Harty 347-381

And Now a Word (or Two or Three About Ethics)
- All business and technical writing must not only meet the needs of its intended audiences and follow a process approach, but it must also adhere to the strictest ethical and legal standards.
Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators
Challenger- Why did those who knew the problem not convince those in power to stop the launch?
1) managers and engineers viewing the same facts from different perspectives
2) the general difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news when it must be passed to superiors or outsiders
- communication is shared interpretation not facts
Physical cause of the accident
- failure of a rubber seal in the solid rocket booster
- failure should not have been unexpected
Early Responses to Bad News: Disbelief and Failure to Send Upward
- could admit that there was a problem, as long as it could be blame on someone else
- early signs of O-ring problems were pass relayed to NASA
Continued Bad News Rejection Despite Contradictory Evidence
- optimistic view persisted
- July 1985- no other flights would take place until O-ring erosion at the nozzle joint had been fixed or shown not to be a problem
The Split between Managers and Engineers
- information was not communicated and launch was scheduled anyway
- it was rescheduled a day later and temp was 17 degrees below any other launch
Conclusion
- no one at MTI or Marshall wanted to believe the growing evidence of O-ring problems
- even when MTI engineers came to believe that a problem existed, they had a difficult time convincing their management, with its different perspective on operations, to interpret the facts in the same light
- both engineers and managers at MTU were especially reluctant to communicate bad news to those outside the company
How to Lie with Statistics
- used to sensationalize
- You can prove about anything you want to by letting your sample bias itself
Truncated graphs- you can chop off the bottom or other data to deceive people
well-chosen average- mean vs. median
The insignificant Difference or the elusive error- ignoring the error in a sample study can lead to all kinds of silly conclusions
- when you use decimals, it sounds like you know the exact number for sure
- unwarranted assumptions: smoking produces dull minds; not actually related
Determining the Ethics of Style-
- Ethics is the study of right and wrong conduct
- guiding philosophy
Ethics and The Professions
Computer Ethics
1) Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
2) Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
3) Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.
4) Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
5) Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
6) Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid
7) Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.
8) Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9) Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you are designing.
10) Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that insure consideration and respect for fellow humans.
Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing
- verify permission to reprint
- use symbols
- one can own intellectual property
Copyright- original work of authorship
- copyright is automatic as soon as a work exists in fixed form and protectino does not require a notice or registration
libel- defamatory statement without basis in fact that shames or lowers the public reputation of an identifiable person