Derek G. Ross

Education

PhD, Texas Tech University

About Me

Derek G. Ross is the Hargis Professor of Writing Studies at Auburn University. He works in the Master of Technical and Professional Communication Program in the Department of English where he teaches courses in technical communication, document design, environmental and radical rhetorics, ethics, and editing. His research interests include document design, ethics, and radical and environmental rhetorics. He has been recognized with awards for his teaching, service, outreach, and administration, as well as for his research and writing, and has had numerous grant projects funded. His work has appeared in Technical Communication Quarterly, Communication Design Quarterly, Technical Communication, Written Communication, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Teaching Ethics, and The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, among others. He is the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication (Routledge, 2025) and Topic-Driven Environmental Rhetoric (Routledge, 2017), and co-author of Document Design: From Process to Product in Professional Communication (SUNY, 2025). He is Co-Editor of SUNY’s Studies in Technical Communication series, Co-director of Auburn’s Lab for Usability, Communication, Interaction, and Accessibility (LUCIA), and a past editor of Communication Design Quarterly.

Research Interests

Document design, ethics, and radical and environmental rhetorics

Publications

Books

Kimball, M., & Ross, D. G. (2025). Document design: From process to product in professional communication (2^nd Ed.). SUNY.

Ross, D. G. (Ed.). (2025). The Routledge handbook of ethics in technical and professional communication. Routledge.

Ross, D. G. (Ed.). (2017). Topic-driven environmental rhetoric. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. Honorable Mention for the 2018 CCCC Technical and Scientific Communication Award in the category of Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication.

Book Chapters

Ross, D. G. (2021). (Teaching) ethics and technical communication. In M. J. Klein (Ed.), Effective Teaching of Technical Communication. WAC Clearinghouse, Foundations and Innovations in Technical and Professional Communication. 2022 CCCC Technical and Scientific Communication Award Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication.

Ross, D. G. (2018). Résumé design and career advocacy in a Goodwill Career Center. In G. Agboka and N. Matveeva (Eds.), Citizenship and Advocacy in Technical Communication: Scholarly and Pedagogical Perspectives (pp. 175–198). New York, NY: Routledge.

Ross, D. G. (2016). “We will live to piss on their graves”: Edward Abbey, radical environmentalism, and the birth of Earth First!. In R. D. Besel and B. K. Duffy (Eds.), Green voices: Defending nature and the environment in American civic discourse (pp. 243–273). Albany, NY: SUNY.

Special Issues

Ross, D. G. (Guest Editor). (2015). Ethics (Special Issue). Intercom, May. (Guest editor for the complete issue and guest editor’s introduction.)

Peer Reviewed Articles

Ross, D. G. (2025). Aberrance as expansion: Zines, acceptability ethics, and radical communication in technical & professional communication. Communication Design Quarterly, 13(2), 12–21. DOI: 10.1145/3718970.3718972

Basgier, Christopher, Ross, Derek, Youngblood, Norman E., & Smith, Hannah. (2025). Sustaining user engagement: Programmatic visibility and website usability for cross-curricular literacy programs. Across the Disciplines, 22(1/2), 62-83. https://doi.org/10.37514/ATDJ.2025.22.1-2.04

McGreavy, B., Kelley, S., Ludden, J., Card, D., Cogbill-Seiders, E., Derk, I., Gordon, C., Haynal, K., Krzus-Shaw, K., Parks, M. M., Petts, A., Ross, D. G., & Walker, K. (2020). “No(t) camping”: Engaging intersections of housing, transportation, and environmental justice through critical praxis. Review of Communication 20(2), 119–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2020.1737191

Ross, S. T., Modde, T., Ross, D. G., & Camak, D. (2020). Comparison of aging structures and life history of an historical population of Roundtail Chub (Cyprinidae), in the Yampa River, Colorado. Western North American Naturalist 80(3), Article 10. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol80/iss3/10

Ross, D. G., Oppegaard, B., & Willerton, R. (2019). Principles of place: Developing a place-based ethic for discussing, Debating, and Anticipating Technical Communication Concerns. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 62(1), 4–26. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2018.2867179

Ross, D. G., & Parks, M. (2018). Mutual respect in an ethic of care: A collaborative essay on power, trust, and stereotyping. Teaching Ethics. DOI: 10.5840/tej2018112156

Ross, D. G. (2017). The role of ethics, culture, and artistry in scientific illustration. Technical Communication Quarterly, 26(2), 145–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2017.1287376

Ross, D. G. (2015). Monkeywrenching plain language: Ecodefense, ethics, and the technical communication of ecotage. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 58(2), 154–175. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2015.2425135

Ross, D. G. (2014). Defining “research”: Undergraduate perceptions of research in a technical communication classroom. The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 44(1), 61–99. https://doi.org/10.2190%2FTW.44.1.e

Ross, D. G., & Arnett, E. J. (2013). To do is to learn: The value of hands-on research in an introductory research methods course. Programmatic Perspectives, 5(2), 214–242.

Ross, D. G. (2013). Deep audience analysis: A proposed method for analyzing audiences for environment-related communication. Technical Communication, 60(2), 94–117.

Ross, D. G. (2013). Common topics and commonplaces of environmental rhetoric. Written Communication, 30(1), 91–131. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0741088312465376

Ross, D. G. (2012). Ambiguous weighting and nonsensical sense: The problems of “balance" and “common sense” as decision-making heuristics in environmental rhetoricU33T. Social Epistemology, 26(1), 115–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2011.634530

Ross, D. G. (2011). Environmental rhetoric, ethics, and policy: Teaching engagement. Present Tense, 2(1).

Schwartzman, R., Ross, D. G., & Berube, D. M. (2011). Rhetoric and risk. Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI), 7(1). doi: 10.13008/2151-2957.1087

Ross, D. G. (2009). UArs Dictaminis perverted: The personal solicitation email as a genre. The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 39(1), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.2190%2FTW.39.1.c

Ross, D. G. (2008). Dam visuals: The changing visual argument for the Glen Canyon Dam. The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 38(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.2190%2FTW.38.1.e