And Now a Word (or two or three) about Ethics

-Corruption and ethical violations are everywhere (television, radio, newspaper, news)
-Business and technical writers have moral and ethical obligations
-Dorothy A. Winsor showed through her examination that a "history of miscommunication" contributed to the Challenger space shuttle accident
-Business and technical writers must meet the needs of the intended audience as well as adhere to the strictest ethical and legal standards

Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators by Dorothy A. Winsor

-Various people in the organization knew the accident was possible and how to prevent it yet not everyone in the organization was aware of this

Why wasn't the information communicated to the entire organization?

1) Managers and engineers viewing the same facts from different perspectives
2) The general difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news, particularly when it must be passed to superiors or outsiders

-Knowledge is not just seeing the facts but interpreting them and this will vary with different people's vantage points
-Communication is not shared information but rather shared interpretation
-Managers and engineers have very much the dame background and the same facts but interpret them differently because they take different approaches
-Three organizations involved: NASA, Marshall Space Center, Morton Thiokol International (MTI)
-Information about the solid rocket booster joint that failed slowly moved its way up in NASA
-The three organizations viewed each other as outsiders which was a big problem in communicating the information

Physical Cause of the Accident

-The failure of a rubber seal in the solid rocket booster was the cause of the explosion
-This allowed hot gases to escape and burn a hole in the fuel tank
-Postflight evidence showed that the joint seals were failing to meet design expectations

Early Responses to Bad News: Disbelief and Failure to Send Upward

-When the o-ring problems first came about MTI did not communicate it to Marshall
-When Marshall communicated downward to MTI, they treated this as a serious problem
-Early signs of o-ring problems were not believed by MTI, were accepted at Marshall when they saw it was MTI’s problem, and not sent upward to NASA

Continued Bad News Rejection Despite Contradictory Evidence

-Tests showed that the cold increases o-ring erosion but this risk was viewed as “acceptable” by MTI personnel because they assumed the secondary ring would seal
-MTI’s claim that the secondary o-rings would seal is retaining previous theories in the face of contradictory evidence because the effectiveness of the secondary ring had been in question since 1982
-In July 1985, Lawrence Mulloy, project manager at Marshall said no other flights would take place until the o-ring erosion at the nozzle joint had been fixed or shown not to be a problem
-Marshall seemed to have kept this news to themselves rather than pass it up to NASA

Internal Versus External Communication of Concern From MTI Engineers

-O-ring damage in late June woke up the engineers at MTI
-MTI engineer Roger Boisjoly became more aware of the potential danger and predicted a loss of the contract or flight failure if no solution was found
-Boisjoly’s memo sent to MTI’s vice president of engineering describing that a catastrophe could result
-The memo was marked COMPANY PRIVATE at the top and bottom so he still tried to keep the bad news from outsiders
-Brian Russell, engineer for MTI wrote to Marshall’s Jim Thomas about test results on the effect of cold on the o-rings
-The memo simply communicated the facts
-Frightening facts should have been used in the memo
-Marshall officials did not interpret the facts in the same alarmed manner Boisjoly and Russel did

The Split Between Managers and Engineers

-MTI managers and engineers were disagreeing on the seriousness of the o-ring problem and engineers had a hard time communicating their view upward
-MTI engineers wrote a memo to management saying the o-ring task force was being slowed by administration and that their work was being established for more leisurely long-term development
-The task force was unable to convince Joe Kilminster, MIT’s vice president of Space Programs of the seriousness of the situation
-Marshall challenged MTI’s drawn conclusions
-Every MTI engineer argued against the launch
1) No one at MTI or Marshall wanted to believe the evidence of the o-ring problem
2) When MTI engineers saw that a problem existed, they had difficulty convincing their management
3) Engineers and managers at MTI were reluctant to communicate bad news outside the company

-It is important that engineers feel as free to communicate bad news as well as bad
-Failure to believe bad news can have disastrous consequences

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

The sample with the built-in basis:
- A sampling study must use a representative study or a truly random one
- Does every name in the group have an equal chance to be in the sample?
- No statistical conclusion can rise above the quality of the sample it is based upon
The truncated, or gee-whiz, graph:
- Chopping the bottom of a graph to make it more effective
- Makes rises and falls in your graph seem more significant
The souped-up graph:
- Change the proportion between the ordinate and the abscissa
The well-chosen average:
- When giving figures describe if it is a mean or median
- One isn’t better than the other, it is just misleading unless you know what kind of average it is
The insignificant difference or the elusive error:
- Don’t ignore the error in a sampling study
- Unless the difference between the figures is many times greater than the probable error of each, you have only a guess that the one appearing greater really is
The one-dimensional picture:
- Using graphics instead of simple bars can create a more visual effect
The ever-impressive decimal:
- Decimals make your data more precise and sounds as if you know precisely what you are talking about
- Without decimals it just sounds like an approximation
The semiattached figure:
- If you can’t prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend they are the same thing
- The worse things get, the better your survey makes them look
The unwarranted assumption, or post hoc rides again:
- Statistics can be used to deceive
- Misleading statistics are not proven but can easy sway a reader’s mind

Determining the Ethics of Style by Dan Jones

What is Ethics?
-The study of right and wrong conduct
-“A set of moral principles or values” or “a theory or system of moral values”
-It is a guiding philosophy

Ethics and Technical Prose
-You must make many ethical decisions concerning what you write
-It’s not always easy to determine which writing decisions are right or wrong, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical

Ethics and the Professions
-Most professions and professional organizations have published ethical guidelines
-Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
-In Computer Ethics, by Tom Forester and Perry Morrison, they list many ethical questions faced by computer professionals:

Is copying software really a form of stealing? What sort of intellectual property rights should software developers have?

Is it OK for computer professionals to make false claims about the capabilities of computers when selling systems or representing computers to the general public?

STC Ethical Guidelines for Technical Communicators

Introduction: We observe the following ethical guidelines in our professional activities to help us maintain ethical practices

Legality: we observe the laws and regulations governing our professional activities in the workplace, we meet the terms and obligations of contracts

Honesty: provide truthful and accurate communications, before using another person’s work we obtain permission, advertize our services truthfully

Confidentiality : release business-sensitive information only with their consent or when legally required

Quality: we fulfill our negotiated roles in a timely and responsible manner and meet the stated expectations

Fairness: respect cultural variety and other aspects of diversity in our clients, employers, and audiences, avoid conflicts of interest in the fulfillment of our responsibilities and activities

Professionalism: provide candid evaluations of communication products and services, advance the technical communication profession through our integrity, standards, and performance
-These codes of conduct encourage members of a profession to act ethically even in the most difficult of circumstances

Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing by Carolyn D. Rude
-Codes of ethics protect the good of a society as well as protect individual rights
-They are less formal than laws but aim for the same goal

Legal issues in Editing
-Editors share responsibility with writers, researchers, and managers for protecting documents legally
-Editors verify that permissions to reprint portions of other people’s publications are obtained

Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks, Patents, Trade Secrets
-Intellectual property includes original works of fiction, or nonfiction, artwork and photographs, recording, computer programs, and any other expression that is fixed in some form – printed, recorded, or posted on the web
-They are protected by copyright law
-The owner has the right to determine if the work may be reproduced or used

Copyright
-Protects authors of “original works of authorship”
-Gives the owner the right to reproduce and distribute the work

Ownership
-If the author wrote to meet responsibilities of employment, the employer owns the copyright
-Works by the U.S. government are not eligible for copyright protection, they are in the “public domain”
-Collections that contain multiple authors are generally protected by a single copyright but may be copyrighted individually

Copyright Notice, Registration, and Deposit
-Registration with the Copyright Office gives maximum legal protection
-A published work should include a notice of copyright
-Copyrightable work published in the United States is subject to mandatory deposit or use in the Library of Congress

International Copyright Protection
-Copyright in one country does not automatically extend to another
-It depends on the laws of that country
-Some countries offer little or no copyright protection for work published in other countries

Permissions and “Fair Use”
-Permission must be obtained to reproduce sections of some else’s work
-The permission ought to exist in writing
-If permission is denied, material may not be used

A request for permission should include the following:
- Title, author, and edition of the materials to be reprinted
- Exact material to be used: include page numbers and/or a photocopy
- How it will be used: nature of the document in which it will be reprinted, author, intended audience, publisher, where the material will appear

Copyright and Online Publication
-Material on the web and even e-mail messages are protected by the same copyright laws that protect print, especially when the information has commercial value
-Distributing something you found on the web to make money or to people who would otherwise read it on the web and see the advertisements that accompany it, or copy the words without citation is violating copyright law

Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
-Trademarks are brand names, phrases, graphics, or logos that identify products
-If marks are registered with the PTO (Patent and Trade Office) no one else can use those marks

Product Safety and Liability
-companies and individuals must assume responsibility for safety of the products as they are used or even misused by customers
-The products themselves must be designed to be as safe as possible

Libel, Fraud, and Misrepresentation
-Libel is a statement that shames or lowers the public reputation of an identifiable person
-Fraud and misrepresentation deceive the public
-Misrepresentation may occur in labeling products or making claims about them