Channels, Fall 2016

Channels • 2016 • Volume 1 • Number 1 Page 95 Moreover, technical communicators should engage political discourse because the realms of science and public policy are becoming harder to separate. Initially, technical communicators brushed against the political realm as they wrote grants for government sponsorship of scientific research in the 1960s (Gibson 2013). Gibson (2013) writes that the technical communicator already occupies a pivotal role between politics and science since “the translation of scientific research into government-friendly language requires a specific set of scientific, rhetorical, and ethical skills” (4). As industrial and political hierarchies continue to intertwine, technical communicators will find themselves negotiating the intersections of various discourses. Consequently, technical communicators need to prepare themselves to engage the political realm. They must see themselves as authors, take responsibility for what they communicate, and persuade their audiences ethically as Aristotle prescribes. They must realize the power their rhetoric has. Ultimately, technical communicators can operate in any discourse. However, they must realize first that “wise people who can speak and write well are still the best assets we’ve got” (Rutter 2004, 23). Of course, wisdom is a rather high standard for any professional to attain. However, Aristotle simplifies the issue, suggesting that wisdom amounts to doing the right thing in the right place in the right time. Consequently, if communicators envision themselves as authors, if they accept responsibility for their rhetoric, and if they write for their audiences, they can attain wisdom as Aristotle defines it. As Aristotle suggests, they can use their power to empower others. Conclusion In his treatise on rhetoric, Aristotle defines rhetoric as a tool by which orators advance truth and justice. Although many theorists rely on what Aristotle wrote, they separate rhetoric from ethics and allow rhetoric to serve empiricist ends. However, modern communicators cannot divorce what they write from its rhetorical context. An example such as the crisis at Three Mile Island shows that communicators apply rhetoric as a framework to organize situations and create meaning. Thus, communicators persuade their audiences that reality exists in a particular way. Since communicators use rhetoric to persuade their audiences, they must accept that they author information rather than translate or transmit it. Perhaps more importantly, they must also accept ethical responsibility for what they communicate. As they employ rhetoric, they must write as classical orators spoke—that is, they should write as though they stand before and are responsible to living, breathing audience members who will react to their rhetoric. Moreover, as technical communicators assume their roles as authors, take responsibility for their rhetoric, and write for their audiences, they should not be afraid employ their rhetoric in any discourse. Specifically, they should engage in political discourse since they are wise communicators who understand how to employ rhetoric for the good of the audience rather than the good of a discourse. Technical communicators occupy a pivotal position in rhetorical situations and in industry as well. Like Æsop’s trumpeter, they blow their horns and persuade their troops to action. However, they cannot assume as Æsop’s trumpeter did that how they employ their skill has no impact on the greater context around them. As the trumpeter chooses a melody, so the