It's My Birthday!! Lets Talk About Ethics...

These articles in the last section of the book cover a wide range of ethical issues.

One concern is the perversion of statistical information. At first, I was unsure how any of the statistics given could possibly be right. Yale graduates making only 25,000 a year!? Of course, this article doesn't take into account inflation since 1954. In 2007, 25,000 dollars is equal to approximately 190,000 dollars. How ironic that an article discussing misleading statistics gives us one, albeit unintentionally. I can see why many writers and editors would want to include these skewed statistics. They obvious could give any subject or opinion more clout. However, I disagree with the fact that bad statistical information can not be pinned on a writer. After all, after the Reader's Digest where the predict the wrong man for a presidential election (who ended up only winning 1 state), I am sure people were fired. The writer is one of the many responsible parties.

Jones article laid out some helpful guidelines for ethical writing, including legality, honesty, confidentiality, quality, fairness, and professionalism. I think this is a good guide for almost any profession. To me, the most important ethical dilemmas for a technical writer can be summed up in: follow laws and don't misrepresent the truth. If you break a law, such as copyrights, you are stealing, could lose a job, and could be sued. All avoidable consequences!

Rude's article can be summarized fairly simply. Always ensure you have a legal right to use someone else's property, intellectual or otherwise. Look into copyright and trademark information and its coverage.

Of course, the article on the Challenger is something this class is already familiar with. The dilemma here is that no one would step up, or whisteblow, in order to stop something harmful from happening. I think they put business before other priorities and ethics.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi