October 17, HW#7, Q3 in Ethics

Question 3 on page 148 of Ethics asks "How much responsibility does a technical communicator have for how a technical document is ultimately read and understood by the audience?." It goes on to ask if your ethical responsibility as a technical communicator has been met once you've delivered the message. The question really has to do with where the threshold lies when it comes to how far you go to make sure that you message is recieved.

I think that the Challenger example was a good one because the technical writer who communicated the problem with the O-Rings continued to deliver the message with stronger and strong wording even after his initial reports were ignored. For me I think the decision on how far I would take things would depend on the sensitivity of the issue. If it was potentially life threatening, like the O-Ring problem, I would definately continue to communicate the issue until I was satisfied that the issue would be resolved. However, if it was not a big deal whether or not people payed attention to my message, then I probably wouldn't push the issue that far.