“Like Salvo and Rosinski, Brooke argues for the place of rhetoric in a world of new media; however, Brooke also notes how that place will need to be revised in light of the possibilities of new media. He states, that the development of a rhetoric of new media must avoid “examining the choices that have already been made by writers” and instead concentrate on preparing writers to ‘make our own choices’ (15). I see this claim as something reflection on Salvo and Rosinski’s work in that it recognizes that we must, as technical communicators, continue to examine the choices made by document designers; however, the new world of information design will also expect us to be able to ‘make our own choices’ concerning document design and deployment.

In other words, I guess what I’m wondering is if the focus on choice here isn’t a way to highlight the re-appropriation of information rather than the invention of information in the most traditional sense of the word. While I’m over-simplifying the process that Carliner points to, for example, as information design, I can’t help but see in the process of information design a kind of arrangement rather than a composition. Am I even close to a direction that gets me somewhere good?