| Research in the development and deployment of operator's manuals suggests that if users do not have enough common sense to make sense of the manual, then no manual will facilitate the proper, safe use of the tool or technology. The question of safe use, amplified by dynamic environments of risk, but ignored in most research due to a focus on static-system manuals, becomes a central ethical concern in the composing of operator's manuals for farm workers. In my study of manuals for John Deere tractors and combines, I examine the use of safety cartoons to communicate risk and denaturalize users' common sense. I argue that the declining reliance on safety cartoons in agricultural manuals provides an example of dangers in certain technical communication practices, which leaves users unaware of life-threatening risks present in the operation of machinery. |
