RH 330 Technical Communication

RH 330 Technical Communication

Group Work

Ethos and Persona: Sherron Watkins and Enron

The case of Sherron Watkins and Enron is an excellent illustration of the development of ethos through a series of written documents. Your work today will help you determine Sherron Watkin’s persona as she establishes it in her original letter to Ken Lay and how it evolves in two subsequent articles about her, in the New York Times article (January 16, 2002) and in the Time magazine piece (December 30, 2002).

Several definitions will help you in your work today. You are already familiar with “ethos,” the character of the writer, the writer’s integrity, competency, and/or credibility. “Persona,” coming from the Latin word for the mask used by actors in the classical theater, usually refers to the first-person narrator, the “I” of a novel or poem. This “I” is not necessarily the author. Finally, the term “whistleblower” refers to any act of “disclosing information that you reasonably believe is a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety” (from the Federal Whistleblower Protection Act).

1. Introduce yourself to the members of your group. Select one person to act as recorder for the group. Be sure to turn in your group work at the end of class today.

1. Review the pertinent sections of the original letter to Ken Lay. Using specific evidence from the letter, create a description of Watkins’ persona. What kind of person is she? What is her motivation for writing the letter? What is her relationship to the company and to Ken Lay? How does she establish ethos for herself as the writer of the letter?

1. Compare the persona you identify in Watkins’ letter to the persona created in the New York Times article. Using specific evidence from the article, create a description of Watkins’ character. What kind of person emerges from the newspaper article? What is her motivation for writing the letter? What ethos does the article create for her? Is this persona and ethos different from what Watkins establishes for herself in her letter?

1. Finally, compare your first two descriptions with the persona of Watkins that emerges in the Time article. Is this the first point at which Watkins is called a “whistleblower”? How does such a label revise the persona developed in the two earlier documents? What information in the article seems to contradict the persona created in earlier documents?