The Nature of Warrants Grounded in Experience

In risky environments, warrants for risk decisions are literally grounded in material sites where knowledge is mined or extracted from local experience and transformed into writing.  

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The present analysis focuses on representations of roof support because roof control represents one of the most dangerous and uncertain aspects of safety in a coal mine. To help readers understand the uncertainties inherent in roof control, I have provided a brief overview of three methods of roof support in U.S. and British mines. This overview will set the stage for a more theoretical discussion of the nature of warrants grounded in experience, the effect of warrants on risk decisions and risk outcomes, the rhetorical incompleteness of written instructions and procedures, and finally, the textual dynamics of disaster. In the conclusion, I look at the implications of this analysis for writers and rhetorical theorists. 

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