Deck 3: Writing Ethically

Question 1

Why is the image below misleading?

A) The numbers are not correct.
B) The author did not acknowledge the source of the data.
C) The graph displays the lower figures on the top, which implies that spinal injuries are the most frequently suffered orthopedic injury by children, but it is actually the least.
D) The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons doesn't exist.

Answer 1

C
Explanation: Deliberating manipulating numbers or displaying information in an ambiguous way is misleading and an ethical violation of distributing misinformation. Like textual information, illustrations have the capacity to misrepresent and mislead. Even though the data may be accurate, deliberately displaying the lower statistic on the top along with the headline saying, "Top traumatic orthopedic injuries for which children are hospitalized," implies that the top number is the highest or the injury that children suffer from the most; however, it is the smallest figure on the graphic. This is misleading people because people make quick judgements and assessments of information, especially visual information, and along with the headline, the illustration is deceiving.

Question 2

What is a trademark?

A) A composition of original material fixed in a tangible medium, such as books, journals, software applications, computer programs, video and audio recordings, and illustrations
B) A design, formula, list, method, pattern, or process that offers a competitive advantage over parties who don't have the same information.
C) A display of words or symbols communicated in text, illustrations, or sounds that identify and distinguish the goods of a manufacturer or a company name.
D) An item created during research, such as databases, diagrams, drawings, notes, prototypes, samples, and associated equipment and supplies.

Answer 2

C
Explanation: A trademark is a type of intellectual property that one has the potential to steal or plagiarize if they do not acknowledge the source and gain approval from the author or company to redistribute it or publish it. A trademark is a display of words or symbols communicated in text, illustrations, or sounds that identifies and distinguishes the goods and services of a manufacturer or supplier, such as the name or logo of a company.

Question 3

You volunteer to help a professor perform research in the lab. Your professor has you document various numbers and notes regarding the results of an experiment. If you take any of these items, you will be guilty of stealing what type of intellectual property of the professor and university?

A) Trade Secret
B) Trademarks
C) Logos
D) Tangible research items

Answer 3

D
Explanation: Tangible research items are a type of intellectual property that one has the potential to steal or plagiarize if they do not acknowledge the source and gain approval from the author or company to redistribute it or publish it. Tangible research property are items created during research related to copyrightable materials, trademarks, trade secrets, and inventions, such as databases, diagrams, drawings, notes, prototypes, samples, and associated equipment and supplies.

Question 4

To use the ideas of others without attribution is…

A) okay, if inadvertent
B) plagiarism
C) efficient in a work setting
D) legal, even if unethical

Question 5

If borrowing a substantial portion of material, which of the following are your ethical and legal duties?

A) Acknowledge the source and obtain permission from the rights holder.
B) Acknowledge the source, but no permission is needed.
C) Acknowledge the source only if the source is in print form.
D) Acknowledge the source and place quotation marks around all quoted material.

Question 6

If you find yourself asked by a boss, colleague, or client to do something you don't consider right, what should you do?

A) immediately declare the request unethical
B) explain to the individual how doing what they ask will get you fired
C) record all meetings after the request
D) ask the individual to clarify their request

Question 7

Performing unethical behavior can cost you your…
a. Credibility
b. Job
c. Finances
d. All of the above

Question 8

In a collaborative project, what are the responsibilities of the team leader?

A) Convene meetings
B) Draft and update the collaborative project plan, including the purpose and audiences of the document being created
C) Obtain and disseminate needed resources
D) All of the above

Question 9

As a team member working on a collaborative project, you are responsible for…

A) Doing your part of the work
B) Being respectful
C) Attending meetings only when they affect your part of the work
D) Both a and b

Question 10

Below are screen shots of the main navigation bar of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( HYPERLINK "https://www.ice.gov/" https://www.ice.gov/). Image 1 is the English version, and image 2 is the Spanish (español) version of the same website. What unethical communicative practice could the U.S. government be in violation of?

A) Promotion of prejudice.
B) Stealing copyright material.
C) Displaying misleading figures.
D) Displaying too many illustrations.

Question 11

Consider this scenario: You have just begun volunteering at a local campaign office for the state representative for your district. You have never gotten involved in a real political race before and you are excited. As soon as the campaign manager discovers that you are an English major and technologically savvy, the campaign manager puts you to work, "Get on the Internet and find some dirt on the opposition candidate. I don't care what you find. I don't care if it's true, as long as someone else said it first. We don't want anyone to think we're making this stuff up."
You are immediately troubled by this request. You are excited to perform some research and investigate the opposing candidate, you are worried about the statement that the campaign manager said about not caring if the information is true. What are some actions you can take to handle this situation that you feel might be jeopardizing your ethics?

A) Just do it, it isn't a paid job and you want to dig up dirt on the opposing candidate.
B) Just do it, but only report true information to the campaign manager.
C) Tell the campaign manager you majored in English, but it was in historical literature, so you do not know how to research very well.
D) Be polite and kindly ask the campaign manager to please clarify the request to research inaccurate information.

Question 12

Your professional obligations may conflict with each other. Which of the following are legitimate obligations that might conflict with each other?

A) You must do your fair share of work and use no more than your fair share of resources.
B) You must support the public good and support yourself financially.
C) You must share information with colleagues in the profession who work for different employers and shield confidential information that belongs to your employer.
D) You must take your fair share of the credit and your fair share of the blame.

Question 13

The directory of Professors in the Chemistry Department who all have their PhD:
Dr) Fred Lincoln
Mrs) Adams
Dr) Abel Johnson
Harriet Hastings
What type of unethical communication is this an example of?

A) promotion of prejudice
B) deliberately imprecise or ambiguous language
C) manipulation of numerical information
D) Use of misleading illustrations

Question 14

When encountering unethical situations, what is/are one/some question(s) to consider?

A) What is the nature of the ethical dilemma?
B) What would my mother do?
C) Will I lose my job?
D) How will I be able to pay for legal implications?

Question 15

A good tactic when negotiating an issue that troubles you ethically is to…

A) provide an ethical option to the unethical behavior.
B) make sure the other person knows they are being unethical.
C) never write anything down.
D) find colleagues who you can win to your side.

Question 16

Define "intellectual property" and why ethical concerns are so central to the use of intellectual property.

Question 17

Explain how a Code of Conduct might help you in making ethical decisions in the workplace?

Question 18

Explain the situations that allow you to make limited use of copyrightable material without permission.

Question 19

Imagine you work for a healthcare facility and you are responsible for the organization's Facebook account. You are often asked to post patient testimonials and other motivating messages, such as images from doctors and patients. You always gain permission from the patients, doctors, and other people in the images to be able to post them publicly.
Recently, your organization reviewed patient history data and compared the results of patients who came into the Emergency Department with the number of patients who were successfully treated and had a positive health outcome. Your boss tells you to publish the following graphic on Facebook to show that most patients who come into the Emergency Department receive positive health outcomes and are, "sent home healthy, happy patients."
More Happy Healthy Patients Leave Our Emergency Department
First, explain why or why not the graphic is unethical. Next, describe how you would manage this ethical dilemma using some of the steps or actions the text discusses in the section, "Managing Unethical Situations," in Chapter 3.

Question 20

Image this scenario: Your company is about to market a new line of espresso machines for home use. Your supervisor asks you to go online to various coffee house websites such as Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Caribou Coffee and copy the best language from their descriptions of their products. "It won't be unethical," he tells you, "because they sell their espresso at their store. We're marketing in-home products. Just make a list of clever ideas, descriptions, metaphors, and phrases that we can use in our advertising copy."
Write a memo to your supervisor in which you explain which ethical dilemmas his instructions create, reasons to avoid such actions, and a proposal for how to solve this ethical problem.

Question 21

Which of the following entities do you have ethical responsibilities?

A) Yourself
B) The public
C) Your employer
D) All of the above

Question 22

Which of the following situations may your ethics be questioned?

A) You object to your organization performing illegal activities.
B) You object to your organization performing legal activities that cause harm to the planet and people.
C) You do not question your organization's performance of legal dumping of chemical waste into people's drinking water, which subsequently makes them ill.
D) You disregard what your boss tells you to do because you and your academic institution have a higher ethical standard.

Question 23

If you are faced with an ethical dilemma, a good rule of thumb to help you make a decision is...

A) Pass the problem up to a supervisor, then follow that person's instructions.
B) Do nothing. Things often work themselves out.
C) Follow your gut. If you do what feels right you'll do the right thing.
D) Think of someone you admire and ask yourself how that person would handle the dilemma.

Question 24

What are Codes of Conduct?

A) Public rules that everyone must follow.
B) Professional guidelines or rules that specify appropriate behavior on the job that are specific to each organization.
C) Technical communicators' published guidelines for how to write ethically.
D) Behavioral attributes that ethical people have.

Question 25

Which of the following is a way in which one can violate ethical guidelines?

A) Read the organization's Code of Conduct.
B) Manipulating statistics.
C) Using one's professional association's Standard of Practice in order to make a decision.
D) Checking one's facts to ensure they are correct before delivering information.

Question 26

Using the words, images, or ideas of others without attribution

A) is plagiarism.
B) is only plagiarism if you identify the material as your own.
C) is only plagiarism if you do it on purpose.
D) is only plagiarism if the material has been copyrighted.

Question 27

What is a copyright?

A) Requires a patent to be real.
B) Must be applied for with a government agency.
C) is automatic as soon as the material is created in permanent format, including files on a computer or the Internet.
D) is only a concern if it has a copyright notice on it.

Question 28

When you quote a source, in order to avoid plagiarism

A) change key words using your Thesaurus.
B) summarize; then you don't have to specify the source.
C) only use brief passages, a sentence or less.
D) put material in quotation marks and specify the source.

Question 29

If you alter material you have borrowed from another source, such as a chart or table…

A) you have to get permission to make changes.
B) you no longer need to acknowledge the source...
C) you have to acknowledge the source and acknowledge that you have altered the material and how.
D) put material in quotation marks and specify the source.

Question 30

Which of the following entities do you need permission to use material from?

A) Material created by United States Government agencies.
B) Material for which copyright protection has expired.
C) Material that has never been registered with the copyright office.
D) Material identified as open source or creative common.

Question 31

Why is deliberate use of imprecise or ambiguous language a form of unethical communication?

A) Because the writer does it unintentionally.
B) Because unclear communication can mislead and confuse readers.
C) Because readers have difficultly making decisions when they are only given facts.
D) Because the writer doesn't mean to do it.

Question 32

John is a sales person who is reporting on his company's monthly sales and the chart he shows his co-workers is divided into married individuals and single individuals. Which ethical consideration is John guilty of?

A) Failing to make information accessible.
B) Promotion of prejudice.
C) Fact checking.
D) Critically accessing the credibility of his source of information.

Question 33

To communicate ethically, what must you do prior to using any material from another source?

A) Critically evaluate the material's accuracy across multiple sources and assess the credibility of the source.
B) Ask your boss if the information can be used.
C) Avoid using any material that is not provided by the United States government, than you don't need to worry about ethics.
D) Always review your social media to see if someone else has used it first, than you know it is accurate.

Question 34

To communicate ethically, what must you do prior to using any material from another source?

A) Critically evaluate the material's accuracy across multiple sources and assess the credibility of the source.
B) Ask your boss if the information can be used.
C) Avoid using any material that is not provided by the United States government, than you don't need to worry about ethics.
D) Always review your social media to see if someone else has used it first, than you know it is accurate.

Question 35

If asked to take an unethical action, one reason to cite the Code of Conduct for your profession or company is to…

A) show that the request is considered unethical in your profession or company.
B) prove that you are right.
C) make the other person feel small.
D) stall for time.

Question 36

Explain why NOT being critical of the information you source can be considered an ethical violation and be potentially harmful to individuals who use the communication.

Question 37

Explain how your reputation affects your career.

Question 38

Explain why it is important to always acknowledge sources.

Question 39

One of the ethical challenges for anyone employed as a writing professional is that their obligations may sometimes conflict with each other. Your textbook lists the following obligations:
To yourself
To your discipline and profession
To your academic institution
To your employer
To your colleagues
To the public
Choose two or more obligations from the list and explain how those obligations might, on occasion conflict with each other by describing a scenario in which this ethical dilemma may be encountered. You can describe a real-life situation you have encountered either at school or at work, or you can create an artificial scenario. Make sure to explain how you might resolve this ethical dilemma.

Question 40

The following is a passage from a peer-reviewed journal article:
"While providing students with sufficient time and practice to familiarise themselves with the procedure, teachers should also be aware that there are possibly some students who will not find the procedure comfortable to use and especially so in a group due to learner differences mentioned earlier. Furthermore, when the practice period is over, the teacher could perhaps allow the students to determine their own group members so that they will at
least not feel uncomfortable in the group. However, if such is the case, the teacher should ensure that at least one member of the group is of higher proficiency and reading ability who can play the role of a knowledgeable peer so that the instructional procedure can be beneficial.
Finally, while think-aloud by the students themselves is crucial in the instructional procedure examined in this study, think-aloud by the teachers themselves is also essential. This is because the teacher would be required to think aloud so as to model comprehension processes and to provide examples of think-aloud itself before encouraging students to use it. As with any other instructional procedures that require the use of think-aloud as part of the instruction, the underlying assumption is that the teachers themselves are proficient and comfortable in carrying out think-aloud."
Reference: Seng, G. H. (2007). The Effects of Think-Aloud in a Collaborative Environment to Improve Comprehension of L2 Texts. An International Online Journal, 7(2), 29-45. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1066602" https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1066602
This essay question has two parts: In part one, summarize and paraphrase the two paragraphs above, which are directly quoted from Seng's article. In part two, correctly specify the source of the borrowed or original content and explain why or why not it is ethically appropriate.