Most ethics violations in technical writing are (probably) unintentional, BUT they are still ethics violations. These are important aspects of technical writing, to be sure, but they really only represent the surface of what you need to know. If a company develops a vaccine that everyone needs, should everyone get access to it? Like other professionals, technical writers come up against . Ethical writing, then, involves being ethical, of course, but also presenting information so that your target audience will understand the relative importance of information and understand whether some technical fact is a good thing or a bad thing. Are the sources popular or scholarly? Unlike personal or academic writing, technical and professional writing can be used to evaluate your job performance and can have implications that a writer may or may not have considered. Ethics emerges when values come into conflict. Additionally, a digital resource is included for each suggestion as well as ideas on how they might be implemented. Research shows bringing in an outside expert, someone who is unfamiliar with the company and the stakeholders, has the potential to impact the greatest change. Many teachers wait for one giant research paper to teach citation. Smartphones? See the Attributions at the end of each chapter.). It is important to consider the answer to these questions before you are faced with a decision that you must make in the moment. But if you use material under a Creative Commons license, including work that you have revised or otherwise built-upon, it is still important to let your readers know that you are using the work of others and to cite the source of the material. What would you do? Citation 2020; Ankersmit Citation 1983).At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that the notion of HiCo, including what it means to be . Legal. A classic example of unethical technical writing is the memo report NASA engineers wrote about the problem with O ring seals on the space shuttle Challenger (the link provides further links to a wide range of information, including ethics analyses; the first link is the overview for what happened). In case you are familiar Ace Writing Center, you know the way to distinguish a better company from a cheap one exactly. This applies to many scenarios, from the classroom to the professional world. It also means that you act to prevent actual harm, with set criteria for what kinds and degrees of harm are more serious than others (for example, someones life outweighs financial damage to your company; your companys success outweighs your own irritation). Do you consider them carefully and change them as you learn? Your goal is to maintain and enhance your credibility, and that of your organization, at all times. There are a few issues that may come up when researching a topic for the business or technical world that a writer must consider. Causing harm to one's good name or character by speaking false and malicious information. Understanding the APA Code of Ethics The American Psychological Association (APA) publishes the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct 1 which outlines aspirational principles as well as enforceable standards that psychologists should use when making decisions. Sins of omission refer to withholding or using inaccurate information in order to benefit a person or company a person represents. Keep in mind the importance of providing appropriate context and perspective as you prepare your graphics. Either you are saying it is a source when in fact you did not really use anything from it, or you have simply failed to clarify in the text what are your ideas and what comes from other sources. What are you willing to do? Students in the Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Bachelor of Arts in English degree programs become better writers through the application of ethical standards and principles in writing. On the other hand, putting a minor point in a prominent spot (say the first item in a bulleted list in a reports executive summary) tells your reader that it is crucial. Using a variety of sources helps the writer avoid potential bias that can occur from relying on only a few experts. Imagine you are researching a report for a parents group that wants to change the policy in the local school district requiring all students to be vaccinated. Moreover, when your writing is authentically yours, your audience will catch your enthusiasm, and you will feel more confident in the material you produce. Executives at Warby Parker, an online prescription glasses retailer, displayed social responsibility by pledging $1 million to organizations and initiatives that focused on combating systemic racism. While plagiarizing may give you a failing grade in a class, plagiarizing in the workplace can not only get you fired, but could result in a costly lawsuit or possibly even jail time. Publications which draw conclusions from manipulated or fabricated . This is essential for success as a writer and person. Can you see why it may be difficult to find clear right answers when making ethical decisions? In preparing any type of writing, you may come across conflicting viewpoints. Imagine working for a large company that employs substantial numbers of people in your town, where relatively few other employment opportunities exist. Or: Why is it important to use the exact words of the author here? Using a large section of your report to prove an already established principle implies that you are saying something new about the principlewhich is not true. For example, lets say you are writing a report for a group of physical therapists on the latest techniques for rehabilitating knee surgery patients. Unethical source use also includes falsifying the nature of the source, such as omitting the page numbers in the Works Cited entry to make a brief note seem to be a full article. Documenting your sources includes showing exactly what you borrowed both where you used it and in a Works Cited, Works, or References (the different terms reflect different documentation systems, not just random preference) list at the end. Emily Hamm is an educator, adjunct instructor, writer, tutor, and freelancer. Our plagiarism checker uses an algorithm to detect statistically similar material. The bar graph on the right, on the other hand, shows the complete picture by presenting numbers from 0-1200 on the vertical axis, and we see that the sales figures, have in fact been relatively stable for the past five years. If you are a technical writer researching and writing a report within a specific professional field, you will also need to be aware of that fields codes of ethics. If so, who should pay for that? It means you practice what you do based upon reasoning, laws, morality, and justice. There are always legal issues to consider when writing a professional document and they reflect in writing style and content. Next, show students how this practice will be caught by running it through a plagiarism checker. On a smaller scale, if one way of presenting evidence requires some manipulation of data but seems to be the only way of keeping sales strong enough for your company to survive, what should you do? In The Big Idea: The Wise Leader, a Harvard Business Review article on leadership and ethical decision-making, Ikujiro Nonaka, a Japanese organizational theorist, and Hirotaka Takeuchi (2011), a professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, discuss the gap between the theory and practice of ethics and the characteristics that make a wise leader. Can You Solve This Dilemma? If you take the ethical route, and sales plummet, few people will recognize the ethical issue, but most will clearly understand that you caused the sales decline. This is not simply about copying words, but also ideas. Courses in Communication ethics, like the one all Communication students take at Saint Vincent, are crucial to help future communication professionals, journalists, PR professionals, and more navigate complex situations with these principles in mind. Writers have an ethical responsibility to readers. Like other professionals, technical writers come up against ethical issues regularly and must make decisions about how to move forward with a project in the face of ethical dilemmas. When in a lawsuit, all documents may be subpoenaed. '? This work "Ethical Considerations in Technical Writing" is derivative of Business Ethics by OpenStax, and Ethical Considerations in Business Writing by Valerie A. On a smaller scale, if one way of presenting evidence requires some manipulation of data but seems to be the only way of keeping sales strong enough for your company to survive, what should you do? Copyright law includes items whose distribution is protected by law (books, movies, or software). If they know that their work will be analyzed for plagiarism through an effective filter, it will keep their citation practices top of mind. There are multiple reasons why it is necessary to adhere to the basic norms of scientific conduct during academic research. On ethical writing A general principle underlying ethical writing is the notion that the written work of an author, be it a manuscript for a magazine or scientific journal, a research paper submitted for a course, or a grant proposal submitted to a funding agency, represents an implicit contract between the author and the readers. In industry, each employee has a choice in making an ethical or unethical decision. A writer must consider a variety of issues that may arise when researching a topic for the business or technical world. Just as you have a responsibility in business to be honest in selling your product of service and avoid cheating your customers, so you have a responsibility in business writing to be honest in presenting your ideas, and the ideas of others, and to avoid cheating your readers with plagiarized material. Any time you find you cannot apply documentation principles, consider whether you are using the source(s) unethically. These are just a few of the many examples. Depending on the creation, the attribution is valid in various forms. Unlike personal or academic writing, technical and professional writing can be used to evaluate your job performance and can have implications that a writer may or may not have considered. Ethical writing, then, involves being ethical, of course, but also presenting information so that your target audience will understand the relative importance of information and understand whether some technical fact is a good thing or a bad thing. June 2023; May 2023; April 2023; March 2023; February 2023; January 2023; Giving credit where credit is due will build your credibility and enhance your document. By upholding these standards, you can become a better writer and champion for honest and ethical writing. Be a wise information consumer in your own reading and research in order to build your own reputation as an honest, ethical writer. Any and all other uses are forbidden. Thanks to Eleanor Sumpter-Latham, Humanities/Writing Professor at Central Oregon Community College (COCC) for contributing to this chapter. 1). These include integrity, respect, trust, fairness, transparency, and honesty. If you feel these are important questions, then you are interested in ethics! https://www.oercommons.org/courses/bt-writing/view. Readers assume authors are the originators of written works, unless stated otherwise. On ethical writing. Decisions surrounding the credibility of sources. Accessibility StatementFor more information contact us atinfo@libretexts.org. Question: Does acting ethically mean the same thing as being a good person? Credibility can be established through many means: using appropriate professional language, citing highly respected sources, providing reliable evidence, and using sound logic. Presumably, the engineers were trying to present a full report, including safe components in the Challenger, but the memos audiencenon-technical managersmistakenly believed the O ring problem to be inconsequential, even if it happened. Which choice is really more ethical? Unethical source use includes suppressing information about how you have used a source, such as not making clear that graphical information in your report was already a graph in your source, as opposed to a graph you created on the basis of information in the source. Crime? Definition, Examples, What is a Bibliographic Citation? You struggle with whether to leave this information out of your report, thereby encouraging your employer to pursue an action that is really not feasible. The purpose of a law is to establish and maintain a functioning society. These can then be integrated into Keynote, PowerPoint or Google Slides, which makes implementing a bell-ringer or exit slip strategy very simple. All of these things did not happen by chance. Can email communications be used without permission? YouTube. Causing harm to one's reputation or character by communicating false and malicious information. It enables companies to identify weaknesses in their existing security infrastructure and implement robust defense mechanisms. . (Note: This link was viable at the time of publication; it may be inoperable now.). Are they peer reviewed by experts in the field? These are important aspects of technical writing, to be sure, but they really only represent the surface of what you need to know. Visuals can be useful for communicating data and information efficiently for a reader. Its two-fold: they must have both understanding and ability. What is a Citation in Writing? Whatever hopes you have for your future, you almost certainly want to be successful in whatever career you choose. How business data analytics is transforming healthcare, Saint Vincents Participation in the 2022 Great Backyard Bird Count, Rounding out communication skills with animation, graphics, and media. Why? Unethical source use includes suppressing information about how you have used a source, such as not making clear that graphical information in your report was already a graph in your source, as opposed to a graph you created based on information in the source material. In a technical report that contains research, a writer might discover conflicting data which does not support the projects goal. Because of the fast-paced nature . The visual below shows two perspectives of information in a pie chart. Are open web sources just as valid as academic sources for certain topics? Here's how to do it: 1. Are open web sources just as valid as academic sources for certain topics? ethical Some might consider the context before determining how to act. If you are a technical writer and you join a professional associations such as the Society of Technical Communicators you will need to be aware their codes of ethics, published online (e.g. As the trolley problem shows, decisions can be complex. What do you do? That is why, in addition to understanding the ethical principles surrounding ethical decision-making, communication professionals must truly understand the work that goes into accurate reporting. It establishes the levels of honesty, empathy, trustworthiness, and other virtues that identify your personal behavior and your public reputation. All rights reserved. Including an item only in the source list at the end suggests you have used the source in the report, but if you have not cited this source in the text as well, you could be seen as misleading the reader. . This lie, though minor, preserves your friends feelings and does no harm to him or anyone else. If you are writing about what you researched, make sure you are citing the sources of your information and giving credit to all the necessary researchers. "Work Ethic (1 of 2)" by Brett Jordan is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Is the author identifiable and does s/he have appropriate credentials? The communication professional must carry both the understanding of ethical principles and the strict adherence to these values, as well as the ability to adhere to them through media literacy, research, fact-checking, and analytical skills. Archives. Up to this point, you have probably been thinking about technical writing in relation to communicating technical information clearly in an accessible format that meets the needs of its audience. It is important to ethically use the resources you gather for your own project, paper, or research. From a business writing perspective, effective writers: Plagiarizing is misrepresenting the source or facts, most commonly when you claim the ideas you are writing about are yours. Research ethics or norms promote the "knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error" (p. . Thus, professional ethics guides the conduct by which technical writers abide by laws, regulations, and policies. Do nothing at all? Intruding in the business records of employees or stakeholders. You collect a handful of sources that support the groups goal, but then you discover medical evidence that indicates vaccines do more good than potential harm in society. The Hippocratic Oath, for example, is embraced by most professionals in health care today as an appropriate standard always owed to patients by physicians, nurses, and others in the field. While this office might have access to broader data on the real estate market, as a writer you run the risk of looking biased if you only chose materials from this one source. Are the sources popular or scholarly? A lawsuit is a civil action brought in court. However, it comes with many responsibilities. These guidelines typically influence the way employees and customers alike interact with an organizationin essence, workplace ethics guide how organizations serve their clients and how they treat their employees. Thorough research requires that a writer integrates information from a variety of reliable sources. Presenting data in graphical form can be especially challenging. Resource: https://www.polleverywhere.com/. Taxes? Are the methods and arguments used based on solid reasoning and sound evidence? That is your ethical position. What kinds of support material and sources are ethical to use? Ethics in Technical Writing Like other professionals, technical writers come up against ethical issues regularly and must make decisions about how to move forward with a project in the face of ethical dilemmas. While helping the customer, the clerk may realize that the customer needs more than thirty minutes. You discover, however, that to bring in such an expert is cost prohibitive. What is the proper way to cite this text in [chosen citation] format? If you fail to take careful notes, or the sentence is present in your writing but later fails to get accurate attribution, it can have a negative impact on you and your organization. This chapter will introduce some of the ethical issues that may arise as technical writers research, write, revise, and produce a technical document. What line of the text MUST be quoted directly? Lawsuits also have ramifications for a businesss reputation. How might ethics guide your decision-making and contribute to your achievement of these goals? Spend a few minutes viewing the following website for clarification on copyright, trademark, and registered trademark: United States Patent and Trademark Office. Imagine that the company disposes of its chemical waste in a way that could endanger peoples health. Today, the average company is involved in 400 lawsuits at any given time. If you take the ethical route, and sales plummet, few people will recognize the ethical issue, but most will clearly understand that you caused the sales decline. Tags: ethical standards for creative writing. Kinonen, Amber, et. Effectively, they set out how we expect others to behave, and why. . Arguably, one of the most impactful things teachers can do to fit this critical subject into their curriculum is to take a step back and evaluate the efficiency of their approach. In business, the following breaches pertain to business writing and communication. Below are four actionable suggestions on how teachers can weave ethical writing into content instruction. It is not only ethical to follow these rules, it is an enforced law. Sins of commission refer to unethical actions that include manipulating or changing information to benefit a person or business a person represents. What is ethics and why is it important? The unethical feature was that the crucial information about the O rings (O rings provide a seal) was buried in a middle paragraph, while information approving the launch was in prominent beginning and ending spots. How to Tell Stories in the Digital World 3 Books on Digital Storytelling, How to Find and Develop Your Writing Voice, Carlow Professional Counseling Program Trains Counselors of Tomorrow, An Innovative Way to Address the Teaching Shortage in Early Child Care, The Occupation of Gratitude: Using Positivity to Promote Mental Health with School-Aged Children. With mounting classroom sizes and increasing expectations from parents and administration, there is often little time or energy left to devote to teaching subjects such as plagiarism awareness and proper citation skills, not to mention deeper nuances within the field. Thorough research requires that a writer integrates information from a variety of reliable sources. Distinguish between ethical and legal responsibilities. Should we care about ethics in our lives, in our professions, and/or in our technical writing? What do you notice about how the information is conveyed to the reader in these two charts? SEO writing is more than just using the right keywords; you have to use them in the right places. If students understand quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing as a business as usual situation within a classroom, ethical writing practices will increase. It involves presenting information in a way that is not misleading or deceptive, and it requires writers to consider the consequences of their words on their readers and on the larger world. Ethical use of information means using information ethically and properly. HiCo was created with arguments infused by ethics and involved a shift away from the narrow use of historiography, where people's meaning making and life situations were not taken into account (Edling et al. The ethic of persuasion is input to every human action and behavior. An ethical infraction is a decision that results in an ethical and moral breach. 1 Use titles, headings, and subheadings. Legal responsibility represents practices that are in compliance with local, state, federal, and industry regulations and laws. This trust enables them to believe that when they read something of yours, they are reading an original work and that any outside sources you use will be clearly referenced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xHKxrc0PHg&t=1s. On the other hand, putting a minor point in a prominent spot (say the first item in a bulleted list in a reports executive summary) implies that the item is important. By performing penetration tests and security audits, ethical hackers can help organizations strengthen their cyber defense . They are the result of (See Chapter 2 Technical Writing Style.). It establishes the levels of honesty, empathy, trustworthiness, and other virtues that identify your personal behavior and your public reputation. Some content can be remixed, revised, reworked, or built-upon. However, if students are instructed both formally and informally on when to quote, summarize, and paraphrase, they are more likely to cite their sources correctly on all their assignments. When making a decision, which of these values take priority? When you conduct online research, some source material you locate may be licensed under Creative Commons. The ethics of writing novels about true events is a subject I've touched on in previous blogs.[1]. To build a relationship of trust, consumers rely on the reputation and identity an organization projects. Ethical writing is writing with a level of inclusion, respect, and acknowledgement of diversity. We give credit where it is due by integrating evidence by appropriately quoting or paraphrasing and then using in-text citations and source list entries to credit the source. 4: Ethical Considerations in Technical Writing is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts. Fig. Your goal is to maintain and enhance your credibility, and that of your organization, at all times. and you must use borrowed material primarily as evidence for your own, directly stated ideas. Workplace ethics refers to a specific set of moral and legal guidelines that organizations may abide by. Pollution? It also means that you act to prevent actual harm, with set criteria for what kinds and degrees of harm are more serious than others (for example, someones life outweighs financial damage to your company; your companys success outweighs your own irritation).