Week 2 Assignment 1: Analyze Challenger Memo

Description

Week 2 Assignment 1: Analyze Challenger Memo
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Overview
Rhetoric describes the relationships between readers, writers, and texts in the creation of meaning through a written document that responds to a specific circumstance. This nexus of forces is called the rhetorical situation. Every time we write or compose texts, we are working within the confines of a rhetorical situation. Accordingly, our composition process is affected by our audience (the person/people we intend to communicate with), our purpose for writing (inform, persuade, correspond, reflect, etc.), the genres we use (types of texts, including memos, emails, reports, etc.), as well as a host of other forces, including the affordances/limitations of the medium we use (content management system, powerpoint, email, word processor, etc.) and the messages we want to communicate.

In this case, we will be looking at William Ray’s 1979 memo outlining his visit to manufacturers of the O-Rings for NASA’s solid rocket to be used in the shuttle program. (You can see the full Congressional report on the investigation of the crash here (Links to an external site.)). Ray had written two prior memos noting concerns with the design of the O-Rings. In this memo, Ray is writing a trip report (see The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing (Links to an external site.) description here), which means he identifies a location he has visited, records observations from the visit, and draws a couple of conclusions based on his visit. The questions we are going to consider in this discussion relate to the rhetorical situation, the ethics of the memo, and the document design.

Prompt
Write an initial discussion post that discusses/explains the rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, genre) and document design of Ray’s 1979 memo.

Was the memo well written? Why or why not?
What is the exigence of the memo? What is the purpose of the memo?
How is the document designed? Where is the crucial information located?
Why do you think his warning did not resolve in a change in the O-Ring design prior to the 1986 explosion of the NASA Challenger shuttle?
Is Ray’s memo an example of ethical technical communication? Why or why not?
Write a secondary post that relates your initial post to the comments of two other students. Consider how their interpretation of this memo relates to your own analysis of how/whether Ray’s memo demonstrates ethical technical writing.

Minimum Requirements
Initial post of at least 250 words responding to the prompt
Support post with details from Ray’s memo
Secondary post of at least 200 words that connects to two other students
Support secondary post with details from the students’ initial posts

this two are linked for the book
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-99hrpt1016/pdf/GPO-CRPT-99hrpt1016.pdf

https://www.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/rep-trip.htm