN D. BLACKBURNE B.A. Texas A&M University, 1996 M.A. University of North Texas, 2000 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2008 Major Professor: Melody Bowdon Co-Chair: Karla Saari Kitalong 2008 Brian D. Blackburne ii ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I analyze the organizational and political constraints that technical writers encounter when dealing with complex rhetorical situations, particularly within risk-management discourse. I ground my research in case studies of safety briefings that airlines provide to their passengers because these important documents have long been regarded as ineffective, yet they’ve gone largely unchanged in the last 20 years. Airlines are required to produce these safety briefings, which must satisfy multiple audiences, such as corporate executives, federal safety inspectors, flight attendants, and passengers. Because space and time are limited when presenting safety information to passengers, the technical writers must negotiate constraints related to issues such as format, budget, audience education and language, passenger perceptions/fears, reproducibility, and corporate image/branding – to name a few. The writers have to negotiate these constraints while presenting important (and potentially alarming) information in a way that’s as informative, realistic, and tasteful as possible. But such constraints aren’t unique to the airline industry. Once they enter the profession, many writing students will experience complex rhetorical situations that constrain their abilities to produce effective documentation; therefore, I am looking at the theories and skills that we’re teaching our future technical communicators for coping with such situations. By applying writing-style and visual-cultural analyses to a set of documents, I demonstrate a methodology for analyzing complex rhetorical situations. I conclude by proposing a pedagogy that teachers of technical communication can employ for helping students iii assess and work within complex rhetorical situations, and I offer suggestions for implementing such practices in the classroom. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I begin by offering my sincerest thanks to my family, friends, and colleagues. You have sustained me throughout this process, and I am grateful for you. My parents, Lois and Edward, have never doubted my aspirations, and for thirty-five years, each has been there to counsel me, provide a supportive word, and just be mom and dad. From teaching me to read to listening to my musings about this dissertation, they have certainly seen a long-term project come to fruition. Theirs is a job well done. My brother, Edward, and his wife, Nicolé, have also shown boundless support and enthusiasm for my endeavors, and my relationships with them have defined me as both person and scholar. My friends have been an amazing source of inspiration throughout my studies, and even as our life experiences take us around the world, we still maintain the bonds that make such relationships special in the first place. In Austin, I have my dear friend, Daniel Turner. His initiative to flourish in industry and academy alike have inspired me since our undergraduate days at Texas A&M. In Boston, I have Sonya Kix, who was one of my first “writer” friends. Her editorial skills and flare for telling a story are unmatched, and my writing and my life have been enriched in the years that we’ve been friends. In Dallas, I have Richard Catron, Toni Ferris, Adam Knippa, and Naheeda Nelson. Aside from being remarkable friends and smart, successful people, they possess razor-sharp wits that have kept me laughing and quick on my conversational feet all these years. In Orlando, I give thanks to Phyllis Burzeé, Julius John, and Dwain Moore. Their talents v and individual dedications to art, education, and life keep me simultaneously entertained, engaged, and enthusiastic. I also owe immense thanks to Jane Moody, a fellow T&T scholar and colleague. Jane is one of those smart people who can engage in substantive conversation about anything. She has certainly helped me hone my research through our ongoing dialogue, and she has also been a compassionate friend. The English Faculty at the University of Central Florida is integral to my accomplishments in the Texts and Technology program. Appropriately, those who have most inspired me as teachers have also guided me as committee members. Thank you to David Wallace for helping me acclimate to the program during my first semesters and for helping shape the initial papers that became this dissertation. I also want to thank my outside reader, Rudy McDaniel. Your perspective and academic zeal are simply inspiring. To my teaching mentor and co-chair, Karla Kitalong, I thank you for having a true open- door policy and for never kicking me out when I dropped in for an unannounced chat. Finally I thank my advisor, Melody Bowdon. Your sage guidance has seen me through my studies, my research, and sometimes my life outside of the classroom. The only disappointment I feel with this dissertation is that it marks the end of our weekly “dissertating” meetings (and e-mails and text messages) – all of which made me a smarter person and better writer. Thank you, everyone. vi To Mom and Dad vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................... X LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................ XI CHAPTER 1: SPOTTING A GAP .................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 9/12/01: The Beginning of my Research ..................................................................................... 4 Overview of this Dissertation ....................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Constrained Technical Writers in the Workplace .................................................. 7 Chapter 3: Airline Safety Briefings – A Complex of Restraints ............................................... 8 Chapter 4: Assessing the State of the Art in Airline Safety Briefings ...................................... 8 Chapter 5: Compiling a Methodology .................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: CONSTRAINED TECHNICAL WRITERS IN THE WORK PLACE ......................... 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 11 Mailroom Talk: Discovering a Gap in Technical Communication Textbooks ............................ 11 Acknowledging the Real Rhetorical Situation: Organizational Constraints Imposed on Technical Writers ....................................................................................................................... 14 Methods: Surveying Teachers ................................................................................................... 16 Survey Questions .................................................................................................................. 17 Results: Surveying Teachers ..................................................................................................... 20 Limitations of the Study ......................................................................................................... 22 My Encounters with Constraints ................................................................................................ 23 Agency and Organizations......................................................................................................... 26 Truthful Communication ........................................................................................................ 29 The Truth Shan’t Set You Free… .......................................................................................... 32 The Implications of Ethics and Truth ..................................................................................... 34 The Implications of Unused Writings ....................................................................................

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