Topic-Driven Environmental Rhetoric

Derek G. Ross is Associate Professor in the Master of Technical and Professional Communication Program at Auburn University, USA. His work has appeared Technical Communication, Written Communication, and IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, among others. He is the Ethics Editor/Columnist for Intercom Magazine and Co-Director of LUCIA, Auburn’s Laboratory for Usability, Communication, Interaction, and Accessibility.

• Foreword[Carl Herndl]Introduction[Derek G. Ross]Part I: Framing1. Proof and Fluid Topics: Topic-Driven Environmental Rhetoric in Modern Society[Derek G. Ross]2. Scientist as Hero, Technology as the Enemy: Commonplaces about Science in Environmental Discourses[Denise Tillery]3. Granola-Eating, Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree Huggers Who Want to Take Your Guns: Commonplaces of the Environmentalist[Beth Jorgensen]Part II: Place4. Climate Crisis Made Manifest: The Shift From a Topos of Time To a Topos of Place[Esben Bjerggaard Nielsen]5. Victims "in" and Protectors "of" Appalachia: Place and the Common Topic of Protection in Missing Mountains: We Went to the Mountaintop, but it Wasn’t There[Joshua P. Ewalt and James G. Cantrill]6. Remembering the Alamo: Commonplaces in Texas Water Policy Arguments[Ken Baake]Part III: Risk and Uncertainty7. Reconstituting Causality: Accident Reports as Posthuman Documentation[Daniel Richards]8. Toward an Apparent Decolonial Feminist Rhetoric of Risk[Angela M. Haas and Erin A. Frost]9. Designing Doubt: The Tactical Use of Uncertainty in Hydraulic Fracturing Debates[Jacqueline N. Kerr]Part IV: Sustainability10. Sustainability and Sustainable Development: The Evolution and Use of Confused Notions[Cynthia R. Haller]11. The Three Pillars of Sustainability as a Special Topic of Invention in the Marketing Discourse of Plastic-Packaging Companies[Edward A. Malone and Shristy Bashyal]

"Topic-Driven Environmental Rhetoric is a deliberate and superb collection of argument analysis on environmental matters. I found this anthology to be a page-turner, because I appreciated the inclusion of chapters on high profile environmental matters that are difficult to understand through mainstream media alone, and the thorough research, background, and analysis covered by each contributor that helped me understand the complexities of those issues. The unique, topic-driven argument angle clearly demonstrated how such arguments shape global politics on many issues that have definite effects on our lives now and will affect the future. I highly recommend this book for technical communication scholars, graduate students, and practitioners." --Diane Martinez, Western Carolina University