Featuring specially commissioned chapters from scholars and practitioners across the field, this handbook serves as a touchstone for those who wish to do ethical technical and professional communication in its myriad forms.
Featuring specially commissioned chapters from scholars and practitioners across the field, this handbook serves as a touchstone for those who wish to do ethical technical and professional communication in its myriad forms.
Offering an overview of what “ethics” in technical and professional communication looks like, what “being ethical” entails, and what it means to “do ethical work,” this handbook is divided into five interrelated parts and an Afterword:
- Why Ethics?
- Foundations: What Are Ethics, and How Do They Fit into Technical and Professional Communication?
- Local Application: What Does “Being Ethical” Mean to the Individual?
- Institutional Application: What Does “Being Ethical” Mean at the Institutional Level?
- The Future of Ethics in Technical Communication: What Happens Next?
The first of its kind, this accessibly written handbook explores descriptive, normative, applied, and meta-ethics. It will be an indispensable resource for researchers and students in the fields of Technical and Professional Communication, Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Design.
Introduction: Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication Derek
G. Ross Part I. Why Ethics?
1. Why Ethics? Using Ethics as the Basis for
General Decision-Making Keisha E. McKenzie
2. Ethics in the Classroom Aimee
Kendall Roundtree
3. Ethical Considerations in Communication Research Johanna
Phelps
4. Ethics in Workplace Research Clay Spinuzzi
5. Ethics in Service
Learning Susan A. Youngblood
6. Codes of Ethics in Professional and Technical
Communication Heidi L. Everett and Emil B. Towner Part II. Foundations: What
Are Ethics, and How Do They Fit into Technical and Professional
Communication?
7. Metaethics, Technology, and the Value of Ethics in
Technical and Professional Communication Jared S. Colton
8. Character/Virtue
Ethics Steve Holmes
9. Duty/Deontological Ethics Beau Pihlaja
10.
Consequentialist, Utilitarian, and Hedonistic Ethical Approaches Mike Duncan
11. Rights-Based Ethics Kristin C. Bennett
12. Divine Command, Universalist
Ethics, and Discernment Elizabeth L. Angeli and Conor M. Kelly
13. Dialogue
and Dialogic Ethics Michael J. Salvo
14. Feminist Ethics Derek M. Sparby
15.
Ethics of Care in Technical Communication Research and Practice Denise
Tillery
16. Queer Ethics Michael J. Faris
17. Chicanx Ethics in TPC: Thinking
Pragmatically About Chicanidad Gabriel Lorenzo Aguilar
18. Indigenous Ethics
Emily Legg
19. Ubuntu: An African Ethics Josephine Walwema Part III. Local
Application: What Does Being Ethical Mean to the Individual?
20. Writing
Ethically Lydia Wilkes
21. Designing Ethically: Accounting and Advocating for
Inclusivity and Justice Jason Tham
22. Coding Ethically as a Writer and
Designer Adam Strantz
23. Ethics in Technical Editing Jo Mackiewicz
24.
Marketing Content Ethically Scott A. Mogull
25. Teaching Ethically Yanar
Hashlamon and Christa Teston
26. Researching Ethically Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq
Part IV. Institutional Application: What Does Being Ethical Mean at the
Institutional Level?
27. Institutional Marketing and Ethics Chris Dayley
28.
Ethics and Plain Language Kira Dreher and Russell Willerton
29. The Ethics of
Accessible Design Sushil K. Oswal
30. UX and Ethics Yingying Tang
31.
Business Ethics: Adopting an Ethical Mindshift and Building Multicultural
Ethical Capital Binod Sundararajan and Tasnima Islam
32. Ethics and
Infrastructure Michelle McMullin
33. Transnational Crisis Communication and
Ethics Sweta Baniya Part V. The Future of Ethics in Technical Communication:
What Happens Next?
34. The Future of Environmental Ethics Derek G. Ross
35.
The Future of Ethics in Mobile Technologies: An Ethic of Inclusion Elevating
DEIA Principles to the Forefront of Intersections of Mobile Technologies,
Accessibility, and Place Brett Oppegaard
36. The Future of Ethics in
Political Communication Isidore K. Dorpenyo
37. The Future of Ethics in
Medical Communication Erin Fitzgerald
38. The Future of Disability and
Accessibility Ethics Rachel Bryson
39. The Future of Multilingualism,
Culture, and Ethics Laura Pigozzi
40. The Future of Ethics and Social Justice
Chris Lindgren, Julie Gerdes, and Halcyon Lawrence
41. The Future of Ethics
and Community Engagement Godwin Y. Agboka
42. The Future of Risk
Communication and Ethics Huiling Ding
43. The Future of Apparent Feminist
Ethics: Taking Rhetorical Action Erin A. Clark and S.B. McCulloch
44. The
Future of Ethics in Crisis Communication Rob Grace and Meghan Dunn
45. The
Future of Ethics in Industry: Generative AI and the Production of Technical
Content Dan Card Part VI. Afterword
46. Revisiting Ethics in Human-Machine
Relations: Technical and Professional Communication and Emergent
Intelligences Steven B. Katz
Derek G. Ross is the Hargis Professor of Writing Studies in the Master of Technical and Professional Communication Program at Auburn University, USA. He is the editor of Topic-Driven Environmental Rhetoric (Routledge, 2017), co-author of Document Design: From Process to Product in Professional Communication (2025), and a past editor of Communication Design Quarterly.
