Contemporary Dialogue

For my project I've settled on a topic I've been fairly concerned with over the past 2 years or so doing my Master's. I want to make the claim that comics, and more broadly, visual rhetoric have a specific place in the ethics behind technical communication. It is hard for me to approach this topic without doing some more research, so I've taken it upon myself to read more in to how comics and sequential art tie in to the relaying of technical communication in today's world. In doing this, I want to specifically situate my argument in the role that ethics plays when considering using a mixture of visual and textual rhetoric to make a technical document.

To analyze this sort of argument or to make a dialogue out of it I think there are multiple different approaches I can use. I'm leaning more towards the Toulmin model of claim, warrant, data to make a logical and specific dialogue that will appeal to a wider audience. Having said that, I think Perelman's idea on the specific and universal audience also plays a large role in having a dialogue surrounding ethical implications of using a mix of visual and textual rhetoric in the form of sequential art. In the digital age how does sequential art change to accommodate this shift from paper to screen? How does this shift change the ethical implications of this delivery method? In thinking about this delivery shift, who is the audience? How do we develop sequential art in such a way that it delivers the messages we need to the audience intended accounting for this shift?

There are a multitude of questions that I could go on for here, but I'm focusing on these types of questions to develop my dialogue for this assignment.

The Art of the Letter

To ECU admissions committee, by divine grace resplendent in Aristotelian Charm:

Why don’t we use comics and visuals more distinctly in the field of technical communication concerning digital technologies and the ethics of those technologies? This is the question I aim to answer and I believe that ECU and its faculty is the way I will answer that question.

Currently, I am revising and editing an ethics case that I hope to get published in Intercom that covers the technical communicator’s role regarding Early Access and crowdfunding campaigns. As I’ve said above I have papers that have been presented in SIGDOC and will be presented in CCCC’s as well as a panel to be presented at the American Studies Association of Texas dealing specifically with ethics and technology through the lens of comic author Jonathan Hickman. I also have experience in working with Dr. Angela Eaton in developing online modules that convey basic medical information to those who need it and designing and managing a Learning Management system for use in her Technical Editing course.

As a scholar, I am interested in continuing my professional career in research and teaching. My goal in attaining a PhD is to continue to do research in the field of technical communication while also taking in to account the upward shift in recent years towards a more digital mediated world.I believe that my values as a scholar and the values of the program and the faculty who comprise the program align in such a way that this research will be possible. 

Committee, inferior to your devoted learning, always obedient honorable service,

Michael McCarthy

Youtube answers

        After viewing the questions that the students had I specifically found two to be very interesting. The first question I'd like to address is: How is identity tied to home? Or is it tied to a feeling of home? I think in the US the identity of a person is complexly tied to where they are from. Every once in a while you'll find a person who it is really difficult to tell which part of the States they came from, and usually it is because the person made it that way on purpose. There is a sense of shame attached to certain areas in the US and I'm particularly tied to one of them. Before I go in to that, let me first address some of the differences I have concerning what I attribute the tag "home" to. I consider my permanent residence at my parent's house currently as my home. However, I have a separate home which is my own for where I go to school. Eventually, I will make the separation and have my own home that is separate from my parent's house, but it hasn't happened quite yet. Secondly, I think the issue of identity is tied specifically to region as well. In the US, we identify a lot of the time by our regions. I am from the Deep South on the coast of Mississippi. This is an area I wear proudly because my state and that area of the US gets a bad rap for not producing anyone intelligent (even though many famous and creative talents came from there). That part of my identity allows me to connect with others who are from the same areas or know the culture almost instantly. Northerners think I'm weird, I think I grew up in the untamed wild that is the Deep South.

        The second question I'd like to address is the question of how chaos in the home is handled/does it get handled well. My home, coming from a family of six, is usually chaotic when everyone is in town and we are doing family functions. The house itself is always moving always vibrant. Growing up in that sort of chaos has shaped me as a person and how I handled high stress situations. It's also helped me to enjoy the solitude and quiet time I don't receive very much of when visiting home. However, I would never trade it for the world. There is a warmth and comfort that comes with the controlled chaos that is my family unit. I'm super grateful to have a home where everyone is involved with one another and where the people are always aware of others outside of themselves.