The Rhetorical Incompleteness of Written Instructions

Before miners install roof bolts, they must inspect the roof, testing for loose rock and other signs that the roof might be unstable. Chapter 3 of the U.S. Department of Labor s Roof and Rib Control Manual provides a carefully ordered list of instructions for examining the roof and ribs  

make a visual examination of the area. Examine closely for cracks, slips, kettle bottoms, horsebacks, or irregular formation. If you can see the roof is bad, stand clear and don t try to test further. 

Always stand under supported roof when testing. 

Always use an appropriate testing tool in making these tests. 

4- Test only far enough to erect the next supports in unsupported areas. 

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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. 

If Libby lacks a language to express her embodied experience, it is also possible that trainers did not provide a language that could provide an adequate representation of the process. Written instructions without gesture are rhetorically incomplete—like Libby s sing-song chant—unless writers can capture the dynamic, imagistic constructions of experience that are expressed more naturally in gesture. 

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