English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

A strong sense of ethics can be just as bad as a weak one. I have a friend (Joe) who thinks every one of his actions and would almost never do something that seems even suspiciously unethical. As a result he silently suffers at his workplace. For example, Joe contributes to the project but the manager mistakenly gives another person the credit for the work. Even though Joe did the work, his sense of ethics prevents him from claiming credit and criticize the other person for accepting the credit.

Ethics is one of, if not the most, interesting topics ever. We are almost constantly faced with an ethical issue-most of the time we aren't even aware of it. Anyone that has or currently watches Star Trek should understand the importance of ethical consideration to its fullest extent, that is to say something like the text has outlined as the "Intertwined Ethical System". It is easy to see that while the morals and/or values are satisfied from one perspective they are often in conflict with other perspectives-hence the ethical dilemma.

This weeks reading was not only about ethics in general, but the application of ethics in the technical workplace, legal issues, and everyday decision making. One of my favorite parts of the article was the 'Golden Rule', which stated "That you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I believe that our ethics are first learned from parents and culture at an early age, and you are responsible for your actions whether right or wrong. The article goes on to talk about three kinds of ethics; personal, social, and conservation.

This weeks reading assignment in TCT was all about ethics which they defined as "doing what is right." However after finishing the reading, it becomes clear that while defining ethics is very straight forward, solving some ethical dilemmas are anything but. For some ethical dilemmas just knowing what the right thing to do can be hard enough, and for many other ones, actually doing the right thing is usually very hard to do.

After reading the Thompson handbook about ethics, it defiantly makes you think about everything from a different perspective. One of the topics addressed in the reading talks about a subject that gives me chills every time I think about it. Copyrights. What can be copyrighted? What are the limits of copyright laws? It’s a very grey complex area in some aspects of its application. How far can you walk on the edge of the cliff before falling off? As a computer graphics artist I have to constantly think about trademarks/copyrights laws and what is exactly being protected.

Ethics are a tough thing to define. The reading puts it in terms of “doing the right thing”. I would say ethics are simply embellishments to law in the governance of mankind. Rightfully so, we must take it upon ourselves to implement these supplemental laws throughout our everyday lives. It is imperative to understand the idea of ethics in the workplace in order to maintain an appropriate level of professionalism and integrity. The reading outlined ethics in three categories; these being personal, social and conversation.

The readings for this week focused on ethics in technical settings. At this point in my college career, most of the ethical dilemmas that I have faced have dealt with plagiarism and cheating. These problems have mostly dealt with personal ethics. In the instructions project, I also had to deal with a dilemma of social as well as personal ethics. In chapter 5 of TCT, there was an example used of children choking on the small parts of action figures. I faced a similar problem in my instructions project.

“Every decision you make has an ethical dimension, whether it is apparent or not.” This quote from our reading this week really stood out in my mind. It makes since that even in these seemingly insignificant assignments we are making decisions that involve our own personal ethics. As the chapter also discusses with the technological advances of our times, many of the ethical answers of the past no longer apply to the situations of today.

Chapter 5 in TCT is something that many important people in the news recently should take a few minutes to look over. With all the greed and the “bad decisions” that government leaders, bankers, and investors have made in the recent sub-prime meltdown, it would be easy to assume that there aren’t any morals or ethics left in the world. According to TCT ethics are, “a system of moral, social, and cultural values that govern an individual or community”. TCT takes this definition and breaks it up into 3 subsets: social, personal and conservation.

This week’s reading response covered ethics: personal, social and conservation. Each system can work together to help create a peaceful and proper society. However, in some cases one system will overlap another and create problems on which to follow.