More Research Discussion

Announcements

• Duane Cady's Lecture
  Intersections of Racism, Sexism, and Warism
  Tuesday April 5th at 3:30pm
  Denny 200
• Definitions from last class DUE
• Next class canceled--Wednesday, April 6th

Proposals and Projects

Links to the various types of final project you may do are on the Assignments Page at the bottom. Don't forget that your project proposals are due--printed out--today.

If you haven't done so yet, please have your Library Hunt assignment done and linked to your homepage. Again, make sure your link is correct on the Classmates Webpages page. E-mail me if there's an error.

Brief History of Rhetoric

I have a link to a discussion on the History of Rhetoric. I believe I showed you this earlier in the semester, but we'll go over it in more detail today.

Analyzing Ethics

We could study ethics related to technical communication for an entire semester much like many of our other topics. Unfortunately, we only have time to scratch the surface. Ethics in technical communication is often overlooked because many mistakenly see "technical communication" as transmitting "truth" from the expert ( engineering, scientist, or technician) end to the reader.  However, like all communication, we must make choices concerning what to include and what not to include...hmm...that can get a bit tricky.

• If you include something, why?

• If you don't include something, why not?

• Do you have a naturally bias-free disposition?

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's look at how ethics form. I hope if you haven't had a class related to your major about ethics, you soon will.  I'd hate to be your only "ethical" perspective in college.  Let's jump on over to our ethical analysis webpage.

Ethical Dilemmas for You

Take a look at these dilemmas for class. To whom are technical communicators responsible in business settings? Are there any non-business technical writing (or communicating) settings?

And what class assignment would be complete without having a homework assignment to follow up? Exactly--none. Here's your Ethical Dilemmas Assignment--due 4/13.

Readings for the Next Few Classes

We'll be talking about ethics and statistics for the next four (or more) classes. In addition to Chapter 3 in your textbook, I'd like you to read the following:

• Huff, Darrel. “How to Lie with Statistics” (pdf) (on Moodle)

• A very interesting Ghost Story

We'll go over these in class, so you may hold off on reading these:

• HIV/AIDS among African Americans

• Don't miss the "Technical Notes" section of the 2005 Surveillance report

Keep up with the syllabus reading and the readings I have linked from this page. We'll be discussing ethics and statistics next class.

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