Rhetorical Context and Ethics in
Professional and Technical Writing
Jen England | jenlengland@gmail.com | jlengland.com
ETHICS: AN OVERVIEW
From Mike Markel's Technical Communication (11th ed.), pp. 18-19
Ethics is the study of the principles of conduct that apply to an individual or a group. Ethicist Manuel G. Velasquez outlines four moral standards that are useful in thinking about ethical dilemmas (2011):
Rights: ... concerns individuals' basic needs and welfare.
Justice: ... concerns how the costs and benefits of an action or policy are distributed among a group.
Utility: ... concerns the positive and negative effects that an action or policy has, will have, or might have on others.
Care: ... concerns the relationships we have with other individuals.
Although these standards provide a vocabulary for thinking about how to resolve ethical conflicts, they are imprecise and often conflict with each other ... Most people do not explore the conflict among rights, justice, utility, and care when they confront a serious ethical dilemma ... For these reasons, ethicists have described a general set of principles that can help people organize their thinking about the role of ethics within an organizational contezt. These principles form a web of rights and obligations that connect an employee, an organization, and the world in which the organization is situated.
introduction to ethics
ethics <---> critical thinking
From Teresa Henning's "Ethics as a Form of Critical and Rhetorical Inquiry in the Writing Classroom:"
To define ethics as a mode of inquiry, it is first important to consider how ethics relates to critical thinking. Put simply, ethical inquiry is one type of inquiry required to think critically. To observe this connection between ethics and critical thinking, it is helpful to use the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) definition of critical thinking as “a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.” Further, AAC&U notes that an understanding of context, which it defines as “the historical, ethical, political, cultural, environmental, or circumstantial settings or conditions that influence and complicate the consideration of any issues, ideas, artifacts, and events,” is an important aspect of such critical thinking. In other words, if we engage students in the process of identifying values and relating them to a specific situation, such as a rhetorical situation, we are engaging students in both critical thinking and ethical inquiry.
A connection between critical thinking and ethics is only possible, however, when ethics is defined not as a static list of rules but as a “mode of questioning,” a phrase both James E. Porter (218) and Sheryl I. Fontaine and Susan M. Hunter (4) use. Writing teachers recognize the limits of static, rulebased advice for learners. We know that while our students may long for recipe-like rules for writing, good writing requires a thoughtful flexibility. Similarly, responsible, ethical thinking requires a sophisticated understanding of ethics beyond simply a set of rules. As a mode of inquiry, ethics invites teachers, students, and scholars to consider: Who is responsible? For what is one responsible and to whom? Using ethics as mode of inquiry focuses our attention not only on rules but also on contexts and relationships, which are vitally important aspects of work in English education. (p. 34)
types of ethical perspectives
From Richard Johnson-Sheehan's Techical Communication Strategies for Today (2nd ed.), pp. 80-82:
When faced with an ethical dilemma, start by considering it from all three ethical perspectives: personal, social, and conservation.
Personal ethics -- How does my upbringing in a family, culture, and faith guide my decision? How can I do unto others as I would have them do unto me?
Social ethics -- What rights or laws are involved in my decision? What is best for the majority? How can I demonstrate caring by being tolerant and compassionate?
Conservation ethics -- How will my decision affect the ecosystem? Will my choice be ecologically sustainable in the long term?
When faced with an ethical dilemma, you can use the following five questions to help you resolve it.
Do any laws or rules govern my decision?
Do an corporate or professional codes of ethics offer guidance?
Are there any historical records to learn from?
What do my colleagues think?
What would moral leaders do?
ethical and professional obligations
From Elizabeth Tebeaux and Sam Dragga's The Essentials of Techical Communication (3rd ed.), pp. 38-39:
Your ethical obligations are several, often intersecting, and from time to time competing. Consider, for example, your duties to the following:
To yourself: You will have to make decisions and take actions that allow you to support yourself financially while establishing (and maintaining) your reputation in your field. You can't quit (or lose) your job every time you object to a policy of your boss.
To your discipline and profession: As a member of your profession, you have a responsibility to advance the knowledge and reputation of your field. You must share information with your colleagues that will improve the practices of your profession, clarify understanding, offer new insights, and promote better training of new students of your discipline. You must communicate in a manner that brings credit to your profession and inspires the next generation to want to study and join your profession.
To your academic institution: You have a moral obligation to the institution that trained you for your profession. Your successes or failures will be indicative of the merits of that institution and its faculty. If you disgrace yourself by illegal or unethical actions, for example, investigating officials and the public might ask why you weren't taught better behavior.
To your employer: Your responsibility as an employee is to serve the interests of your organization, to help it make money, to promote its products and services, and to shield confidential information and intellectual property, especially if doing so offers a competitive advantage.
To your colleagues: You have a duty to your colleagues on the job to do your fair share of the work assigned and to do it with integrity, accuracy, and efficiency. You also have a responsibility to use no more than your fair share of the resources allotted and to take no more than your fair share of the credit (or blame) give.
To the public: Your obligation to society is to promote the public good through greater safety, fuller liberty, and a better quality of life. Your decisions and actions on the job could allow communities to thrive in resilient and sustainable environments or to be poisoned by private greed and callous disregard for civic aspirations.
It is also important to keep in mind that something could be legal but still unethical ... In communicating on the job, your choices from time to time might be obvious, but you will typically have to decide among several satisfactory choices or serveral unsatisfactory choices. You will have to juggle your various obligatoins and determine which has priority.
