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. No good in unethical writing habits. Does your company’s code of conduct address this issue? (See chapter 10 for more information on ethical research principles.). This particular article did not state any companies that have been convicted, but have informed that such actions do take place. 7. Technical manipulation. Individuals can behave unethically, as can businesses, professionals and politicians. This means that any document from memos and emails to proposals and studies can be subject to revision by a court of law. I wouldn’t work for an essay mill because of the pay, but if a college student wants me to write their essay directly and will pay me my $50 per hour rate at least, I’m happy to do it! For example, a hacker might redirect the donation system of a non profit organization and have the money sent to an offshore account controlled by the hacker. Liability and contract laws can vary by country. Such calculations may make it easier for you to look away and let someone else deal with it, but with a friend, you would be willing to risk some short-term awkwardness to do the right thing. It is easy to get caught up in the facts and forget all the people involved. If you fail to incorporate all of the appropriate documentation for your client or fail to submit important evidence, much like a beta copy, it becomes unethical. Moreover, when your writing is authentically yours, your audience will catch your enthusiasm, and you will feel more confident in the material you produce. This lie, though minor, preserves your friend’s feelings and does no apparent harm to them or anyone else. What will you do when you witness unfair, demeaning, and unethical behavior? So here are some examples of technical documents that you might be expected to write as a technical writer: User guides; Installation Guides As a guideline, ask yourself what would happen if your action (or non-action) became entirely public, and started trending on social media, got its own hashtag, and became a meme picked up by the national media. However, nothing is ever easy when it comes to ethical dilemmas. Falsifying or fabricating data. In either case, weighing the costs, and having a strong value system would help you feel like you did the right thing, especially upon reflection after the event. It has been a pleasure to work with you this semester and to have you in class. When writing persuasively, do not write something that can cause the reader to believe something that is not true. The following are links to the examples and models of the kinds reports, letters, and other documents discussed in this book. Unfortunately, examples of bad, biased, or unethical uses of AI are commonplace. Summary. Wal-mart is well-known for their unethical business practices concerning employees. Technical writing is required in every field in order to ensure that that field is acting ethically by communicating information clearly and accurately to the appropriate audiences in a way that it is replicable in its understanding and theories. Do not persuade people to do what is not in their best interest. For example, use a salutation like “Dear Ms. X” (external) or “Hi Barry” (internal). Technical writing is a specialized form of exposition: that is, written communication done on the job, especially in fields with specialized vocabularies, such as science, engineering, technology, and the health sciences. Presumably, the engineers were trying to present … If the bar graph above were to represent sales figures for a company, the representation on the left would look like good news: dramatically increased sales over a five-year period. Is it your responsibility to tell the truth (and potentially save children’s lives) or to cherry pick information that supports the parent group’s initial intentions? They can also be held liable if a consumer is injured or damages occur. Contract Law is an agreement between two entities. Search for: Ethics and Technical Communication. There are a number of reasons why a company may face a lawsuit or a recall. 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. For example, a hacker might redirect the donation system of a non profit organization and have the money sent to an offshore account controlled by the hacker. The hardest part may be simply raising the issue with your co-workers and/or supervisor. When crafting your communication, think about who will be affected by what you say and how you say it. With the ease of acquiring graphics on the internet, it has become ever more tempting to simply copy and paste images from a search engine. Examples of Unethical Behavior Unethical behavior is an action that falls outside of what is considered morally right or proper for a person, a profession or an industry. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Technical Writing by Allison Gross, Annemarie Hamlin, Billy Merck, Chris Rubio, Jodi Naas, Megan Savage, and Michele DeSilva is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. The material was edited for tone, content, and localization. Was it a phrase, sentence, chapter, or an entire piece of work? Many products are recalled for potential safety concerns, even if no one was actually hurt. Instead, you might stay back and call the police. How so? It is not only ethical to follow these rules, it is an enforced law. 1. Module 5: Visuals. Acting ethically is rarely rewarded from the outside – you are not likely to be congratulated by your boss and co-workers for passing on an opportunity to undermine the competition in an unethical manner. How will you explain or justify your decision? But in this context, it means the detailed discussion of the physical aspects of a thing. More than 70 percent of managers think that the most common example of unethical behavior is when employees lie to cover up a mistake they've done, or take shortcuts in work tasks. If you are a technical writer researching and writing a report within a specific professional field, you will also need to be aware to that field’s codes of ethics. If all people that needed to be informed of the philosophical concepts he was discussing, especially those that were enlightened and he didn’t make it comprehendible or accessible to them that would be poor technical writing. Only by learning who these stakeholders are can you assure that you are treating them in accordance with your own ethical values. The chapter provides some practical information on how to make sure your writing is ethical and how to handle ethical dilemmas along with possible legal issues in the workplace. Make sure all stakeholders are considered and cared for when writing a persuasive document. Using a variety of sources helps the writer avoid potential bias that can occur from relying on only a few experts. The intention may be good, but breaching ethics results in a slippery slope – one that often leads to further and larger ethical breaches. Technical writing is performed by a technical writer (or technical author) and is the process of writing and sharing technical information in a professional setting. What are the specific aspects of this dilemma that make you uncomfortable? The most common examples of technical writing are: User manuals software installation guides Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Service Level Agreements (SLA) Request for Proposal (RFP) legal disclaimers; company documents annual reports and Help files. With a strong set of ethical values, you will be better prepared to make the right decision and stick to your principles when faced with an ethical dilemma. Finally, in economics if you leave out steps that you took to divulge a model, or don’t test the model enough times to determine it’s accuracy it is poor technical writing. 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. Patents and trademarks are company names (WalMart), logos (the Target bullseye), processes or slogans (McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it”) that belong to a person or company. Can email communications be used without permission? This chapter is designed to introduce you to the basics of report writing. : 4 A technical writer's primary task is to communicate technical information to another person or party in the clearest and most effective manner possible. 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. After creating the technical report, the researcher submits it to the project’s sponsor. (See chapter 10 for more on research.). You collect a handful of sources that support the group’s goal, but then you discover convincing medical evidence that indicates vaccines do more good than potential harm in society. Their feelings and livelihood must be considered with every appropriate document you create. Likewise, you can customize a Google image search so that only images that are open source will come up. This is particularly helpful for written materials that will be professionally published. In this chapter, you will learn about some of the ethical challenges that you may encounter in your professional and academic life, especially when it comes to technical writing. The technical reports are essential document […] Is the author identifiable and do they have appropriate credentials? Whether it is covering for someone who shows up late or altering a time sheet, misusing company time tops the list. Joanie on May 8th, 2013 - 12:09pm . Technical writing is not a place for elegant and dense prose. There should not be a plot twist or surprise ending — just clear steps, info, and examples. Imagine that these pie charts represented donations received by four candidates for city council. With a stranger, your calculations may include how the stranger might respond to the interruption, and both of you may feel some embarrassment in the exchange. Some unethical services will spray your link in the comment sections of blogs. Many ethical lapses that occur in the workplace are not so obvious, and they often begin with good intentions – for example, a manager or owner of a business may commit financial fraud to avoid laying off employees. In a technical report that contains research, a writer might discover conflicting data that does not support the project’s goal. In the former case, if you valued physical courage above all else, you might be willing to step into a fight to protect a victim. Liability Law helps companies and organizations act responsibly. In day-to-day life, most people have a sort of sliding scale on what constitutes ethical behavior. Or when a Bill is being voted on if the package isn’t examined for potential … A procedure should have no more than 10 steps. It’s not about writing a mystery novel. Creative Commons is an organization that has developed guidelines to allow people to “share their knowledge and creativity.” They provide “free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to make a simple and standardized way to give the public permission to share and use” creative work (“What we Do” https://creativecommons.org/about/). You can query multiple journals for sub… Chapter 3: Team Work and Collaborative Writing. In addition, and most importantly, cite sources accurately so as to give credit to another person’s ideas if you are able to use them. Ethics in Technical Communication Chapter written by Dr. Tamara Powell Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. There are a number of options (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/) that a creator has in regards to how they want to set up permissions, but the idea is that these works are free for anyone to use; they are open source. Suppressing knowledge the user/buyer needs. Is quarterly growth and expanding jobs more serious than the risk of future health problems and a degraded environment? Learn how to improve your skills when writing complex documents, and define technical writing. In this situation, what would you do, and why? The unethical feature was that the crucial information about the O-rings was buried in a middle paragraph, while information approving the launch was in prominent beginning and ending spots. Technical Writing Resume Summary Samples. Now I just need some evidence to prove I am right!” This is one version of confirmation bias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias) – where people tend to favor evidence that supports their preconceived notions and reject evidence that challenges their ideas or beliefs. Using a large section of your report to prove an already established principle implies that you are saying something new about the principle—which is not true. Follow Published on Mar 18, 2010. Sample of patent specification – the official portal of intellectual. You cannot just slap a URL under a picture, but rather you need to give full credit with an appropriate citation. You give me hope. 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. They need to explain, based off of previous actions which were taken, citing specific areas of the Constitution and other court cases which helped them to draw their conclusions, and then explain thoroughly how those logical conclusions were drawn. You probably think about technical writing in relation to communicating technical information clearly in an accessible format that meets the needs of its audience. In business, image is everything. Unethical writing is usually guilty ofone or more of the three M’s: misquotation, misrepresentation, andmanipulation. Or when a Bill is being voted on if the package isn’t examined for potential problems and run through analysis and regressions to determine the outcome and if it is economically feasible and replicable in all the states then it is poor technical writing. 5 Most Common Unethical Behaviors in the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) Survey . To write ethically, you must also identify another group of people: the individuals who will gain or lose because of your message. Any written document in your own company is copyrighted by law once produced. Definition Technical writing is a type of writing where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation. The main point is clear. 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. You need to be extra vigilant to avoid misleading your readers with graphics. Technical Writing can have many ethical issues. However, that would cost the company more money, and may affect profit margins, result in slower growth, and provide fewer jobs for the locals. Examples of Unethical Behavior; Citing Your Work Using APA Style; How to Act Ethically One of the best ways to be an ethical researcher is to choose to act in honest ways. Thus, a simple change in perspective can change the impact of an image. Was it taken from something published or unpublished? Look for the codes of ethics in your own discipline and begin to read and understand what will be expected of you as a professional in your field. With technical writing, the focus is on providing hard facts that are backed up with verifiable information. Researchers at the Institute of Leadership and Management in the UK asked 1600 managers what they think is unethical behavior in a workplace. If the person using another’s material did so to profit from it. It is important to address these when creating documents, projects, or any other kind of medium for a business. This page will help you to identify specific types of academic misconduct and give you tips on how to … You discover, however, that to bring in such an expert is cost prohibitive. I have written for grocery store website, apparels website, tyre manufacturing company and many more. 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., http://www.stc.org/about-stc/ethical-principles). Others, you keep adding to your portfolio as you keep learning on the job, depending on the needs of your employer or clients. Technical writing assignments normally take one of three forms: 1. One of the main reasons a company gets involved in a lawsuit is because the directions to the company’s product were not clear to the consumer. However, sometimes speaking up, and/or notifying authorities is the only right thing to do, as difficult as that may be. Think, for example, of a recipe you get in a meal-delivery kit. It can determine how a case will end. 10 Unethical Famous Examples #1: Enron The energy company's bankruptcy in 2001 after allegations of massive accounting fraud wiped out $78 billion in stock market value and led to the collapse of Arthur Andersen and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Whether they are a student or a professional, writing is a communication medium that they will have to master to be able to effectively answer the many needs that their current position asks them to perform. If you leave out certain terms in a contract which were verbally communicated it becomes unethical. This is a great example of unethical research and the affect it has. Graphics will usually be the first thing a reader notices about your document; if a reader finds your graphics misleading, your entire document may be called into question. Advanced Examples of Technical Documentation . Which choice is really more ethical? In a far more serious situation, a person might not risk their lives to help a stranger, but they might risk their lives to help a close friend or relative. What do you do? Be cautious when using figures, charts and tables, making sure they visually represent quantities with accuracy and honesty. explanations and simplifying them for the average reader and layperson ( Log Out / There is some crossover on this list with the Top 10 Evil Human Experiments. That is another reason why it is important to give some serious thought to your own value system and how it may fit into the value systems of the exemplars your admire and respect. Break all procedures into sequential steps. See chapter 10 for more information on appropriately documenting your research. The unethical feature was that the crucial information about the O-rings was buried in a middle paragraph, while information approving the launch was in prominent beginning and ending spots. Be a wise information consumer in your own reading and research in order to build your reputation as an honest, ethical writer. Presumably, the engineers were trying to present a full report, including safe components in the Challenger, but the memo’s audience—non-technical managers—mistakenly believed the O-ring problem to be inconsequential, even if it happened. Simply asking questions can be an effective way of bringing attention to your company’s problems. On the other hand, putting a minor point in a prominent spot (say the first item in a bulleted list in a report’s executive summary) might be a manipulative strategy to emphasize information that is not terribly important. 3. Along with business writing, technical writing is often subsumed under the heading of professional communication. As you put together professional documents and begin working in the “real” world, you must understand what could easily lead to your downfall in your professional workplace. 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