ethical consideration

Ethical Technical & Professional Communication ENGL 2311

Ethics

Ethics

WHY DISCUSS ETHICS? • If we clearly understand our actions, we can clearly communicate our motives to others • If we don’t clearly understand our actions, we may not be able to clearly communicate to others or persuade them to support our decisions or consider our reasoning

Dombrowski, P. (2000). Ethics in Technical Communication. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Focus Point

Ethics are rarely clear cut, and decisions are not always

simple.

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Understanding Ethics Helps Us To • Justify reasoning • Consider right action • Consider implications • Consider different options • Demonstrate awareness of real-world constraints

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To Make Ethical Choices, Consider • Professional Code of Ethics

• National Nurse’s Association • Association of Teachers of Technical Writing • National Society of Professional Engineers

• Company Code of Ethics • Texas Health Resources • Tarrant County College • Lockheed Martin

• Personal Ethics

Anderson, P. (2017). Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach. Boston, MA: Cengage.

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To Make Ethical Choices, Consider (cont.) • Who is directly impacted by the choice? • Who is indirectly impacted by the choice? • Who may eventually be impacted by the choice?

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HOW CAN I ENSURE I’M ETHICAL IN MY WRITING?

• Include only accurate, credible, and complete information • Do not claim ownership of someone else’s work • Recognize your own (conscious and subconscious) perspectives as well as those of others • Consider how those perspectives are informed • Refrain from stereotyping • Ensure accessibility • Remember the human

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Focus Point 2

“Clear is Kind” -Brene Brown

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Ensure Integrity • Make sure that all information you include is true and complete • Claim ownership only for what is yours. Be aware of:

• Patents - Items whose credit for creation is protected • Trademarks - Company names (WalMart), logos (the Target bulls-eye), or slogans (I'm lovin' it)

• Copyright law - Items whose distribution is protected by law (books, movies, or software)

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Ensure Accessibility Be intentional. • Use elements that assist all audiences in accessing, finding, and using information • Visual and typographic cues • Alt-text, captions, preset styles

• Use words with only one meaning (including connotation) • “awesome” generally has a positive connotation • “amazing” may have a positive or negative connotation

• Use standard nomenclature/naming • “essay” for essays rather than “essay” in some areas and “paper” in others

• Use shared metaphors • Use idioms only if you are sure all audiences understand them

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Ensure Cultural Competence First, be aware of your own perspective, what informs it, and how that impacts how you interact with others.

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Ensure Cultural Competence (cont.) Understanding Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions can help you to understand both your own perspective as well as what your audiences may think, feel, and believe. • Power Distance (how power is shared/relationships between individuals in a power structure)

• Individualism (whether focus is on the individual or the collective/community)

• Masculinity (what values are considered masculine or feminine and how much either matters)

• Uncertainty Avoidance (comfort level with ambiguity)

• Long-term Orientation (balance of traditions and progress)

• Indulgence (what delay in reward may be acceptable/comfortable)

While these dimensions can be helpful, make sure not to stereotype. Click here for Hofstede source

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Remember the Human • Your audience are humans who think, feel, and believe

• All of your writing and design impacts other humans and should be HUMANIZED.

• Ways to humanize visual displays: • Use pictographs • Use photographs or drawings of humans in conjunction with bar or line graphs

Dragga, Sam & Voss, Dan. (2001). Cruel Pies: The Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations. Technical Communication. 48. 265-274.

MWMR, 2020 April 14;69(early release): 1-5

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Remember the Human (cont.) DEHUMANIZING language or language that FACILITATES DEHUMANIZATION should not be used This excerpt from a Geheime Reichssache (Secret Reich Business) memo written by a Nazi beauracrat for his boss describes lighting recommendations for vehicles used to transport people to concentration camps like Auschwitz:

“The lighting must be better protected than now. The lamps must be enclosed in a steel grid to prevent their being damaged. Lights could be eliminated, since they apparently are never used. However, it has been observed that when the doors are shut, the load always presses hard against them as soon as darkness sets in.”

The “load” referred to is the humans who were being transported to the concentration camps. The memo uses objective language that makes dehumanizing decisions possible.

Excerpt from: Katz, S. B. (1992). The ethic of expediency: Classical rhetoric, technology, and the Holocaust. College English , 54(3), 255-275

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Use Accessible Language Be intentional. • Use words with only one meaning (including connotation)

• “awesome” generally has a positive connotation • “amazing” may have a positive or negative connotation

• Use standard nomenclature/naming • “essay” for essays rather than “essay” in some areas and “paper” in others

• Use shared metaphors • Use idioms only if you are sure all audiences understand them

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Place warnings appropriately

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WHAT DO I DO IF I THINK SOMETHING IS UNETHICAL?

• Ask questions • Be helpful in revealing ethical practices (facts and reason) • Remain open to others’ ideas

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Case Example – Computer Crush Harris, C. E. Jr., Pritchard, M. S., & Rabins, M. J. (2004). Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases. Wadsworth.

A programmer is asked to write a program that will raise and lower a large X-ray device. He writes and tests his program. It successfully and accurately moves the device from the top of the support pole to the top of the table. The program is installed. Later, an X-ray technician tells a patient to get off the table after an X-ray is taken. The technician then sets the height of the device to “table-top height.” The patient, however, does not hear the technician and is crushed under the weight of the machine.

• What would you do if you were the technician? The technician’s employer? The programmer? The person who designed the documentation?

• If you were in any of those roles attempting to prevent this from happening, what could you do to ensure that the human on the table was considered? How would you do that?

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Case Example – WHO Graphic

Say you are in charge of posting this graphic from the World Health Organization to its Twitter. You know that the information is important to share quickly, but you are not sure that the graphic will reach its target audience because of the language level used.

WHO. (2020, March 18). [Tweet]. Retrieved from This twitter feed

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Ethics Decision Checklist Consider: • What is the ethical dilemma? • What specifically is making you uncomfortable? • What are your competing obligations in this dilemma? • What advice does a trusted supervisor or mentor offer? • Does your company's code of conduct address this issue? • Does your professional association's code of conduct address this issue?

• What are you unwilling to do? What are you willing to do? • How will you explain or justify your decision?

Ethics and Technical Communication From WikiBooks. Located at: this link.. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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TAKEAWAYS • Rely on ethical guidelines from your profession and organization as well as your own ethics • Consider stakeholders • Ensure integrity, accessibility, and cultural competence • Consider your own and other’s perspectives and biases • Use resources thoughtfully • Design intentionally • HUMANIZE • Ask questions, use facts/reason, and remain open • Others?

Questions? Contac t you r i n s t ruc to r.

Ethics