Teaching Ethics in Professional Writing

(Grant Wood's image of Mason Weem's story of Washington and the cherry tree)

(An earlier version of this essay appeared in an internal departmental newsletter.

Shared with permission.)

We may all know those teachable moments that deal with the intersection of workplace ethics and professional writing, for example from national news about e-mail and twitter. I recall colleagues sharing an enlightening listserv thread about posting twitter from work.

Ethics gives new meaning to the term "good writing". What could be right and wrong about writing? Students in the classroom are often fascinated by the topic of values, and nothing prompts discussion more than an ethical dilemma between two kinds of workplace priorities or values, potentially relevant to students. I allude to ethics in only about three of my class meetings. My Technical Writing course textbook defines usefully the categories of professional standards and obligations for us to employ in discussion. These concepts include generalized duties of care, and obligations to the environment and the company. How might teachers present the ethics of work-place technical writing in an entertaining, interactive way? How might we show students its relevance and promote thought and reflection? I am interested in helping students think about the ethical dilemmas of workplace reading, writing, and conversing, experiences they may encounter once they get the job.

I tell students that I cannot know about their current conduct outside of class, and am not evaluating that, but that our classroom exercises are of a philosophical nature. We also speculate on how the study of ethics might be of use – or not – for the professional experience. And we touch on the distinction between ethics and etiquette, and the differences among concerns that are personal, professional, and political – all which can lead to fun discussions. (For a number of years, in online courses, I taught professional ethics to undergraduates with majors such as business and nursing.) Many universities are moving from stand-alone ethics courses to incorporating the subject of ethics broadly in curricula. Many of my students are engineering majors, and their programs have been approved by professional organizations for the requisite ethics topics in those fields.

Here are some ways of incorporating ethics topics into activity and discussion in the professional writing classroom, ideas that I learned from my own experience and from checking with colleagues:

· One could start by referencing the class textbook or assigned reading material for definitions and categories of ethics. That way, students are on the same page, and can consult agreed-upon criteria for advocating choices.

· Different fields have different special concerns. A science writing teacher mentioned that in publications, co-authors should be listed only if they participated in the study, and that opposing scientific findings should be considered. A legal writing teacher pointed out there are various State codes, and that a lawyer must consider whether it is possible to represent a client adequately. Technical writers may consider whether images in advertising illustrate safety.

· A science writing teacher has students compose an essay about science and ethics in society, prefacing the writing prompt with definitions of ethics.

· Anecdotes can be an effective way of conveying ethical dilemmas in work situations. A teacher recalled telling the class about a proposal she wrote that estimated costs in hiring and supporting a limited number of workers, and being over-ruled by a middle manager who preferred a more optimistic proposal that would certainly involve eventually reducing workforce.

· I have once used for discussion a reader’s inquiry to the New York Times “Ethicist,” about a co-worker possibly talking about the workplace on Reddit. We read the letter to the ethicist, debated what might be right action at work, then read the ethicist's response.

· I have also used a University of Chicago business school case study:

A generally helpful co-worker, in a presentation to clients, shows some inappropriate images on the screen. How might co-workers respond? What would be arguments and counter-arguments using ethical categories for reasoning? Groups of students come up with their responses, then share their conclusions.

· Finally, From the 1950s film “Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” a husband and wife debate how the husband might conduct a “peer review” of a proposal they dislike, co-authored by the husband’s supervisor. (For more about peer reviewing, see my blogs ". . .A.I.!" and ". . .Together Again".) What should the protagonist say to his supervisor about the writing, and how? What might be arguments and counter-arguments using ethical categories for reasoning? (The five-minute movie scene we watch starts at about 1:40:21. If you want to see what the protagonist ends up reporting to the boss about the work place document, a speech to a group of doctors, involving concepts of credibility and audience, you can watch the three-and-a-half-minute scene starting at 1:56:26 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVEElg2Id-8&ab_channel=1956clips]).

Ethics in the work place may look different from the point of view of supervisors or managers than it does from the point of view of subordinate employees and their colleagues. The risks to whistle-blowers, some of them much-publicized, illustrate this dramatically. So, both managers and staff, for different reasons, have cause to be wary.

Two contrasting considerations to keep in mind, for possible classroom discussion:

· Many organizational advisers have called on managers to encourage ethics talk. In an influential 1989 essay, “The Moral Muteness of Managers,” Frederick Bird and James Waters urged managers to create work places where employees feel safe to discuss and even debate ethics, to better prepare for dilemmas and to maintain high standards.

· On the other hand, employees who talk about work place ethics may make themselves unpopular with colleagues and/or supervisors; everyone may be cautious about gossip and fault-finding.

How a supervisor deals with ethics in personnel management may be separate from professional responsibilities in communication by readers, speakers, and writers. The latter pertains to the professional writing classrooms.

Ethics is on people’s minds more than ever these days, and our students may join the public sector workforce where difficult choices arise about writing and arguing for their departments and for the public. Preparing them for ethical dilemmas and communication is a good idea.