View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open Reports 2011 Uncovering poiesis : the role of production in technical communication, work, and public life Thomas E. Vosecky Michigan Technological University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds Part of the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Copyright 2011 Thomas E. Vosecky Recommended Citation Vosecky, Thomas E., "Uncovering poiesis : the role of production in technical communication, work, and public life", Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2011. https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds/97 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds Part of the Rhetoric and Composition Commons UNCOVERING POIESIS: THE ROLE OF PRODUCTION IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION, WORK, AND PUBLIC LIFE By Thomas E. Vosecky A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Rhetoric and Technical Communication MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Thomas E. Vosecky This dissertation, ―Uncovering Poiesis: The Role of Production in Technical Communication, Work, and Public Life,‖ is hereby approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN RHETORIC AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION. Department of Humanities Signatures: Dissertation Advisor _________________________________________ Robert R. Johnson Committee Member _________________________________________ Ann Brady Committee Member _________________________________________ Michael Bowler Committee Member _________________________________________ Charles Wallace Department Chair _________________________________________ Ronald Strickland Date _________________________________________ Table of Contents Table of Figures .................................................................................................................. 4 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 5 Preface................................................................................................................................. 6 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter One: Background................................................................................................. 21 Project purpose: Computer Science .............................................................................. 22 Project purpose: Technical Communication ................................................................. 25 Chapter Two: Pedagogy .................................................................................................... 32 Teaching Techné(ically) ................................................................................................ 32 Poiesis—The Action of Techné .................................................................................... 50 Teaching Poietically ...................................................................................................... 52 Teaching Phronetic(ally) ............................................................................................... 57 Introduction to Experience ............................................................................................ 58 Chapter Three: Theory Applied ........................................................................................ 93 Making and Acting: Theorizing One Case .................................................................... 93 Chapter Four: Methods Background ............................................................................... 101 History ......................................................................................................................... 102 Fieldwork Methods ..................................................................................................... 104 Participant Observation—Introduction to Fieldnotes ................................................. 107 Short Exit Interviews ................................................................................................... 110 Consent—Institutional Review Boards ....................................................................... 112 Analysis—Grounded Theory Coding .......................................................................... 116 Writing It Up ............................................................................................................... 121 Methods Summary ...................................................................................................... 124 Chapter Five: Project Specific Methods ......................................................................... 126 Developing the Case Studies: Applied Ethnography .................................................. 126 Collecting Data ............................................................................................................ 126 Constructing the Cases ................................................................................................ 130 Presenting the Cases .................................................................................................... 132 Chapter Six: Pedagogy Conclusion ................................................................................ 135 Value of Case Studies ................................................................................................. 135 Implications ................................................................................................................. 140 Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 143 Chapter Seven: Poietical Conclusion .............................................................................. 145 References ....................................................................................................................... 156 Appendix 1-Speaking of Software Exit Interview .......................................................... 163 Appendix 2-Permissions ................................................................................................. 165 3 Table of Figures Figure 3.1 Excerpt from Module C Story, Seabase case study .......................................95 Figure 3.2 Module C Questions, Seabase case study ......................................................96 4 Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the support of a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Charles Wallace of the Computer Science Department, with whom I worked to develop the case studies. Nor would it have been successfully concluded without the valuable advice of Robert Johnson, Ann Brady, and Marika Siegel of the Humanities Department, as well as the valuable contributions of the other graduate and undergraduate students involved in the project. I also acknowledge IGI Global and Routledge, the publishers who were kind enough to grant permission to reuse previously published material. Those permissions can be found in the appendix. 5 Preface This dissertation can be read on several levels. First, it is a report on a collaborative project between the Computer Science Department (specifically the Software Engineering Program) and the Humanities Department (specifically the Rhetoric and Technical Communication Program) to develop case studies that focus on issues of communication in the workplace, and the results of the use of them in the classroom. My argument here is that through case study teaching we are simulating real-world experience in a meaningful way, essentially developing a teachable way of developing phronesis, the reasoned capacity to act for the good in public. Second, it can be read as a ―how-to‖ guide relating how the construction of those case studies came about in an effort to assist any educator who may wish to construct their own case studies. To that end, I have included a discussion of the ethnographic methodologies employed, and how it was adapted to our more pragmatic ends. Finally, I present my overarching argument for a new appraisal of the concept of techné. This reappraisal emphasizes its productive activity, poiesis, rather than focusing on its knowledge, the reasoned capacity to make, as has been the case in the past. I propose that focusing on the telos, the end outside the production, contributes to, the diminishment, if not complete foreclosure, of a rich concept of techné. As mentioned above, much of the development of the case studies was a collaborative project involving faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from the Computer 6 Science and Humanities Departments. The faculty members involved were thanked in my acknowledgments, and the graduate and undergraduate students are acknowledged in the text where appropriate. Due to this collaborative nature, I have use the pronoun ―we‖ when the interactions were a group effort, and reserved ―I‖ for my individual contributions. Some previously published material that appears in this dissertation includes selections from Speaking