Nazi Records- The origin and use of information
-Understanding the ethical issues about how technical information is obtained helps us consider whether or how we should be communicating the information we deal with
The following questions will be addressed:
Should it make any difference to us as communicators how a particular body of information that we might communicate was obtained?
How are ethics and values reflected in our language and in the format of our technical documents?
Should the uses to which our information will likely be put influence our ethical judgment about the communication of that information?
-We will look at how similar issues surround recent revelations about U.S. research on the effects of radiation on humans in the decades just after World War II
-We will also look at how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently dealt with these types of issues
-Technical communication deals with two distinguishing figures of mankind: language and the sense of ethical responsibility
-The “scientific” research on prisoners is widely understood as completely lacking genuine scientific purpose or validity
-The point of the examples is to show that some of the values embedded in the scientific frame of mind can be carried to extremes-with terrible consequences
-Emotional disengagement of the researcher from the research subject, the power and control that differentiate between them, and the superiority of the researcher in which the subject is purposefully kept in the dark about what is going on-we should be careful not to carry these values to extremes
-Technical communicators and the technical documents we produce are not as ethically neutral as we might think-thinking of information as factual knowledge that exists apart form values, politics, and ethics is not accurate, the information has to be accurate and obtained correctly.
-Nazi “medical” research was not science for the sake of science but as a means to accomplish the end of racial persecution and extermination, it was not scientific and technological values at work but racism instead
-Examining how information originated allows us to fully understand all its ethical dimensions
Origination, Dissemination, and Use of Information
-This section briefly reviews the Nazi regime in its racism, its relation to science and medicine, and its trial for crimes against humanity
-The purpose of this is to show that ethical considerations apply not only to the content of the document but also to how the content was obtained and how it will be used
-Objectivism (the excessive and inappropriate treatment of people as objects), impersonalness, and emotional disengagement are the key values in Nazi medical science
-Critics consider these values problematic and cause for serious concern
Nazi Past
-Most of the so-called scientific research was intended to support the Nazi war effort by showing the limits of human endurance (concentration and death camps)
-In our universities today, all scientific research involving people as research subjects has to be reviewed by “human subjects” panels to prevent anything like the Nazi research from happening again
Controversy in the Present
-In recent years, an outcry about Nazi “scientific” information and other information collected unethically has arisen about medical specimens of human organs
-Scandals have arisen over human anatomical samples used in medical education
-Tissue specimens, and skeletons used at several prominent German medical schools came from Nazi prison and death camps
-These specimens likely came from the bodies of deceased Jews who didn’t say whether their bodies could be used or not
-Israelis protested on the circumstances under which the specimens were obtained saying there was no informed consent, no possibility of choosing otherwise, no legitimate reason for the execution, no possibility of protest-nothing we consider basic human rights applied in these cases
-The means by which the samples were obtained should prevent them from being used for any purpose
“Research” Information
-Recently there was interest that a case about Nazi hypothermia experiments could be used to improve survival equipment but others opposed the use of this information because of the suffering and persecution through which it was obtained.
-One side obviously argues that the information should never be used but the other side argues that the information should be used precisely in order to give some purpose to the victim’s suffering as well as to relieve the suffering of those who might benefit from the information
-the hypothermia research was totally unscientific
-The New England Journal of Medicine has taken the position that it will not publish reports of unethical research, regardless of their scientific merit
Values in Nazi Medical “Science”
Traditional View
-Many of these historical treatments take a sociological perspective
-The underemployment of medical school graduates, the depressed economy, and the need for the Nazi regime to legitimate it racial policies were all important factors at work to medicalize the mistreatment of prisoners and patients.
-The healer became the killer and healing became killing
-Rather than accept technical facts and factual statements as absolutely true, we should be aware of how readily they can be transformed by social circumstances
-In the Nazi regime, euthanasia was reinterpreted as putting someone to death in a way that was perceived as human and on the basis of his or her unworthiness to live
-Euthanasia is a “happy death” because it isn’t violent
-“Special Treatment” referred to medical killing, special in the sense of lying outside the mainstream of medicine
Nazi Antiscience
-These horrible activities done in the name of medical science are explained on the basis of the inhumaneness and unethicalness of science itself
-As a result the actions described show science to be essentially unethical and an enemy of basic human values
-Jacques Ellul and Langdon Winner – ethical critics concerned about the apparent indifference of science and technology to traditional values
-When speaking of the Nazi pseudoresearch, science and technology are at best indifferent or oppose conventional human values
-Harrington states that the Nazi regime operated in a state of mind that amounted to not science but antiscience
-The new “holistic” science would yield a new world order in which mankind would be purer, stronger, better, and happier.
-The sick should die, and the strong and healthy should prevail and flourish, according to this perspective, and it was the duty of the new “science” to make the strong, healthy, and dominant even more so.
Research in the United States
-The means by which information and knowledge is obtained can greatly affect its validity and usability
-Scientific knowledge is valuable in its own right for its own sake
-Scientific knowledge can be tainted by the means by which it is obtained even when human suffering is not involved-suffering of animals
-Kant believed that the categorical imperative of ethics applies not only to humans but also to any and all beings capable of reasoned thought
Nazi Technical Memorandum
-Steven Katz – our modern society is heavily influenced by science and technology
-Technological values such as expediency and efficiency have come to completely dominate our society and reshape its entire value system
-As a result, instead of being only a means to pursue worthwhile social goals, technology becomes a goal or end in itself
-We need to consider the social, political, and cultural context in which a document appears.
-For Nazis, the distinction between means and ends became so blurred that what was technically possible came to be sought almost for its own sake – doing something just because you can
Graphical Images
-Another way that underlying values found expression in technical and scientific information and documents was through Nazi race laws
-Aimed at ensuing the purity of the “Aryan” race
-One of the motives behind anti-semitic laws that created the hatred of Jews was the science of superiority of one race over all others
-Led to social problems in society
-Science was then made to serve politics
-Education and research in biological and medical areas came to be controlled by political leaders who would allow only politically correct theories to be taught and practiced and who would not tolerate opposition
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle – his perspective based on virtue and cultivated attitudes would ethically condemn the Nazi regime
Kant – we should treat all other people as we would wish they would treat us under the same universal ethical rules so the persecution and execution of any other people, such as the Nazi regime would be unethical
Utilitarianism – A Utilitarian theorist would not likely approve of the Nazi regime but would be in favor of communicating and using the information
Feminist and Ethics of Care – would find the Nazi regime and its activities completely unethical, they disapprove of Authoritarianism, the Nazis didn’t care about their victims and treated them as objects but a caring concern for those now living would require us to communicate and use this information
-The manner in which information is communicated has significant ethical implications that includes not only the language but also the absence of language
-As you can see scientific investigations can at times be carried to extremes with devastating consequences.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Ethics Tradition
The Ethics Tradition
-The four principal perspectives represent the most highly regarded ethical approaches throughout European American history, giving us the concepts and vocabulary we commonly use today
-Aristotle’s perspective deals with virtue and personal character
-It defines and explains basic notions such as goodness, truth, justice, and rightness as principles for guiding our conduct.
-It is a fairly pragmatic approach but with a philosophical cast
-Something should be done just because it is “good”
-Kant’s perspective deals with duty or obligation based on a fundamental universal principle
-An action should be performed just because it is the right thing to do regardless of its costs or benefits to us individually
-Strives for fairness and equality
-The perspective of utilitarianism weighs the consequences of costs of an action against benefits in order to calculate the most socially desirable course of action
-In other words it strives to be fair
-Doesn’t deal with the interests or feelings of individuals
-The perspective of an ethic of care presents a new, nontraditional way of understanding ethics
-Developed for the sake of people gender-sensitive
-Urges other standards for making ethical decisions, such as caring concern and the quality of relationships
-Urges flexibility and sensitivity to the particulars of a given situation, deals with individuals
-Confucian ethics is Chinese and represents a culture other than European-American
-Levinas espoused a very learned phenomenological and existential approach with strong theological undertones that is difficult to articulate because it is entirely opposed to the idea of systematizing- confusing (very wordy)
-Gert is an ethical theorist who deliberately does not diverge from the mainstream, instead reinterpreting traditional ethical concepts in contemporary terms
Aristotle
-Aristotle’s notion of ethical conduct deals with reflective reasoning, prudent judgment, deliberate choice, conscious application of the will, and practical action
-Practical and concrete thinker
-Later Christian ethical thinking was shaped more by Aristotle’s practical ethical theory that aimed at achieving the best conduct in our temporal lives in the here and now
-Metaphysics still plays an indirect role in Aristotle’s ethics
-Thought ethics was the study of what is involved in good actions
-Believed ethics simply does not allow hard and fast answers
-Ethics deals with doing something just because it is the right thing to do
-Humans are compound creatures having aspects of both a lower, animal nature and a higher, divine nature
-We should seek and act out in a divine nature even though our lives are mundane and imperfect
-It is the person and not the action that is virtuous
-Each person is responsible for his or her character which determines the goals the individual desires and wants to achieve
-Ethical behavior must be reasoned behavior (it is thought out), it is not automatic or unreflective
-A person is not ethical or virtuous because of a single action but instead their character is reflected in their behavior over time
-No one is ethical or virtuous instinctively but achieve it through their actions
-Focuses on the mean between two extremes as the guide for our actions (pragmatic imperfect world)
-Moral wisdom must meet practical wisdom in order to be ethical
-Ethics cannot be reduced to politics or the law because it must guide us when the law or political rules are silent or in error
How can ethics be the “ultimate” guide when sometimes our political figures themselves don’t do the most ethical things?
-Many modern thinkers differ from Aristotle’s view that specialized knowledge such as in technology and science is separable from ethics.
-They believe that the true, right, and good are highly operative in technology and science.
-They don’t believe in relying on unconfirmed personal opinion (AIDS example)
-Thomas M. Lessl pg. 47 “calling scientists the religious priests and philosophical oracles of our day”
KANT
-One of the most important European philosophers of the period from classical Greece to the twentieth century, his ethical theory is based on a sense of duty
-Self-interest, material gain, and the greatest good for the greatest number don’t matter and the ethical system is based on obligation and duty
-Has nothing to do with purposes results or feelings or emotions, as well as any sense of “moral feeling”
-All humans are endowed with a sense of moral reason so it is our duty to use it
-Ethics can only be understood and derived from abstract reasoning; our senses alone cannot derive knowledge or our morals
-Kant’s ethics are entirely based on one’s feely chosen decisions to act in good will out of a sense of duty
-Kant believed our ability to reason should serve as a basis for judging ethics
-It is our duty to act in good will just because it is the right thing to do
-We must be disinterested in any rewards or feeling of self-satisfaction
-Kant thought of everyone as a rational being, to be a fundamentally self-legislator, making, willing, and enforcing laws for oneself about how one will behave
Kant’s Ethical Theory
· Emphasizes a sense of duty, doing what is right regardless of outcome
· Conceptualizes ethics as both an individual and a social matter
· Amounts for all practical purposes to the golden rule, he assumes nothing except that we are all rational beings
-Our rational nature exists for itself so people are not taken as a means to an end
Ex: lying is unethical because you are using another person as a means to your own end.
Utilitarianism
-Weigh ethical judgments on the basis of accomplishing the greatest useful goodness for the greatest number of people
-Utilitarianism allows a quantitative calculation of what to do ethically, it presumably yields the best course of action in that situation
-Medical ethics are a good example in some situations
Feminist and Care Perspectives
-Postmodernism is a movement where traditional authorities and knowledge long taken for granted are challenged
-Several important new perspectives on ethics have arisen from feminist critical thinking and from postmodernism
Feminist Perspectives on Science as a Value System
-Feminist critical thinking has expanded the meaning of ethics
-Believe both science and technology constitute value systems in themselves
-Historically women have been discouraged from science because of emotions, analysis is a masculinist way of arriving at knowledge
-Critics also point out some potential difficulties in characterizing logic as a characteristically male way of thinking. To do so seems to assume that women are inclined to be illogical, that is, unreasonable or incapable of reasoning clearly and correctly
-A Darwinian industrial environment is one which only the fittest survive but feminist critics as well as other ethical critics, point out the need to rethink our society and economy to create a win-win environment in which we all can thrive.
-Hierarchical organization in corporations are giving way to more horizontally stratified structures
-Women’s typical ways of knowing and interacting, which stress harmony and conciliation rather than confrontation or decisive action.
-Feminism amounts to a system of values
-Reveals the bias against women and women’s work in a variety of ways in technical communication
Ethics of Care
-Some refer to it as a feminine or “feminist” ethic
-Tthe relationship, caring concern, and the other person are valued more in women’s moral judgment and ethical decision making than in men’s
-Men base ethical decisions on justice and think of ethics impersonally
-Women generally emphasize caring concern on the particular person or circumstance and men emphasize justice based on abstract principle regardless of the person or situation
-Mary Jeanne Larrabee, editor of An Ethic of Care examines that one of the dangers of trying to develop a system of ethics specific to women is that it can seem to confirm stereotypes
Confucian Ethics
-Its ethics are grounded in immediate realities rather than in immutable, timeless absolutes. Confucius discouraged speculation of the spiritual realm because the real world is where morality is truly played out.
-Human responsibilities are constituted in relationships and not in the individual.
-Social relations and the needs of social harmony are more important that individual egos
-Fundamental importance of several key principles and the practice of these fundamentals by people constitute morality and ethical conduct
-Attitude without action is meaningless, one’s behavior in relation to real circumstances are valued more than principles
-The most important Confucian principles are ren, li, and yi, which together constitute a general ethical virtuousness called te, which the good person must cultivate carefully
-Involves thoroughly understanding the nature of virtue by learning the ethical traditions and the interpretations of exemplary lives from worthy teachers.
-One is bound by relationships to everyone in society but not all to the same degree or in the same way
Tao – way of virtue
Li – traditional rituals
Yi – sense of rightness or appropriateness
Ren – virtue of humaneness or humanity, the love of all people
The virtue of Yi has a sense of justice that maintains social hierarchy and traditional relationships
-Confucianism holds males as primarily responsible for most ethical activities, with females having responsibilities derived from relationships with males.
-We are all equally obliged to behave ethically but the way we carry this out depends on the relationships we live in
-The particulars of ethical behavior are determined mainly by social context
-From a Confucian perspective we should not expect everyone to behave the same to all people everywhere
-Each member of society has duties and obligations defined by their relationships
-There is a traditional Confucian thought explaining the need for subordinates to rectify or reprove their leaders and remove them if necessary
-Businesses are expected to enhance the common good
-At times, profit was considered a threat to social well-being
-It does not make sense to hold the same standards of loyalty, deference, honesty, integrity, or other virtues in our business dealings as we do in our close relationships with family and friends.
Levinas
-Levinas sees the root of ethics and finds it
-Ethics result from our human nature in relation to others and our encounters with other people
-This makes us aware that some other thinking and feeling human being exists, whose wants, values, feelings, thoughts, and responses are unknown to us and we must understand what that person needs and wants from the relationship with us
-The “other” is ethically more important that “I”
-Only the “other” can make us aware of the impact of our behavior so we can adjust accordingly
Gert
-Focused on the topic of morality and explored what it means, how it is known, how it relates individuals to society, and how it is carried out
-Relates morality to rational thinking
Definition of morality: Morality is a public system applying to all rational persons governing behavior which affects others and which has the minimization of evil as its end, and which includes what are commonly known as the moral rules as its core
-Gert’s idea of morality involves action(not feelings), social relations with others, and avoiding evil instead of the pursuit of good.
-The four principal perspectives represent the most highly regarded ethical approaches throughout European American history, giving us the concepts and vocabulary we commonly use today
-Aristotle’s perspective deals with virtue and personal character
-It defines and explains basic notions such as goodness, truth, justice, and rightness as principles for guiding our conduct.
-It is a fairly pragmatic approach but with a philosophical cast
-Something should be done just because it is “good”
-Kant’s perspective deals with duty or obligation based on a fundamental universal principle
-An action should be performed just because it is the right thing to do regardless of its costs or benefits to us individually
-Strives for fairness and equality
-The perspective of utilitarianism weighs the consequences of costs of an action against benefits in order to calculate the most socially desirable course of action
-In other words it strives to be fair
-Doesn’t deal with the interests or feelings of individuals
-The perspective of an ethic of care presents a new, nontraditional way of understanding ethics
-Developed for the sake of people gender-sensitive
-Urges other standards for making ethical decisions, such as caring concern and the quality of relationships
-Urges flexibility and sensitivity to the particulars of a given situation, deals with individuals
-Confucian ethics is Chinese and represents a culture other than European-American
-Levinas espoused a very learned phenomenological and existential approach with strong theological undertones that is difficult to articulate because it is entirely opposed to the idea of systematizing- confusing (very wordy)
-Gert is an ethical theorist who deliberately does not diverge from the mainstream, instead reinterpreting traditional ethical concepts in contemporary terms
Aristotle
-Aristotle’s notion of ethical conduct deals with reflective reasoning, prudent judgment, deliberate choice, conscious application of the will, and practical action
-Practical and concrete thinker
-Later Christian ethical thinking was shaped more by Aristotle’s practical ethical theory that aimed at achieving the best conduct in our temporal lives in the here and now
-Metaphysics still plays an indirect role in Aristotle’s ethics
-Thought ethics was the study of what is involved in good actions
-Believed ethics simply does not allow hard and fast answers
-Ethics deals with doing something just because it is the right thing to do
-Humans are compound creatures having aspects of both a lower, animal nature and a higher, divine nature
-We should seek and act out in a divine nature even though our lives are mundane and imperfect
-It is the person and not the action that is virtuous
-Each person is responsible for his or her character which determines the goals the individual desires and wants to achieve
-Ethical behavior must be reasoned behavior (it is thought out), it is not automatic or unreflective
-A person is not ethical or virtuous because of a single action but instead their character is reflected in their behavior over time
-No one is ethical or virtuous instinctively but achieve it through their actions
-Focuses on the mean between two extremes as the guide for our actions (pragmatic imperfect world)
-Moral wisdom must meet practical wisdom in order to be ethical
-Ethics cannot be reduced to politics or the law because it must guide us when the law or political rules are silent or in error
How can ethics be the “ultimate” guide when sometimes our political figures themselves don’t do the most ethical things?
-Many modern thinkers differ from Aristotle’s view that specialized knowledge such as in technology and science is separable from ethics.
-They believe that the true, right, and good are highly operative in technology and science.
-They don’t believe in relying on unconfirmed personal opinion (AIDS example)
-Thomas M. Lessl pg. 47 “calling scientists the religious priests and philosophical oracles of our day”
KANT
-One of the most important European philosophers of the period from classical Greece to the twentieth century, his ethical theory is based on a sense of duty
-Self-interest, material gain, and the greatest good for the greatest number don’t matter and the ethical system is based on obligation and duty
-Has nothing to do with purposes results or feelings or emotions, as well as any sense of “moral feeling”
-All humans are endowed with a sense of moral reason so it is our duty to use it
-Ethics can only be understood and derived from abstract reasoning; our senses alone cannot derive knowledge or our morals
-Kant’s ethics are entirely based on one’s feely chosen decisions to act in good will out of a sense of duty
-Kant believed our ability to reason should serve as a basis for judging ethics
-It is our duty to act in good will just because it is the right thing to do
-We must be disinterested in any rewards or feeling of self-satisfaction
-Kant thought of everyone as a rational being, to be a fundamentally self-legislator, making, willing, and enforcing laws for oneself about how one will behave
Kant’s Ethical Theory
· Emphasizes a sense of duty, doing what is right regardless of outcome
· Conceptualizes ethics as both an individual and a social matter
· Amounts for all practical purposes to the golden rule, he assumes nothing except that we are all rational beings
-Our rational nature exists for itself so people are not taken as a means to an end
Ex: lying is unethical because you are using another person as a means to your own end.
Utilitarianism
-Weigh ethical judgments on the basis of accomplishing the greatest useful goodness for the greatest number of people
-Utilitarianism allows a quantitative calculation of what to do ethically, it presumably yields the best course of action in that situation
-Medical ethics are a good example in some situations
Feminist and Care Perspectives
-Postmodernism is a movement where traditional authorities and knowledge long taken for granted are challenged
-Several important new perspectives on ethics have arisen from feminist critical thinking and from postmodernism
Feminist Perspectives on Science as a Value System
-Feminist critical thinking has expanded the meaning of ethics
-Believe both science and technology constitute value systems in themselves
-Historically women have been discouraged from science because of emotions, analysis is a masculinist way of arriving at knowledge
-Critics also point out some potential difficulties in characterizing logic as a characteristically male way of thinking. To do so seems to assume that women are inclined to be illogical, that is, unreasonable or incapable of reasoning clearly and correctly
-A Darwinian industrial environment is one which only the fittest survive but feminist critics as well as other ethical critics, point out the need to rethink our society and economy to create a win-win environment in which we all can thrive.
-Hierarchical organization in corporations are giving way to more horizontally stratified structures
-Women’s typical ways of knowing and interacting, which stress harmony and conciliation rather than confrontation or decisive action.
-Feminism amounts to a system of values
-Reveals the bias against women and women’s work in a variety of ways in technical communication
Ethics of Care
-Some refer to it as a feminine or “feminist” ethic
-Tthe relationship, caring concern, and the other person are valued more in women’s moral judgment and ethical decision making than in men’s
-Men base ethical decisions on justice and think of ethics impersonally
-Women generally emphasize caring concern on the particular person or circumstance and men emphasize justice based on abstract principle regardless of the person or situation
-Mary Jeanne Larrabee, editor of An Ethic of Care examines that one of the dangers of trying to develop a system of ethics specific to women is that it can seem to confirm stereotypes
Confucian Ethics
-Its ethics are grounded in immediate realities rather than in immutable, timeless absolutes. Confucius discouraged speculation of the spiritual realm because the real world is where morality is truly played out.
-Human responsibilities are constituted in relationships and not in the individual.
-Social relations and the needs of social harmony are more important that individual egos
-Fundamental importance of several key principles and the practice of these fundamentals by people constitute morality and ethical conduct
-Attitude without action is meaningless, one’s behavior in relation to real circumstances are valued more than principles
-The most important Confucian principles are ren, li, and yi, which together constitute a general ethical virtuousness called te, which the good person must cultivate carefully
-Involves thoroughly understanding the nature of virtue by learning the ethical traditions and the interpretations of exemplary lives from worthy teachers.
-One is bound by relationships to everyone in society but not all to the same degree or in the same way
Tao – way of virtue
Li – traditional rituals
Yi – sense of rightness or appropriateness
Ren – virtue of humaneness or humanity, the love of all people
The virtue of Yi has a sense of justice that maintains social hierarchy and traditional relationships
-Confucianism holds males as primarily responsible for most ethical activities, with females having responsibilities derived from relationships with males.
-We are all equally obliged to behave ethically but the way we carry this out depends on the relationships we live in
-The particulars of ethical behavior are determined mainly by social context
-From a Confucian perspective we should not expect everyone to behave the same to all people everywhere
-Each member of society has duties and obligations defined by their relationships
-There is a traditional Confucian thought explaining the need for subordinates to rectify or reprove their leaders and remove them if necessary
-Businesses are expected to enhance the common good
-At times, profit was considered a threat to social well-being
-It does not make sense to hold the same standards of loyalty, deference, honesty, integrity, or other virtues in our business dealings as we do in our close relationships with family and friends.
Levinas
-Levinas sees the root of ethics and finds it
-Ethics result from our human nature in relation to others and our encounters with other people
-This makes us aware that some other thinking and feeling human being exists, whose wants, values, feelings, thoughts, and responses are unknown to us and we must understand what that person needs and wants from the relationship with us
-The “other” is ethically more important that “I”
-Only the “other” can make us aware of the impact of our behavior so we can adjust accordingly
Gert
-Focused on the topic of morality and explored what it means, how it is known, how it relates individuals to society, and how it is carried out
-Relates morality to rational thinking
Definition of morality: Morality is a public system applying to all rational persons governing behavior which affects others and which has the minimization of evil as its end, and which includes what are commonly known as the moral rules as its core
-Gert’s idea of morality involves action(not feelings), social relations with others, and avoiding evil instead of the pursuit of good.
-Avoiding evil is more definite than the pursuit of good
Ten primary moral rules:
1. Don’t kill
2. Don’t cause pain
3. Don’t disable
4. Don’t deprive of freedom
5. Don’t deprive of pleasure
6. Don’t lie
7. Keep your promises
8. Don’t cheat
9. Don’t commit adultery
10. Don’t steal
There is a list of eight questions that Gert offers to determine the morally relevant features of a given situation:
1. What moral rules are being violated?
2. What evils are being avoided? Prevented? Caused?
3. What are the relevant desires of the people affected by the violation?
4. What are the relevant rational beliefs of the people affected by the violation?
5. Does one have a duty to violate moral rules with regard to the person, and is one in a unique position in this regard?
6. What goods are being promoted?
7. Is an unjustified or weakly justified violation of a moral rule being prevented?
8. Is an unjustified or weakly justified violation of a moral rule being punished?
Monday, October 5, 2009
Creating Visuals
Designing and Integrating Visuals with Text Oliu, Brusaw, Alred
-Plan your visuals such as tables, graphs, drawings, charts, maps, before you start writing to make them the most effective
There are some guidelines to help you use graphics as effectively as possible:
-Present numerical data in a visual form but are considered less accurate than tables
-Are often accompanie by tables for this reason
Line Graphs
-Shows the relationship between two or more sets of figures
-Make sure the vertical and horizontal scales are proportional so the graph is not distorted
Bar Graphs
-Horizontal or vertical bars representing some quantity
-Labeling the top of the bars with quantities eliminates the need for a table.
Do not omit or distort the data in your visuals because it is unethical and can question the credibility of your organization
Pie Graphs
-The circle equals 100 percent or the whole of a quantity and the wedges represent various parts
-The information displayed is very general and the wedges should be displayed largest to smallest in a clockwise direction
-Pie graphs have a strong visual impact
Picture graphs
-Modified bar graphs that use picture symbols instead of bars to represent their data
-Work well for nonexpert audiences since it makes the data easier to understand and remember, they also add some entertainment value to the presentation
-Increase the number of symbols instead of making the symbols larger
Dimensional-Column Graphs
-Uses columns as three-dimensional pillars to display data but sometimes obscure the information
-The three-dimensional appearance can confuse the reader not knowing where they line up with the axes.
-The more complicated a graph looks the harder it is to read so simpler is better
Drawings
-Drawings are mainly used when you need to focus on details a photograph cannot provide
-Drawings can emphasize an object's appearance and its function such as internal parts of a piece of equipment
-When illustrating part of a system, show its relationship to the larger system of which it is a part
-Label important parts of each drawing
Flowcharts
-Diagram that shows the stages of a process from beginning to end and typically flow left to right or top to bottom
-Use arrows to show the direction of flow expecially if it is different from the normal direction
-Label each step in the process and leave adequate white space so the steps are not crowded.
Maps
-Can show geographic features of an area (roads, mountains, rivers) or it can show information according to geographic distribution (population, housing)
-Identify all boundaries within the map and include a scale of miles or kilometers, and also label which direction is north.
Photographs
-Can be used to show the surface appearance of an object or to record an event
-Make sure to capture the relative size of the object in the photo and make sure it fills your picture frame
-Readers sometimes need to know exactly what an object looks like so color reproduction is a must
-Can sometimes sacrifice contrast and vividness and is more expensive then black-and-white reproduction
Strategies of Persuasion David W. Ewing
-What choice of ideas should be used, the emphasis on pro and con arguments, and the establishment of credibility
-Good writers vary their approaches in response to their readings of different situations
-Plan your visuals such as tables, graphs, drawings, charts, maps, before you start writing to make them the most effective
There are some guidelines to help you use graphics as effectively as possible:
- Why include your visual?
Explain your audience why you used it, they may require an explanation of what it is if they are not familiar with the subject
Is the information in your visual accurate?
Is the lettering readable?
Is there a figure or table number?
If using more than five illustrations make sure they are labeled with a figure or table number
Do visuals stand out from surrounding text?
Tables
-Able to show large amounts of related data in a small space
Tables should contain:
Number - Title- describes what the table represents
- Boxhead - contains column headings
- Stub - left hand column lists the items in the body of table
- Body
- Rules - use of lines to separate various parts of the table
- Source Line - list data sources below the table
- Footnotes - used to explain an item in the table
- Continuing Tables
-Present numerical data in a visual form but are considered less accurate than tables
-Are often accompanie by tables for this reason
Line Graphs
-Shows the relationship between two or more sets of figures
-Make sure the vertical and horizontal scales are proportional so the graph is not distorted
Bar Graphs
-Horizontal or vertical bars representing some quantity
-Labeling the top of the bars with quantities eliminates the need for a table.
Do not omit or distort the data in your visuals because it is unethical and can question the credibility of your organization
Pie Graphs
-The circle equals 100 percent or the whole of a quantity and the wedges represent various parts
-The information displayed is very general and the wedges should be displayed largest to smallest in a clockwise direction
-Pie graphs have a strong visual impact
Picture graphs
-Modified bar graphs that use picture symbols instead of bars to represent their data
-Work well for nonexpert audiences since it makes the data easier to understand and remember, they also add some entertainment value to the presentation
-Increase the number of symbols instead of making the symbols larger
Dimensional-Column Graphs
-Uses columns as three-dimensional pillars to display data but sometimes obscure the information
-The three-dimensional appearance can confuse the reader not knowing where they line up with the axes.
-The more complicated a graph looks the harder it is to read so simpler is better
Drawings
-Drawings are mainly used when you need to focus on details a photograph cannot provide
-Drawings can emphasize an object's appearance and its function such as internal parts of a piece of equipment
-When illustrating part of a system, show its relationship to the larger system of which it is a part
-Label important parts of each drawing
Flowcharts
-Diagram that shows the stages of a process from beginning to end and typically flow left to right or top to bottom
-Use arrows to show the direction of flow expecially if it is different from the normal direction
-Label each step in the process and leave adequate white space so the steps are not crowded.
Maps
-Can show geographic features of an area (roads, mountains, rivers) or it can show information according to geographic distribution (population, housing)
-Identify all boundaries within the map and include a scale of miles or kilometers, and also label which direction is north.
Photographs
-Can be used to show the surface appearance of an object or to record an event
-Make sure to capture the relative size of the object in the photo and make sure it fills your picture frame
-Readers sometimes need to know exactly what an object looks like so color reproduction is a must
-Can sometimes sacrifice contrast and vividness and is more expensive then black-and-white reproduction
Strategies of Persuasion David W. Ewing
-What choice of ideas should be used, the emphasis on pro and con arguments, and the establishment of credibility
-Good writers vary their approaches in response to their readings of different situations
1. Consider whether your views will make problems for readers
If your views turn out to be bad news for the reader, report them but use empathy and put yourself in their shoes.
2. Don't offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for change until your readers are prepared for them.Where in your report you should present new findings depends on your audience's resisitance to change and the amount of change you are asking for. It also depends on the "perceived threat" which is how much it will upset the values and interests of the readers.
-If a new promotion scheme is not very personal and important to the boss then you can be more straight forward about raising questions.-In your writing you must be more explicit and thorough because a piece of writing lacks the expressiveness you used when you speak.
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy-Credibility is a variable and can be influenced by the words of the communicator
-Given credibility may result from your position in an organization. A boss giving directions to someone under them has high credibility.-Acquired credibility is earned by thoughts and facts in the written message. Someone higher up in the company may not know you different from another person but through your writings to them you can gain credibility.
-Cite ideas or evidence that are parallel with the reader's views, "my idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me."-Cite authorities that rate highly in the mind of the reader
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about them, present both sides of the argument-A one-sided presentation of a controversial questino is most effective.
-If your reader has not made up their mind or disagrees with you then use a two-sided presentation. By stating the pros and cons it helps the reader remember your view5. Win respect by making your opinion or recommendation clear
-The two-sided approach is a means to an end and means you have definite views and seek to persuade your audience.6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the argument, first if it is not so interested
-Argument presented first has primacy and the argument presented last has recency.-When you put weaker points first it creates rising reader expectations and end with your strongest argument that way you do not let your readers down. This mainly works when the audience is deeply interested in your topic.
-If your audience is not very interested in your topic use an opposite approach by grabbing thier attention right at the beginning.7. Don't count on changing attitudes by offering information alone
-With people wo already agree with the persuader, information alone may be enough to reassure them on their position with the argument8. "Testimonials" are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people with whom readers associate
-A person's attitudes and opinions are strongly influenced by the groups to which he or she belongs-Study at a boy's camp with shooting and canoeing
-Same as been done with celebrities through media-The more attached your readers are to a group the more that group is going to influence them
9. Be wary of using extreme or "sensational" claims and facts- Write in terms of the real world how you and the reader will percieve it and not like a flashy journalist
-You want to grab the reader's attention but in the right way-Believable, realistic statements carry more weight than any other kind
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for reader's attitudes, if you know them-You will have a better chance of persuading your audience if you plan your argument to meet the feelings, prejudices, and reasons for their beliefs.
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader-The use of names may affect the power of your message
-A reference to the actions of another person could alter your relationship with the readerSizing up your readers
-Think of yourself as the intended reader so you can decide intelligently what information and ideas to emphasize-Write as if you are talking with your reader, not talking to them
Poposals Phillip C. KolinGuidelines for writing a successful proposal:
- Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity - your goal is to solve a problem that affects the reader
- Regard your audience as skeptical readers - examine your proposal from the reader's point of view
- Research your proposal carefully - use concrete examples and don't base your proposal off of a few well-meaning , general suggestions
- Prove that your proposal is workable - analyze and test each part of your proposal in advance if possible, should be well thought out, "Will this plan work?"
- Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic - "Is it worth the money?"
- Package your proposal attractively- make sure your proposal is inviting and easy to read, the appearance can determine if it is rejected or accepted
Internal Proposals
-Offers a realistic and constructive plan to help your company run its business more efficiently and economically.-An informal, in-house message such as a brief memo
-Should be sensitive to office politics and written with the needs of the audience in mind, you do not want the reader to feel threatened by the plan-A change for your department or offic may have negative effects on another department in the company
The Introduction
A brief statement on why you are writing to your boss
Background of the Problem
-The more you show how the problem affects the boss's work the more likely you are to persuade him or her to act
The Solution of Plan
-Describe the change you want approved
-The reader will expect to find factual evidence
-Raise alternative solutions and discuss their disadvantages
The Conclusion
- Remind the reader that the problem is serious and the reason for change is justified with a paragraph or two at the most
Sales Proposals
-Most common type of external proposal and its purpose is to sell your company's products or services for a set fee
-Readers of a sales proposal will evaluate your work according to how well is meets their needs and how well it compares with the proposals submitted by your competitors
-You must convince readers that your company is more reliable and efficient that any other firm
Writing proposals with style Richard Johnson-Sheehan
-Setting an appropriate tone and weaving themes into your work that appeal to your reader's emotions and values.
-Plain style is for instruction and demonstration, middle style is for persuading people to take action and grand style is for motivating people to do something they already know they should do
Writing Plain Sentences
-Plain style needs to be used when the writer is trying to instruct the reader
-Writing plainly is a skill that requires practice
Guidelines to write plainer sentences:
- The subject should be what the sentence is about - the sentence needs a clear subject stating in one word what it is about
- Make the "doer" the subject
- State the action in the verb - the active person or thing usually makes the best subject of the sentence
- Put the subject early in the sentence - with the subject early in the sentence the readers immediately know how to connect the sentence with the subject, longer introductory phrases should be moved to the end of the sentence
- Eliminate nominalizations - nominalizations are perfectly good verbs and adjectives that have been turned into awkward nouns.
- Avoid excessive prepositional phrases - look for places where prepositional phrases are chained together and try turning some of them into adjectives.
- Eliminate redundancy - using two words to do the work of one
- Make sentences "breathing length" - sentences shouldn't be too long to say in one breath, if it is too long readers are more concerned getting through it than understanding it
Writing Plain Paragraphs
Transition Sentence - makes a smooth bridge from the previous paragraph to the present paragraph
Topic Sentence - claim or statement that the rest of the paragraph is going to prove or support
Support Sentences - sentences that contain reasoning and examples and prove the claim made in the topic sentence
Point Sentences - restates the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph, should only be used when a particular claim needs to be reinforced
Aligning Sentence Subjects in a Paragraph
-Line up the subjects so that each sentence in the paragraph stresses the same things
The Given/New Method
-Based on the assumption that readers will always try to fit new information into what they already know
-The given information should appear early in the sentence and the new information should appear later in the sentence so that the given information provides a familiar anchor.
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