Through the journey of this project, I have learned how to do several things that I never thought that I would be able to do. I can now create my own website and completely format it. Moreover, I can make my own movie, which is something that I never thought that I would be capable of doing. As with all technology, this learning process caused me great frustration. However, since I experienced all of this frustration I could not have more pride in our project. I really feel that our project is useful and has meaning to our audience of Clemson students, visitors, and residents. As with anything that takes a lot of hard work, this project has challenged me and helped me to expand my capabilities. Therefore, although this project caused me great work, it also yielded great benefit to me as well.
In addition to the project, in this class I have learned a lot of information about precise writing and ethics. Since we presented the information to the class ourselves, I really had to read carefully and understand as I went along. It made me work harder before class, so that I would be thoroughly prepared if I had to speak. With this class format, I feel as though I learned more than I would have if the teacher had lectured the entire class period. Overall, I feel prepared to present any of my future technical writing in a clear, understandable, and ethical way.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Dombrowski pages 152-233
Notes for Dombrowski pages 152-233
“Tobacco and Death- When is Cause not a Cause?”
-Tobacco industry act as sophists
-Sophists make the worse case seem better.
-Clear that smoking takes 10-20 years off non-smoking life expectancy
Causes
-Two reasons that death due to smoking does not outrage us as much as Challenger Disaster
-First is that we are dealing with statistical causes.
-Statistical causes say nothing about particular individual but addresses probability of what will happen in a population or group.
-Statistical cause has a longer time frame. Cause and effect related after several years.
-Challenger Disaster cause and effect were close in time.
-Second reason is that tobacco industry engaged in aggressive program of misinformation, denial, etc. that clouded the minds of the public.
-Know that heaving smoking over longer period correlate to greater incidence of disease and shorter life expectancy just like we know wearing seatbelts lowers the incidence of injury and death in car accidents.
-We do not know what genetic factors exactly make people more susceptible to cancer.
-But there is a clear connection.
-Tobacco industry acting like modern day sophists and twisting words and finding doctors to agree with them.
-Sophists emphasize that there are two sides to any matter.
-Scientists that the Tobacco Industry employed said the connection was casual and they developed distractions or downplayed focus on cancer.
-By hiring these doctors that supported their agendas, they made the public think that it was a real medical controversy over the effects of smoking when in reality there was no controversy.
Documents
-Tobacco has been under intense scrutiny. In 1997, tobacco industry ordered to pay 350 billion over a period of years.
-Tobacco industry until recent years has gotten off easily due to their large amount of funds to dedicate to lawyers while those against them don’t.
-Often claimants died from tobacco related disease before the jury was finished deliberating.
-Profitability also leads to huge tax resources to states involved, leading to support for the industry in the state legislatures.
-They avoided the first crucial judgment against them.
-Often would discuss problems in the presence of lawyers to lawyer-client privilege.
-1970s they purged and shredded a lot of files.
-1950s-Hill and Knowlton Memorandum.
-It was a PR firm and looked at new discovery of harmful effects of cigarettes not as health issue but as PR issue.
-They did a textual advertisement called “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” and first section attempts to discount dangers while the second sections says that they feel responsibility and were forming Tobacco Industry Research Committee.
-They framed themselves as the victim of malicious false publicity against them.
-1960s- US Surgeon General appointed committee to investigate effects of smoking.
-They found that cigarette smoking was a health hazard and also it was found at this time that nicotine was addictive.
-Also, the Tobacco Industry’s own research committee was discredited as using public relations propaganda to discredit genuine scientific research.
-1970s-The industry used filtered cigarettes to respond to problems against them.
-Still said made filtered cigarettes due to perception of public and not b/c of actual harmful effects.
-Second hand smoke issues also arose.
-Still the tobacco industry would still only acknowledge that there was controversy regarding the health safety of cigarettes.
-Even their own research was showing these harmful effects so they shutdown many or their research facilities.
-1980s-Control of information by lawyers in order to prevent detrimental disclosures was tightened.
-Reports on research were not long documents but little snippets.
-Dr. Huber on Frontline on PBS discredited the tobacco industry and he was a doctor that used to work for them.
-1990s suits were filed against them. The Liget Tobacco group even acknowledged that nicotine is addictive.
Single Word
-1994 heads of industry testified before congressional committee that they did not think nicotine was addictive.
-But the industry had internal documents that said otherwise so perjury charges were pursued but then realized could not prosecute someone for their “belief.”
Graphical Images
-Joe Camel (trendsetter but still innocent cartoon) was meant to divert use away from the harmful effects of cigarettes.
-10 million out of court settlement about Joe Camel and promise to cease use.
-Kluger shows a 1974 advertisement that has two smoking horsemen surrounded by snow; snow represents exact opposite of pollution cigarette smoke causes to environment and lungs.
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle-
Virtue and honesty so see tobacco industry as unethical.
Kant-
Tobacco documents unethical b/c they don’t act in a way that the industry would want their actions to become a universal principle.
Utilitarian
-No benefit to tobacco smoking.
Feminist/Ethics of Care
-Industry shows capitalism and free enterprise at its worse.
“Star Wars- Hope vs. Reality”
-Strategic Defense Initiative known as Star Wars.
-Reagan in 1983 developed to form defense against nuclear weapons.
-We were in nuclear stalemate with Soviet Union.
-Mission statement may sound good but it was technically impossible.
Overview of SDI
-The goals were to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles before they reached our soil, and to make nuclear weapons obsolete and impotent.
-Technical optimism in Reagan’s speech.
-Goals are worthy and desirable but not technically feasible.
A Complex System
-Its battle management functions relied on computer software and hardware.
-The software was the link that would make the whole program work.
-Wanted to detect incoming missiles at moment of launch.
-All of the detecting/tracking and intercepting devices would have to be guided by precisely coordinated computer systems.
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
-Relying on tens of millions of lines of code in software to function correctly.
-Concerns about feasibility.
Congressional Hearing
-President’s science advisor toned it down- now not total protection but investigation of strategic defense options.
-The science advisor said that technologies not here now but on the horizon.
-Senators argued over technical feasibility.
SDI Documents: Pro and Con
Pro
-Used moral, political or ideological statements to justify need for radical change.
-Appeal for want for real defense against adamant threat.
-Keyworth, science advisor, discusses our brutal enemy, etc.
-Keyworth now claimed SDI was for deterrence (retraction of President’s initial statement) and to provide additional leverage to control negotiations. In his address reduced technical needs from program.
-Fletcher headed up Defensive Technology Study group and it had optimistic view of SDI.
Con
-Main con was that it could not be achieved.
-Smarr, director of technology for national center, said simply it will not do what it is meant to do.
-Lin, computer scientist at MIT, said technology can not coincide with reality (including the unknown and unexpected).
Parnas
-Father of software engineering.
-gave clear, technical statement
-said public should not be misled about the security provided by SDI.
-no software system could possibly be developed along the lines required by SDI that would be trustworthy.
-Frank about why he resigned from panel, he couldn’t continue to use vast amounts of money for his own self interest in a program that was not feasible.
-He was all about personal credibility and not making 1000 dollars a day.
Stars Wars Boycott Pledge
-petition in opposition developed at University of Illinois and Cornell.
-pledge not to accept funding related to SDI, and it was signed by thousands of scientists, researchers, etc.
-signed by 15 Nobel Prize winners
Patriot-Small Scale SDI
-In Persian Gulf War, patriot missiles intercepted Iraqi missiles.
-But only 9 percent effectiveness rating, most of the time they did hit their targeted missiles.
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle
-Unclear about supporters-they want to help but at the same time are they being deceptive of effectiveness.
Kant
-Realistic was is not realistic then ethical problem.
Utilitarianism
-Cost vs. benefit would show ethical problems in this view
Feminist/Ethics of Care
-Feminist against violence.
Parnas acted ethically in all appraisals.
“Tobacco and Death- When is Cause not a Cause?”
-Tobacco industry act as sophists
-Sophists make the worse case seem better.
-Clear that smoking takes 10-20 years off non-smoking life expectancy
Causes
-Two reasons that death due to smoking does not outrage us as much as Challenger Disaster
-First is that we are dealing with statistical causes.
-Statistical causes say nothing about particular individual but addresses probability of what will happen in a population or group.
-Statistical cause has a longer time frame. Cause and effect related after several years.
-Challenger Disaster cause and effect were close in time.
-Second reason is that tobacco industry engaged in aggressive program of misinformation, denial, etc. that clouded the minds of the public.
-Know that heaving smoking over longer period correlate to greater incidence of disease and shorter life expectancy just like we know wearing seatbelts lowers the incidence of injury and death in car accidents.
-We do not know what genetic factors exactly make people more susceptible to cancer.
-But there is a clear connection.
-Tobacco industry acting like modern day sophists and twisting words and finding doctors to agree with them.
-Sophists emphasize that there are two sides to any matter.
-Scientists that the Tobacco Industry employed said the connection was casual and they developed distractions or downplayed focus on cancer.
-By hiring these doctors that supported their agendas, they made the public think that it was a real medical controversy over the effects of smoking when in reality there was no controversy.
Documents
-Tobacco has been under intense scrutiny. In 1997, tobacco industry ordered to pay 350 billion over a period of years.
-Tobacco industry until recent years has gotten off easily due to their large amount of funds to dedicate to lawyers while those against them don’t.
-Often claimants died from tobacco related disease before the jury was finished deliberating.
-Profitability also leads to huge tax resources to states involved, leading to support for the industry in the state legislatures.
-They avoided the first crucial judgment against them.
-Often would discuss problems in the presence of lawyers to lawyer-client privilege.
-1970s they purged and shredded a lot of files.
-1950s-Hill and Knowlton Memorandum.
-It was a PR firm and looked at new discovery of harmful effects of cigarettes not as health issue but as PR issue.
-They did a textual advertisement called “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” and first section attempts to discount dangers while the second sections says that they feel responsibility and were forming Tobacco Industry Research Committee.
-They framed themselves as the victim of malicious false publicity against them.
-1960s- US Surgeon General appointed committee to investigate effects of smoking.
-They found that cigarette smoking was a health hazard and also it was found at this time that nicotine was addictive.
-Also, the Tobacco Industry’s own research committee was discredited as using public relations propaganda to discredit genuine scientific research.
-1970s-The industry used filtered cigarettes to respond to problems against them.
-Still said made filtered cigarettes due to perception of public and not b/c of actual harmful effects.
-Second hand smoke issues also arose.
-Still the tobacco industry would still only acknowledge that there was controversy regarding the health safety of cigarettes.
-Even their own research was showing these harmful effects so they shutdown many or their research facilities.
-1980s-Control of information by lawyers in order to prevent detrimental disclosures was tightened.
-Reports on research were not long documents but little snippets.
-Dr. Huber on Frontline on PBS discredited the tobacco industry and he was a doctor that used to work for them.
-1990s suits were filed against them. The Liget Tobacco group even acknowledged that nicotine is addictive.
Single Word
-1994 heads of industry testified before congressional committee that they did not think nicotine was addictive.
-But the industry had internal documents that said otherwise so perjury charges were pursued but then realized could not prosecute someone for their “belief.”
Graphical Images
-Joe Camel (trendsetter but still innocent cartoon) was meant to divert use away from the harmful effects of cigarettes.
-10 million out of court settlement about Joe Camel and promise to cease use.
-Kluger shows a 1974 advertisement that has two smoking horsemen surrounded by snow; snow represents exact opposite of pollution cigarette smoke causes to environment and lungs.
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle-
Virtue and honesty so see tobacco industry as unethical.
Kant-
Tobacco documents unethical b/c they don’t act in a way that the industry would want their actions to become a universal principle.
Utilitarian
-No benefit to tobacco smoking.
Feminist/Ethics of Care
-Industry shows capitalism and free enterprise at its worse.
“Star Wars- Hope vs. Reality”
-Strategic Defense Initiative known as Star Wars.
-Reagan in 1983 developed to form defense against nuclear weapons.
-We were in nuclear stalemate with Soviet Union.
-Mission statement may sound good but it was technically impossible.
Overview of SDI
-The goals were to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles before they reached our soil, and to make nuclear weapons obsolete and impotent.
-Technical optimism in Reagan’s speech.
-Goals are worthy and desirable but not technically feasible.
A Complex System
-Its battle management functions relied on computer software and hardware.
-The software was the link that would make the whole program work.
-Wanted to detect incoming missiles at moment of launch.
-All of the detecting/tracking and intercepting devices would have to be guided by precisely coordinated computer systems.
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
-Relying on tens of millions of lines of code in software to function correctly.
-Concerns about feasibility.
Congressional Hearing
-President’s science advisor toned it down- now not total protection but investigation of strategic defense options.
-The science advisor said that technologies not here now but on the horizon.
-Senators argued over technical feasibility.
SDI Documents: Pro and Con
Pro
-Used moral, political or ideological statements to justify need for radical change.
-Appeal for want for real defense against adamant threat.
-Keyworth, science advisor, discusses our brutal enemy, etc.
-Keyworth now claimed SDI was for deterrence (retraction of President’s initial statement) and to provide additional leverage to control negotiations. In his address reduced technical needs from program.
-Fletcher headed up Defensive Technology Study group and it had optimistic view of SDI.
Con
-Main con was that it could not be achieved.
-Smarr, director of technology for national center, said simply it will not do what it is meant to do.
-Lin, computer scientist at MIT, said technology can not coincide with reality (including the unknown and unexpected).
Parnas
-Father of software engineering.
-gave clear, technical statement
-said public should not be misled about the security provided by SDI.
-no software system could possibly be developed along the lines required by SDI that would be trustworthy.
-Frank about why he resigned from panel, he couldn’t continue to use vast amounts of money for his own self interest in a program that was not feasible.
-He was all about personal credibility and not making 1000 dollars a day.
Stars Wars Boycott Pledge
-petition in opposition developed at University of Illinois and Cornell.
-pledge not to accept funding related to SDI, and it was signed by thousands of scientists, researchers, etc.
-signed by 15 Nobel Prize winners
Patriot-Small Scale SDI
-In Persian Gulf War, patriot missiles intercepted Iraqi missiles.
-But only 9 percent effectiveness rating, most of the time they did hit their targeted missiles.
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle
-Unclear about supporters-they want to help but at the same time are they being deceptive of effectiveness.
Kant
-Realistic was is not realistic then ethical problem.
Utilitarianism
-Cost vs. benefit would show ethical problems in this view
Feminist/Ethics of Care
-Feminist against violence.
Parnas acted ethically in all appraisals.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
And Now a Word About Ethics
And Now a Word (or Two or Three) About Ethics (347-381)
“Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators” (Winsor)
-Some knew of problems with shuttle’s solid rocket boosters but they did not share with organization as a whole
-Why wasn’t information communicated?
-managers and engineers viewing the same facts from different perspectives
-the general difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news especially when it
must be passed to superiors or outsiders
-Communication is not just shared information, it is shared interpretation.
- In the Challenger disaster managers thought a 1 in 100,000 chance of failure, and engineers thought a 1 in 100 chance of failure.
-Bad news is not sent upward in organizations and even when it is people are less likely to believe it than good news.
-In Challenger they also had to move bad news through different organizations including NASA, Marshall, and MTI.
Physical Cause of the Accident
-physical cause was the failure of a rubber seal in the solid rocket booster
-problems with O rings and pressure allowing heats to corrode them; O rings connected the segments of the rocket boosters
Early Responses to Bad News: Disbelief and Failure to Send Upward
-Marshall treated as serious when they communicated downward to MTI, but communicated as minor problem to NASA
-Saw erosion at MTI on Februrary 3, 1984
-The subsequent O rings has joint rotation problems
-Marshall changed joints classification from IR (critical system with backup) to I (a critical system without such backup)
-MTI didn’t seem to remember being informed of this rating change
-Mille and Coates at Marshall said that MTI was being too optimistic regarding the extent of joint rotation and thus was too optimistic.
-Marshall too became optimistic when they informed NASA
-MTI reported to Marshall that the maximum erosion on the O-Rings would be .09 inches and the rings would function with .095 inches of erosion. There the extremely small safety margin of .005 was not reported by Marshall (instead used as a pro to NASA).
-NASA wanted Marshall and therefore MTI to identify the cause of the erosion and this wasn’t done until August 19, 1985 (16 months later).
-So to summarize the problems with the O rings were generally not believed by MTI, were accepted at Marshall as long as they could see the problem as MTI’s, and were not sent upward to NASA.
Continued Bad News Rejected Despite Contradictory Evidence
-January 1985, even in cold temperature the O rings were not eroding. But, they just assumed secondary ring would fix it if first one failed.
-At first MTI engineer Roger Boisjoly wanted continued launch.
-The redundancy of the O ring erosion should have been a huge issue, but wasn’t.
-On June 25 flight a nozzle joint eroded to .171 inches, but Mulloy took optimistic view and claimed the nozzle joint failed not because of a defective design but because of a defective ring that had escaped notice in the leak test. Only nozzle joints were focused on here. But there was a launch restraint by Mulloy placed on the nozzle joints. However, NASA never was informed.
Internal vs. External Communication of Concern from MTI Engineers
-Engineers at MTI became concerned. Roger Boisjoly was now insistent on the possible dangers from the O-rings, and he stated this opinion in one of his reports. His report said there would be flight failure if no solution was found.
-Boisjoly tried in a memo to report his new interpretation to his management. In memo his criticizes management in his own company and he uses much more emotional language then is normally common in a engineering documents.
-He did mark his memo COMPANY PRIVATE, so it was kept within MTI.
-Russell did inform Marshall of concerns in his answers to their questions, but since it was written to outsiders it affected its tone even though he and Boisjoly were very much in agreement. It just gave facts with little interpretation.
-Mulloy from Marshall did not send the memo to NASA because it was old news.
The Spilt between Managers and Engineers
-in October MTI engineers Ebeling and Stein complained in a separate internal MTI memo to management.
-In report to VP of Space Programs at MTI, the engineers could not convince him of the seriousness of the situation.
-Boisjoly said in his activity report that apparently upper management feels for sure and the customer be damned.
-MTI recommended that launch be delayed until temperatures reached 53 degrees since it was only at 36 in January 1986, but Marshall refused.
-Mulloy and Hardy at Marshall were appalled at recommendation and hoped they did not expect them to wait until April to launch.
-No engineers were in favor of launch, but managers at MTI were unanimously in favor of it. (Lund asked to take off engineering hat and put on management hat and when he did he changed his position.)
-Hardy and Mulloy did not pass onto NASA officials the fact that the MTI engineers were opposed to the launch.
-Next morning Challenger took off.
Conclusion
-different perspectives on operations between managers and engineers were huge problems in the Challenger Disaster.
-No one wants to communicate bad news outside of the company.
-A failure to believe bad news is common
“How to Lie With Statistics” (Huff)
-Statistics can sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify.
The sample with the built in bias
-ex. Saying the average Yale man from the class of 1924 makes at least 25,000 a year excluded people whose addresses aren’t known and those you threw away the questionnaire.
-It has to be a representative sample with every person as equally likely to be included in the questionnaire.
The truncated, or gee whiz graph
-you can chop off parts of a graph to make the trend look more severe
The souped-up graph
-changing proportions between the ordinate and abscissa or in other words change the scale.
The well-chosen average
-average vs. median
The insignificant difference or the elusive error
-remember to incorporate error into your calculations.
The one-dimensional picture
-you can put three dimensional objects in a two dimensional graph because it distorts the results
The ever impressive decimal
-if you carry out results to more decimal places it sounds more and more like you know exactly what you are talking about
The semi-attached figure
-if you can’t prove what you want to demonstrate something else and pretend they are the same
The unwarranted assumption or post hoc rides again
-cause and effect can be hidden in statistical data
-ex. Cigarette smokers make lower grades but this does not mean that cigarettes dull the brain even thought that is the statistics imply.
“Determining the Ethics of Style” (Jones)
What is Ethics?
-study of right and wrong conduct
-also means set of moral principles and values
Ethics and Technical Prose
-writing involves ethics too- are you knowingly emitting essential information, are you unclear or imprecise leading injury, are you morally responsible, etc.
Ethics and the Professions
-see ten commandments of computer ethics/ethical questions (page 370-1)
-also the Society for Technical Communicators also has ethical guidelines page 372
“Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing” (Rude)
Legal Issues in Editing
Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
-one can own intellectual property
Copyright
-US Copyright Act of 1976 protects authors of original works of authorship whether or not the works are published.
Ownership
-Copyrights belong to the authors who created the work unless the author wrote the work to meet responsibilities of employment
-works by US government not eligible for copyright; they are in the public domain.
Copyright Notice, Registration, and Deposit
-Automatic once work exists in fixed form and the protection does not require a notice or registration.
-however registration with the copyright office gives maximum legal protections
-for best protection, published work should include a notice of copyright
International Copyright Protection
-copyright in one country does not automatically extend to another
-depend on laws of particular country
Permissions and “Fair Use”
-Permission must be obtained to reproduce sections of someone else’s work
-permission should exist in writing
-may charge a fee for usage
-fair use allows some copying for educational or other noncommercial purposes
-ex. You can photocopy an article in a journal to study for your research paper
Copyright and Online Publication
-you can use what you find on the web under the terms of fair use
-but you can’t distribute something you found on the web to make money or redistribute it and cut out advertisements
-cyberspace law is a new area that is still developing
Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
-trademarks are brand names, phrases, graphics, or logos that identify products
-patents protect inventions the same way that copyright protects expressions
-laws also protect trade secrets such as the specifications for a new product or customer list. (can’t just hire to find out what competitor is planning)
Product Safety and Liability
-Companies and individuals must assume responsibility for safety of the products as they are used or even misused by consumers.
Instructions, Safety Labels, and the Duty To Warn
-clear and complete instructions
-warn of risk/hazards
-safety labels should be attached to products where users will see them before and as they use the product
The Editor’s Legal Responsibility
-editor has responsibility in eyes of the law for safe use of the product
Libel, Fraud, and Misrepresentation
-libel is a defamatory statement without basis in fact that shames of lowers the public reputation of an identifiable person
-fraud and misrepresentation deceive the public
“Challenger Disaster: Information vs. Meaning” (Dombrowski)
-January 28, 1986- killed 7 astronauts and brought shuttle program to a halt
-tragedy because it was not just disaster but an instant of failed judgment
-tarnished NASA’s reputation
Two Governmental Reports
Report of Presidential Commission (Rogers Commission)
-general atmosphere of unconcern for safety further supported by lack of escape system and the faulty braking system
-topics are not proportional with importance (most important issue was communication breakdown)
-disproportional could be unintentional (just trying to report everything), or could have chosen to report everything that they collected regardless of strength of relevance to show that report was thorough), or could have included a lot of information to show that all factors played significant role
-maybe presented this information to mislead or complicate, in order to avoid tarnishing NASA’s image
Difference Between Reports
-Not only did the presidential commission issue a report on the Challenger, but so did the congressional committee.
More Than Information
-differ in ethical responsibilities and conclusions
-Information they gathered was the same yet they reached different conclusions
-So different conclusions may have occurred because bodies of information are problematic (meaning comes from combining information with assumptions, interests, goals, and values) or meaning does spring fully formed from any body of information (therefore one is correct and one is incorrect). (In less likely case, both could be incorrect.)
Confusing Language
-it uses different language when amounting to the same thing (decision was flawed vs. the decision making process was flawed)
Conclusions Do Not Follow Logically
-the presidential commission fails to address clearly and squarely the question of ethical responsibilities
-First off, it does not point a finger of ethical blame towards anyone.
-Second off, it recommends that additional procedures be implemented to prevent similar disasters in the future, yet the evidence and testimony clearly imply that procedures in place were adequate.
-Third, the suggestion for additional procedures implies that procedures were at fault or to blame (impersonal procedures cannot be blamed).
-It presidential commission report does not account for personal responsibility.
-Congressional report is clear and explicit. It says technical decision making was the problem. It uses consistent and clear terminology.
Two Crucial Shifts in Meaning
O-Ring Charring
-since flights were successful with charring, they took this to mean that may a charred O-ring was a good thing
-the raw data about the O-ring remained consistent but the way it was interpreted, what it represented, and what should be done about it totally changed.
Powerful Role of Assumptions
Managers vs. Engineers again
“Smoking Gun” Memorandum
-managerial audience and he states they are fully aware of the problem and they have been warned
-uses words to make a point that could have been left out like problem or seriousness of the…etc.
-gets highly personal and emotional (fear and honesty)
Graphical Images
-never should be any charring
-don’t have scales or units
-erosion represented as blank space
-don’t have to be a scientist to see that they are eroded
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle
-would commend memorandum (personal virtue)
Kant
-would reject presidential commission report
Utilitarianism
-could argue for presidential commission report written out of desire to do most good to majority
Ethics of Care
-wouldn’t like how managers use authoritative rule over engineers
“Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators” (Winsor)
-Some knew of problems with shuttle’s solid rocket boosters but they did not share with organization as a whole
-Why wasn’t information communicated?
-managers and engineers viewing the same facts from different perspectives
-the general difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news especially when it
must be passed to superiors or outsiders
-Communication is not just shared information, it is shared interpretation.
- In the Challenger disaster managers thought a 1 in 100,000 chance of failure, and engineers thought a 1 in 100 chance of failure.
-Bad news is not sent upward in organizations and even when it is people are less likely to believe it than good news.
-In Challenger they also had to move bad news through different organizations including NASA, Marshall, and MTI.
Physical Cause of the Accident
-physical cause was the failure of a rubber seal in the solid rocket booster
-problems with O rings and pressure allowing heats to corrode them; O rings connected the segments of the rocket boosters
Early Responses to Bad News: Disbelief and Failure to Send Upward
-Marshall treated as serious when they communicated downward to MTI, but communicated as minor problem to NASA
-Saw erosion at MTI on Februrary 3, 1984
-The subsequent O rings has joint rotation problems
-Marshall changed joints classification from IR (critical system with backup) to I (a critical system without such backup)
-MTI didn’t seem to remember being informed of this rating change
-Mille and Coates at Marshall said that MTI was being too optimistic regarding the extent of joint rotation and thus was too optimistic.
-Marshall too became optimistic when they informed NASA
-MTI reported to Marshall that the maximum erosion on the O-Rings would be .09 inches and the rings would function with .095 inches of erosion. There the extremely small safety margin of .005 was not reported by Marshall (instead used as a pro to NASA).
-NASA wanted Marshall and therefore MTI to identify the cause of the erosion and this wasn’t done until August 19, 1985 (16 months later).
-So to summarize the problems with the O rings were generally not believed by MTI, were accepted at Marshall as long as they could see the problem as MTI’s, and were not sent upward to NASA.
Continued Bad News Rejected Despite Contradictory Evidence
-January 1985, even in cold temperature the O rings were not eroding. But, they just assumed secondary ring would fix it if first one failed.
-At first MTI engineer Roger Boisjoly wanted continued launch.
-The redundancy of the O ring erosion should have been a huge issue, but wasn’t.
-On June 25 flight a nozzle joint eroded to .171 inches, but Mulloy took optimistic view and claimed the nozzle joint failed not because of a defective design but because of a defective ring that had escaped notice in the leak test. Only nozzle joints were focused on here. But there was a launch restraint by Mulloy placed on the nozzle joints. However, NASA never was informed.
Internal vs. External Communication of Concern from MTI Engineers
-Engineers at MTI became concerned. Roger Boisjoly was now insistent on the possible dangers from the O-rings, and he stated this opinion in one of his reports. His report said there would be flight failure if no solution was found.
-Boisjoly tried in a memo to report his new interpretation to his management. In memo his criticizes management in his own company and he uses much more emotional language then is normally common in a engineering documents.
-He did mark his memo COMPANY PRIVATE, so it was kept within MTI.
-Russell did inform Marshall of concerns in his answers to their questions, but since it was written to outsiders it affected its tone even though he and Boisjoly were very much in agreement. It just gave facts with little interpretation.
-Mulloy from Marshall did not send the memo to NASA because it was old news.
The Spilt between Managers and Engineers
-in October MTI engineers Ebeling and Stein complained in a separate internal MTI memo to management.
-In report to VP of Space Programs at MTI, the engineers could not convince him of the seriousness of the situation.
-Boisjoly said in his activity report that apparently upper management feels for sure and the customer be damned.
-MTI recommended that launch be delayed until temperatures reached 53 degrees since it was only at 36 in January 1986, but Marshall refused.
-Mulloy and Hardy at Marshall were appalled at recommendation and hoped they did not expect them to wait until April to launch.
-No engineers were in favor of launch, but managers at MTI were unanimously in favor of it. (Lund asked to take off engineering hat and put on management hat and when he did he changed his position.)
-Hardy and Mulloy did not pass onto NASA officials the fact that the MTI engineers were opposed to the launch.
-Next morning Challenger took off.
Conclusion
-different perspectives on operations between managers and engineers were huge problems in the Challenger Disaster.
-No one wants to communicate bad news outside of the company.
-A failure to believe bad news is common
“How to Lie With Statistics” (Huff)
-Statistics can sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify.
The sample with the built in bias
-ex. Saying the average Yale man from the class of 1924 makes at least 25,000 a year excluded people whose addresses aren’t known and those you threw away the questionnaire.
-It has to be a representative sample with every person as equally likely to be included in the questionnaire.
The truncated, or gee whiz graph
-you can chop off parts of a graph to make the trend look more severe
The souped-up graph
-changing proportions between the ordinate and abscissa or in other words change the scale.
The well-chosen average
-average vs. median
The insignificant difference or the elusive error
-remember to incorporate error into your calculations.
The one-dimensional picture
-you can put three dimensional objects in a two dimensional graph because it distorts the results
The ever impressive decimal
-if you carry out results to more decimal places it sounds more and more like you know exactly what you are talking about
The semi-attached figure
-if you can’t prove what you want to demonstrate something else and pretend they are the same
The unwarranted assumption or post hoc rides again
-cause and effect can be hidden in statistical data
-ex. Cigarette smokers make lower grades but this does not mean that cigarettes dull the brain even thought that is the statistics imply.
“Determining the Ethics of Style” (Jones)
What is Ethics?
-study of right and wrong conduct
-also means set of moral principles and values
Ethics and Technical Prose
-writing involves ethics too- are you knowingly emitting essential information, are you unclear or imprecise leading injury, are you morally responsible, etc.
Ethics and the Professions
-see ten commandments of computer ethics/ethical questions (page 370-1)
-also the Society for Technical Communicators also has ethical guidelines page 372
“Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing” (Rude)
Legal Issues in Editing
Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
-one can own intellectual property
Copyright
-US Copyright Act of 1976 protects authors of original works of authorship whether or not the works are published.
Ownership
-Copyrights belong to the authors who created the work unless the author wrote the work to meet responsibilities of employment
-works by US government not eligible for copyright; they are in the public domain.
Copyright Notice, Registration, and Deposit
-Automatic once work exists in fixed form and the protection does not require a notice or registration.
-however registration with the copyright office gives maximum legal protections
-for best protection, published work should include a notice of copyright
International Copyright Protection
-copyright in one country does not automatically extend to another
-depend on laws of particular country
Permissions and “Fair Use”
-Permission must be obtained to reproduce sections of someone else’s work
-permission should exist in writing
-may charge a fee for usage
-fair use allows some copying for educational or other noncommercial purposes
-ex. You can photocopy an article in a journal to study for your research paper
Copyright and Online Publication
-you can use what you find on the web under the terms of fair use
-but you can’t distribute something you found on the web to make money or redistribute it and cut out advertisements
-cyberspace law is a new area that is still developing
Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
-trademarks are brand names, phrases, graphics, or logos that identify products
-patents protect inventions the same way that copyright protects expressions
-laws also protect trade secrets such as the specifications for a new product or customer list. (can’t just hire to find out what competitor is planning)
Product Safety and Liability
-Companies and individuals must assume responsibility for safety of the products as they are used or even misused by consumers.
Instructions, Safety Labels, and the Duty To Warn
-clear and complete instructions
-warn of risk/hazards
-safety labels should be attached to products where users will see them before and as they use the product
The Editor’s Legal Responsibility
-editor has responsibility in eyes of the law for safe use of the product
Libel, Fraud, and Misrepresentation
-libel is a defamatory statement without basis in fact that shames of lowers the public reputation of an identifiable person
-fraud and misrepresentation deceive the public
“Challenger Disaster: Information vs. Meaning” (Dombrowski)
-January 28, 1986- killed 7 astronauts and brought shuttle program to a halt
-tragedy because it was not just disaster but an instant of failed judgment
-tarnished NASA’s reputation
Two Governmental Reports
Report of Presidential Commission (Rogers Commission)
-general atmosphere of unconcern for safety further supported by lack of escape system and the faulty braking system
-topics are not proportional with importance (most important issue was communication breakdown)
-disproportional could be unintentional (just trying to report everything), or could have chosen to report everything that they collected regardless of strength of relevance to show that report was thorough), or could have included a lot of information to show that all factors played significant role
-maybe presented this information to mislead or complicate, in order to avoid tarnishing NASA’s image
Difference Between Reports
-Not only did the presidential commission issue a report on the Challenger, but so did the congressional committee.
More Than Information
-differ in ethical responsibilities and conclusions
-Information they gathered was the same yet they reached different conclusions
-So different conclusions may have occurred because bodies of information are problematic (meaning comes from combining information with assumptions, interests, goals, and values) or meaning does spring fully formed from any body of information (therefore one is correct and one is incorrect). (In less likely case, both could be incorrect.)
Confusing Language
-it uses different language when amounting to the same thing (decision was flawed vs. the decision making process was flawed)
Conclusions Do Not Follow Logically
-the presidential commission fails to address clearly and squarely the question of ethical responsibilities
-First off, it does not point a finger of ethical blame towards anyone.
-Second off, it recommends that additional procedures be implemented to prevent similar disasters in the future, yet the evidence and testimony clearly imply that procedures in place were adequate.
-Third, the suggestion for additional procedures implies that procedures were at fault or to blame (impersonal procedures cannot be blamed).
-It presidential commission report does not account for personal responsibility.
-Congressional report is clear and explicit. It says technical decision making was the problem. It uses consistent and clear terminology.
Two Crucial Shifts in Meaning
O-Ring Charring
-since flights were successful with charring, they took this to mean that may a charred O-ring was a good thing
-the raw data about the O-ring remained consistent but the way it was interpreted, what it represented, and what should be done about it totally changed.
Powerful Role of Assumptions
Managers vs. Engineers again
“Smoking Gun” Memorandum
-managerial audience and he states they are fully aware of the problem and they have been warned
-uses words to make a point that could have been left out like problem or seriousness of the…etc.
-gets highly personal and emotional (fear and honesty)
Graphical Images
-never should be any charring
-don’t have scales or units
-erosion represented as blank space
-don’t have to be a scientist to see that they are eroded
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle
-would commend memorandum (personal virtue)
Kant
-would reject presidential commission report
Utilitarianism
-could argue for presidential commission report written out of desire to do most good to majority
Ethics of Care
-wouldn’t like how managers use authoritative rule over engineers
Monday, November 10, 2008
Cover Letters and Internet Resumes (306-334)
“The Basics of a Cover Letter” (Steven Garber)
-Format: shouldn’t be just resume is enclosed
The Parts of a Letter
-highest quality paper
-typed on good computer
-business style or personal style can by used
-Business is just the parts of the letter beginning at the left margin
-Personal the return address and complimentary close begin at the centerline of the page and paragraphs are indented
-Parts are return address (avoid abbreviations and don’t put your name there), date (no abbreviations), inside address (person’s title, company name and address), salutation (Dear Mr. or Ms.)
-Length is three or four short paragraphs on one page
-An enclosure line is used primarily in formal or official correspondence. Not wrong to include in cover but unnecessary
-use standard paper size
-paper color /quality- match it with your resume
-don’t handwrite
-use standard business envelope
Content
-personalize each letter –determine the appropriate person to address
-mapping it out-shouldn’t repeat what it says in resume; give overview of your capabilities and show why you are good for the job; be sure to show INTEREST in the company
-first paragraph-state the position for which you are applying
-second paragraph- indicate what you would contribute to the company and show how qualifications would benefit them
-third paragraph-show how you EXCEED requirements (not just average but super candidate)
-fourth paragraph-close by saying you look forward to hearing form them
-complimentary close-should be two lines beneath the body and say Sincerely followed by name three lines under and SIGN IT!
Tips for Successful Cover Letters
-polite and formal style
-sound confident in a reserved way (don’t be melodramatic)
-emphasize concrete examples (specific accomplishments)
-use powerful language (hard hitting and easy to understand with fewest words possible) (ex. Use action verbs like implemented instead of did)
-avoid catchphrases (self-starter)
-mention personal preferences (say if willing to relocate there)
-proof with care (embarrassing)
Cover Letter Blunders to Avoid
-unrelated career goals
-comparisons and clichés (ex. I am a people person)
-wasted space (include only relevant information)
-form letters (mass mailings in which you send a form letter to a large number of employers are not recommended)
-inappropriate stationary (white and ivory with no graphics)
-amusing anecdotes (don’t)
-erroneous company information
-desperation (sound determined not desperate)
-personal photos
-confessed shortcomings (don’t emphasize flaws over strengths)
-misrepresentation (don’t exaggerate until the point of misrepresentation)
-demanding statements (demonstrate what you can do for them)
-missing resume (don’t forget to enclose all the materials that you refer to in your cover letter)
-personal information (don’t include age, health, physical characteristics, martial status, race, religion, political/moral beliefs, or any other personal information.
-choice of pronouns (use 1st person)
-Tone trouble (make sure can’t be interpreted in an unfavorable way)
-gimmicks (no home videos or singing telegrams)
-typographical errors
-messy corrections (retype if make mistakes don’t add notes or post-it)
-omitted signature (don’t forget to sign in blue or black ink)
Cover Letters for Special Situations
-lack of experience, raising kids, age/disability
-emphasize your strengths (ex. Age can be a selling point)
Response to Blind Advertisement
-don’t list employer info
-therefore define knowledge of industry
-target qualifications that meet information that is given
Cold Letters
-directly contact potential employers without a referral or previous correspondence
-used to advertise capabilities to hiring managers
Broadcast Letters
-advertise availability to top professional in particular field
-used by seasoned executives
-used when letter will end up in the hands of fellow industry executive
Letter to Employment Agency
-focus on who you are and type of position you are looking for and in what field, and your strongest qualifications for it
Letter To Executive Search Firm
-highlight accomplishments and summarize experience to intrigue recruiters
Networking Letters
-these letters refer to a third party industry contact to get the reader’s attention and induce him or her to assist you in your job search
-be careful with tone; many are written to an addressee whom the candidate has not met but has been referred to by a mutual acquaintance
Thank You Letters
-handwritten is acceptable but make sure neat
-short and send promptly
“Your Resume on the Internet” (Dikel and Roehm)
-posted resumes on the internet are good but are not the best way to achieve job search happiness
-may be ineffective but if going to do it then do it right
The Myth About the Internet Resume
-Information on the resume can be the same but different formats: hard copy, scannable version, plain-text version, email version
-don’t put too much information on it
Rules for Responding Online
-Send resume in the body of email (catches the eye)
-include cover letter
-use advertised job title in subject line of the email
-follow application instructions
E-Resumes Are Not Just For Email
-can post resume online not just email them
-if you type directly in site it is very easy to have typos
-may have certain from with format that you don’t like
-can’t save your resume for other uses because the resume bank is on a website, so have to repeat resume building steps on each site
Preparing A Perfect Plain Text Resume
-check keywords
-save your resume as text only document
-delete page numbers
-use all caps for words that need special emphasis (text only gets rid of bold and italic)
-replace each bullet point with standard keyboard symbol
-use straight quotes in place of curly quotes
-rearrange text if necessary
-limit line lengths (no more than 65 characters)
-save as text only with line breaks
Where, Oh, Where Should That Resume Go?
-post only on one or two large online databases
-post it one or tow targeted resume databases specific to your industry, occupational group, or geographic location
Protect Yourself Online
-does site have comprehensive privacy policy?
-do you have to register a profile or resume before you can search through the jobs
-are most of the jobs posted by employers or agencies on behalf of the employers
-can you set up one or more email agents that will send matching jobs to you when you are not on the site.
-who has access to the database of resumes
-can you limit access to your personal contact information
-can you store more than one version of your resume so that you can customize if for different types of opportunities
-will you be able to edit your resume once you have posted it
-will you be able to delete your resume after you have a found a job
Before You Post Something to Think About
-do you want your resume public
-are you prepared for the consequences should an electronic resume come back to haunt you
Resume Blasters
-resume distribution services are becoming more prevalent
-offers little or any control of where you resume could end up
-most of time pay to have your resume forwarded in a way that they cannot be responded to or they could simply be paying for recruiters without jobs
-Format: shouldn’t be just resume is enclosed
The Parts of a Letter
-highest quality paper
-typed on good computer
-business style or personal style can by used
-Business is just the parts of the letter beginning at the left margin
-Personal the return address and complimentary close begin at the centerline of the page and paragraphs are indented
-Parts are return address (avoid abbreviations and don’t put your name there), date (no abbreviations), inside address (person’s title, company name and address), salutation (Dear Mr. or Ms.)
-Length is three or four short paragraphs on one page
-An enclosure line is used primarily in formal or official correspondence. Not wrong to include in cover but unnecessary
-use standard paper size
-paper color /quality- match it with your resume
-don’t handwrite
-use standard business envelope
Content
-personalize each letter –determine the appropriate person to address
-mapping it out-shouldn’t repeat what it says in resume; give overview of your capabilities and show why you are good for the job; be sure to show INTEREST in the company
-first paragraph-state the position for which you are applying
-second paragraph- indicate what you would contribute to the company and show how qualifications would benefit them
-third paragraph-show how you EXCEED requirements (not just average but super candidate)
-fourth paragraph-close by saying you look forward to hearing form them
-complimentary close-should be two lines beneath the body and say Sincerely followed by name three lines under and SIGN IT!
Tips for Successful Cover Letters
-polite and formal style
-sound confident in a reserved way (don’t be melodramatic)
-emphasize concrete examples (specific accomplishments)
-use powerful language (hard hitting and easy to understand with fewest words possible) (ex. Use action verbs like implemented instead of did)
-avoid catchphrases (self-starter)
-mention personal preferences (say if willing to relocate there)
-proof with care (embarrassing)
Cover Letter Blunders to Avoid
-unrelated career goals
-comparisons and clichés (ex. I am a people person)
-wasted space (include only relevant information)
-form letters (mass mailings in which you send a form letter to a large number of employers are not recommended)
-inappropriate stationary (white and ivory with no graphics)
-amusing anecdotes (don’t)
-erroneous company information
-desperation (sound determined not desperate)
-personal photos
-confessed shortcomings (don’t emphasize flaws over strengths)
-misrepresentation (don’t exaggerate until the point of misrepresentation)
-demanding statements (demonstrate what you can do for them)
-missing resume (don’t forget to enclose all the materials that you refer to in your cover letter)
-personal information (don’t include age, health, physical characteristics, martial status, race, religion, political/moral beliefs, or any other personal information.
-choice of pronouns (use 1st person)
-Tone trouble (make sure can’t be interpreted in an unfavorable way)
-gimmicks (no home videos or singing telegrams)
-typographical errors
-messy corrections (retype if make mistakes don’t add notes or post-it)
-omitted signature (don’t forget to sign in blue or black ink)
Cover Letters for Special Situations
-lack of experience, raising kids, age/disability
-emphasize your strengths (ex. Age can be a selling point)
Response to Blind Advertisement
-don’t list employer info
-therefore define knowledge of industry
-target qualifications that meet information that is given
Cold Letters
-directly contact potential employers without a referral or previous correspondence
-used to advertise capabilities to hiring managers
Broadcast Letters
-advertise availability to top professional in particular field
-used by seasoned executives
-used when letter will end up in the hands of fellow industry executive
Letter to Employment Agency
-focus on who you are and type of position you are looking for and in what field, and your strongest qualifications for it
Letter To Executive Search Firm
-highlight accomplishments and summarize experience to intrigue recruiters
Networking Letters
-these letters refer to a third party industry contact to get the reader’s attention and induce him or her to assist you in your job search
-be careful with tone; many are written to an addressee whom the candidate has not met but has been referred to by a mutual acquaintance
Thank You Letters
-handwritten is acceptable but make sure neat
-short and send promptly
“Your Resume on the Internet” (Dikel and Roehm)
-posted resumes on the internet are good but are not the best way to achieve job search happiness
-may be ineffective but if going to do it then do it right
The Myth About the Internet Resume
-Information on the resume can be the same but different formats: hard copy, scannable version, plain-text version, email version
-don’t put too much information on it
Rules for Responding Online
-Send resume in the body of email (catches the eye)
-include cover letter
-use advertised job title in subject line of the email
-follow application instructions
E-Resumes Are Not Just For Email
-can post resume online not just email them
-if you type directly in site it is very easy to have typos
-may have certain from with format that you don’t like
-can’t save your resume for other uses because the resume bank is on a website, so have to repeat resume building steps on each site
Preparing A Perfect Plain Text Resume
-check keywords
-save your resume as text only document
-delete page numbers
-use all caps for words that need special emphasis (text only gets rid of bold and italic)
-replace each bullet point with standard keyboard symbol
-use straight quotes in place of curly quotes
-rearrange text if necessary
-limit line lengths (no more than 65 characters)
-save as text only with line breaks
Where, Oh, Where Should That Resume Go?
-post only on one or two large online databases
-post it one or tow targeted resume databases specific to your industry, occupational group, or geographic location
Protect Yourself Online
-does site have comprehensive privacy policy?
-do you have to register a profile or resume before you can search through the jobs
-are most of the jobs posted by employers or agencies on behalf of the employers
-can you set up one or more email agents that will send matching jobs to you when you are not on the site.
-who has access to the database of resumes
-can you limit access to your personal contact information
-can you store more than one version of your resume so that you can customize if for different types of opportunities
-will you be able to edit your resume once you have posted it
-will you be able to delete your resume after you have a found a job
Before You Post Something to Think About
-do you want your resume public
-are you prepared for the consequences should an electronic resume come back to haunt you
Resume Blasters
-resume distribution services are becoming more prevalent
-offers little or any control of where you resume could end up
-most of time pay to have your resume forwarded in a way that they cannot be responded to or they could simply be paying for recruiters without jobs
Monday, October 27, 2008
Resumes and Other Written Materials for a Job Search (275-306)
“Resumes and Other Written Materials for a Job Search”
“Written Resumes and Letters in the Language of Employers” (Munschaucer)
-What can the candidate do for us?
Why Use a Resume
-purpose is to convey message
-conflicting ideas on structure and purpose (page length, what should come first, etc.)
-Concentrate on MESSAGE!
-Example of Cheryl the alto singer and former secretary
Giving Your Message
-Don’t think about what you want; think about what employer needs
-Example-Related problems babysitting to problems in publishing
Importance of Knowing What the Job is All About
-letter vs. resume
Letters of Application
Good ones
-looked like business letters (paragraphs were neat on crisp stationary)
-were succinct
-no misspellings or grammatical errors
-less is more when it comes to word count (ex. 283-84)
Structure
-stated who he was and want he wanted in 1st paragraph
-2nd, 3rd, 4th indicated about talents and qualifications
-final paragraph suggested a course of action
Hard Work and Attention to Detail Make for a Good Letter
-write and rewrite, put forth effort that most people won’t
Don’t Delegate the Job of Letter Writing
-it should be your own resume
-even if you don’t use it putting your thoughts on paper will help you organize your ideas and interrelate them
Resume Preparation
Nancy Jones-A Good Resume Made Better
-line about weight, height –questionable
-double spaced GPA to make it stand out
-sorority information and probation officer with tutoring math and chem.?
-everything about biology and other information of use to employer should be under own separate heading
Janet Smith –Proper use of headlines
-don’t put fluff/baloney in career objective
-capitalized Universal Methodist Church as heading instead of job held there
Mark Meyers-The Functional Resume
-preparing a resume for a specific job
-example editorial secretary
-different functions highlighted depending on what job entails
Bruce Gregory Robertson- A Resume Reflecting an Active Mind and Body
-depends on if position calls for active body and mind
-employers look for energy
Michelle Trio: The Curriculum Vitae
-resume for academic position and doesn’t need a statement of goals or interest
-look for prestige
The Job Objective
-objective in some form should be on resume
-Can’t have purpose with out resume, and can’t have a resume without a purpose
One Page or Two
-If it can be kept to one great!
-more tiring to scan a crowded page then to flip a page
-it is an outline so it needs white space
-it needs headings that stand out
-don’t sacrifice to make it one page
Additional Advice About Resumes
-test it before you send it to employers (give it to friends)
-hold a few feet away and ask for opinion on form/appearance
-questions for critics of resumes to ask: what qualifications does a person have, what can they do with qualification, what kind of employer would hire this person, does the resume project an image of a certain type of person if so what kind (energetic, thoughtful, aggressive)
“Written Resumes and Letters in the Language of Employers” (Munschaucer)
-What can the candidate do for us?
Why Use a Resume
-purpose is to convey message
-conflicting ideas on structure and purpose (page length, what should come first, etc.)
-Concentrate on MESSAGE!
-Example of Cheryl the alto singer and former secretary
Giving Your Message
-Don’t think about what you want; think about what employer needs
-Example-Related problems babysitting to problems in publishing
Importance of Knowing What the Job is All About
-letter vs. resume
Letters of Application
Good ones
-looked like business letters (paragraphs were neat on crisp stationary)
-were succinct
-no misspellings or grammatical errors
-less is more when it comes to word count (ex. 283-84)
Structure
-stated who he was and want he wanted in 1st paragraph
-2nd, 3rd, 4th indicated about talents and qualifications
-final paragraph suggested a course of action
Hard Work and Attention to Detail Make for a Good Letter
-write and rewrite, put forth effort that most people won’t
Don’t Delegate the Job of Letter Writing
-it should be your own resume
-even if you don’t use it putting your thoughts on paper will help you organize your ideas and interrelate them
Resume Preparation
Nancy Jones-A Good Resume Made Better
-line about weight, height –questionable
-double spaced GPA to make it stand out
-sorority information and probation officer with tutoring math and chem.?
-everything about biology and other information of use to employer should be under own separate heading
Janet Smith –Proper use of headlines
-don’t put fluff/baloney in career objective
-capitalized Universal Methodist Church as heading instead of job held there
Mark Meyers-The Functional Resume
-preparing a resume for a specific job
-example editorial secretary
-different functions highlighted depending on what job entails
Bruce Gregory Robertson- A Resume Reflecting an Active Mind and Body
-depends on if position calls for active body and mind
-employers look for energy
Michelle Trio: The Curriculum Vitae
-resume for academic position and doesn’t need a statement of goals or interest
-look for prestige
The Job Objective
-objective in some form should be on resume
-Can’t have purpose with out resume, and can’t have a resume without a purpose
One Page or Two
-If it can be kept to one great!
-more tiring to scan a crowded page then to flip a page
-it is an outline so it needs white space
-it needs headings that stand out
-don’t sacrifice to make it one page
Additional Advice About Resumes
-test it before you send it to employers (give it to friends)
-hold a few feet away and ask for opinion on form/appearance
-questions for critics of resumes to ask: what qualifications does a person have, what can they do with qualification, what kind of employer would hire this person, does the resume project an image of a certain type of person if so what kind (energetic, thoughtful, aggressive)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Multimedia Component
For the multimedia component of our a project, we were thinking of doing a video. Since we will be unknown to our readers, we will have to employ some willing friends to be our actors. We were planning on visiting our five top restaurants (or all 4 star restaurants if there were more than five). At each restaurant we could scan the inside, show the meals, and most importantly of all interview the manager. This video would most likely be posted on our opening page to intrigue our readers to continue to explore the rest of the site. The video should be creative and exciting based on the subject matter of our project. We may also interview some random restaurant goers at our top choices and get their opinion on the restaurant to further add to our credibility. The video will be short approximately 5-10 min, but it will be entertaining and add a little something extra to our project!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Notes: Nazi Records pages 81-121
Notes “Nazi Records” (pgs. 81-121)
-deals with ethical issues about how technical information is obtained and how it will be used
-Nazi examples are used because they are stark examples and make seem important and less obscure because of the dire circumstances
-Scientific term used by Nazi researchers really meant racial abuse and mass killing
-It was not science for the sake of science but science for sake of racial supremacy
Organization, Dissemination, and Use of Information
-First view Nazi regime as historical fact
-Next review recent controversies about scientific and pseudoscientific information from the Nazi regime
-Then review the traditional view about the values behind Nazi medical sciences as an ethic of sorts driving its research
-Nazi key values are objectification of people, impersonalness, and emotional disengagement. Are these values of contemporary technology?
Nazi Past
-Nuremberg trial for the Nazi war crimes; these trials termed the mass killings of the Jews genocide
-To Nazis Aryan race was supreme
-Concentration camps were used to isolates the undesirables from the general populace.
-Trials revealed the horrendous institutionalized abuse of people in the name of scientific and medical research
-Today before humans can be used as research subjects, the research and testing has to be reviewed by human subjects panel.
-Panels include non-scientists who are in no ways connected with research or its uses.
Controversy in the Present
Medical Specimens
-Issue with use of human anatomical samples (tissues, organs, etc.) for research
-In Nazi regime, people put to death just because they were Jews and also sometimes just to acquire a particular sort of tissue sample.
-Protests come not with informative value of the samples but instead with the circumstances under which they were attained.
-No consent, no possibility of choosing otherwise, no legitimate reason for the execution, no possibility of protest
-Therefore these samples should not be used in German universities due to the way they were obtained.
Research Information
-Similar situation in the United States
-Wanted to use information from Nazi hypothermia experiments in which prisoners were exposed to cold to point of death in some cases
-Wanted to use this info to improve survival equipment, etc. but some opposed due to how information was obtained.
-Two arguments: Information should not be used for any purpose, and the other side is that the information should be used precisely in order to give some purpose to the victims’ suffering as well as to relieve the suffering of those who might benefit form the information .
-Some critics claimed that Germans used medicine fro killing rather than healing.
-This view abandons the Hippocratic oath with its pledge against doing harm and abandonment of the tradition of supporting health of the patient above all else.
-Scientists tried to give scientific legitimacy to the notion that the Aryan race was superior. They presided over executions.
-EPA of USA was considering using Nazi information about subjecting prisoners to phosgene, a poisonous gas.
-This gas can be used in industrial processes and the EPA was developing new standards for pollution regulation of this gas. The EPA did not end up using the information. It was not even scientifically qualified for use.
Values in Nazi Medical “Science”
Traditional View
-Physicians were the most represented profession of the Nazis.
-Healer becomes the killer-paradoxical inversion.
-Be aware of accepting technical facts as absolute truths, you have to be aware of how they can be transformed by social circumstances.
-Killing of mass amount of Jews was justified as necessary for the sake of racial health and purity.
-Also since there was a war there was a need to conserve food, water, etc for soldiers so killing was economically sanctioned as well.
-Doctors controlled killings. At first killed mental/physical disabled children.
-At camps separated by doctors on who should be gassed immediately and who should be retained for slave labor. People selected were termed “already dead.”
-Used masked language. Euthanasia historically means mercy killing of someone with a sound mind who is terminally ill in misery. Nazi interpreted as putting to death someone in a humane way and on the basis of his or her unworthiness to live.
-Children gassed were happy deaths b/c not violent.
-Also the term “special treatment” normally means treatment for special, severe, dangerous, medical problems. However, Nazis used special treatment to refer to medical killing, special in the sense of lying outside of the mainstream as medicine as it is traditionally understood.
Nazi Antiscience
-Nazis’ science was racism with an underlying inhumanness and unethicalness.
-They did reflect the impersonalness that is supposed to underlie all science but to the extreme.
-They also show sciences to be unethical and an enemy of human values.
-It had objectification of humans.
-Dehumanizing seems to go along with modern science and technology in the sense that it is typically practiced on the disadvantaged and less powerful- sick, weak, poor, and powerless.
- Nazi pseudoresearch in terms of science or technology requires some serious assumptions about the nature of science and technology. It assumes science and technology are indifferent
-Indifference equals unethical principles.
-Nazis were actually opposed to traditional science. They believed in the assertion of aesthetic and political values over mechanistic reductivism of traditional science.
Research in the United States
-If information is obtained illegally then it does not exist and cannot be used as evidence.
-The Tuskegee syphilis incidents (1920-40s), where African American patients were told that they were being treated when they weren’t. The doctors did this to conduct a scientifically detailed, long term study of the unimpeded progress of the disease.
-Many died.
-Not a coincidence that they were African Americans.
-Kant would be against Aryan race because he believed that any reasoning specimen would outweigh any argument based on racial identity. To him Jews, etc. should have been treated as ethical peers by virtue of their mind.
Nazi Technical Memorandum
-article on page 99
-technical expediency can mask goals for which technology is being used.
-People referred to as capacity, etc. The load is active and fear used can realized that it is people.
-Technically excellent document. Disguised the intense personal nature.
-Another document page 104.
-Document is explicit and scientific.
-Uses a scientific institute for collection place of skulls (like point of honor).
-“Induced death”
-Flat tone that is factual.
-Another document page 106.
-No compassion for castration and sterilization of people.
-Science valued over rights.
-Only talks about research not about ethics.
Graphical Images
-Darwin survival of the fittest.
-Science made to serve politics
-Illustrations to determine blood purity
-Subject like a lab animal in chart on page 110.
-Escapes values because just following along a formatted chart
-Page 111 image shows the measuring of the ear; images of the face rather than blood/marriage used here to display racism
-makes racism appear scientific and technical
-Distancing between technician and subject
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle
-Would condemn the Nazis based on virtue and attitudes. Goodness/doing right thing
-he would use technical information already on hand. It could benefit others.
Kant
-Equivalence of all people, who are all rational beings.
-Treat as want to be treated
-Unclear on information already on hand
Utilitarianism
-Greatest good for greatest number
-Good done to Aryan group which is seen as more important, but no utilitarianists would see a radical difference in human worth.
-Would use the information already on hand because would be more useful than just sitting there.
Feminist and Ethics of Care
-Feminists find Nazis completely unethical
-Ethics of Care want caring relationships not value for this relationship so not in support of treating humans like objects (Nazis).
-Would use information already on hand.
-deals with ethical issues about how technical information is obtained and how it will be used
-Nazi examples are used because they are stark examples and make seem important and less obscure because of the dire circumstances
-Scientific term used by Nazi researchers really meant racial abuse and mass killing
-It was not science for the sake of science but science for sake of racial supremacy
Organization, Dissemination, and Use of Information
-First view Nazi regime as historical fact
-Next review recent controversies about scientific and pseudoscientific information from the Nazi regime
-Then review the traditional view about the values behind Nazi medical sciences as an ethic of sorts driving its research
-Nazi key values are objectification of people, impersonalness, and emotional disengagement. Are these values of contemporary technology?
Nazi Past
-Nuremberg trial for the Nazi war crimes; these trials termed the mass killings of the Jews genocide
-To Nazis Aryan race was supreme
-Concentration camps were used to isolates the undesirables from the general populace.
-Trials revealed the horrendous institutionalized abuse of people in the name of scientific and medical research
-Today before humans can be used as research subjects, the research and testing has to be reviewed by human subjects panel.
-Panels include non-scientists who are in no ways connected with research or its uses.
Controversy in the Present
Medical Specimens
-Issue with use of human anatomical samples (tissues, organs, etc.) for research
-In Nazi regime, people put to death just because they were Jews and also sometimes just to acquire a particular sort of tissue sample.
-Protests come not with informative value of the samples but instead with the circumstances under which they were attained.
-No consent, no possibility of choosing otherwise, no legitimate reason for the execution, no possibility of protest
-Therefore these samples should not be used in German universities due to the way they were obtained.
Research Information
-Similar situation in the United States
-Wanted to use information from Nazi hypothermia experiments in which prisoners were exposed to cold to point of death in some cases
-Wanted to use this info to improve survival equipment, etc. but some opposed due to how information was obtained.
-Two arguments: Information should not be used for any purpose, and the other side is that the information should be used precisely in order to give some purpose to the victims’ suffering as well as to relieve the suffering of those who might benefit form the information .
-Some critics claimed that Germans used medicine fro killing rather than healing.
-This view abandons the Hippocratic oath with its pledge against doing harm and abandonment of the tradition of supporting health of the patient above all else.
-Scientists tried to give scientific legitimacy to the notion that the Aryan race was superior. They presided over executions.
-EPA of USA was considering using Nazi information about subjecting prisoners to phosgene, a poisonous gas.
-This gas can be used in industrial processes and the EPA was developing new standards for pollution regulation of this gas. The EPA did not end up using the information. It was not even scientifically qualified for use.
Values in Nazi Medical “Science”
Traditional View
-Physicians were the most represented profession of the Nazis.
-Healer becomes the killer-paradoxical inversion.
-Be aware of accepting technical facts as absolute truths, you have to be aware of how they can be transformed by social circumstances.
-Killing of mass amount of Jews was justified as necessary for the sake of racial health and purity.
-Also since there was a war there was a need to conserve food, water, etc for soldiers so killing was economically sanctioned as well.
-Doctors controlled killings. At first killed mental/physical disabled children.
-At camps separated by doctors on who should be gassed immediately and who should be retained for slave labor. People selected were termed “already dead.”
-Used masked language. Euthanasia historically means mercy killing of someone with a sound mind who is terminally ill in misery. Nazi interpreted as putting to death someone in a humane way and on the basis of his or her unworthiness to live.
-Children gassed were happy deaths b/c not violent.
-Also the term “special treatment” normally means treatment for special, severe, dangerous, medical problems. However, Nazis used special treatment to refer to medical killing, special in the sense of lying outside of the mainstream as medicine as it is traditionally understood.
Nazi Antiscience
-Nazis’ science was racism with an underlying inhumanness and unethicalness.
-They did reflect the impersonalness that is supposed to underlie all science but to the extreme.
-They also show sciences to be unethical and an enemy of human values.
-It had objectification of humans.
-Dehumanizing seems to go along with modern science and technology in the sense that it is typically practiced on the disadvantaged and less powerful- sick, weak, poor, and powerless.
- Nazi pseudoresearch in terms of science or technology requires some serious assumptions about the nature of science and technology. It assumes science and technology are indifferent
-Indifference equals unethical principles.
-Nazis were actually opposed to traditional science. They believed in the assertion of aesthetic and political values over mechanistic reductivism of traditional science.
Research in the United States
-If information is obtained illegally then it does not exist and cannot be used as evidence.
-The Tuskegee syphilis incidents (1920-40s), where African American patients were told that they were being treated when they weren’t. The doctors did this to conduct a scientifically detailed, long term study of the unimpeded progress of the disease.
-Many died.
-Not a coincidence that they were African Americans.
-Kant would be against Aryan race because he believed that any reasoning specimen would outweigh any argument based on racial identity. To him Jews, etc. should have been treated as ethical peers by virtue of their mind.
Nazi Technical Memorandum
-article on page 99
-technical expediency can mask goals for which technology is being used.
-People referred to as capacity, etc. The load is active and fear used can realized that it is people.
-Technically excellent document. Disguised the intense personal nature.
-Another document page 104.
-Document is explicit and scientific.
-Uses a scientific institute for collection place of skulls (like point of honor).
-“Induced death”
-Flat tone that is factual.
-Another document page 106.
-No compassion for castration and sterilization of people.
-Science valued over rights.
-Only talks about research not about ethics.
Graphical Images
-Darwin survival of the fittest.
-Science made to serve politics
-Illustrations to determine blood purity
-Subject like a lab animal in chart on page 110.
-Escapes values because just following along a formatted chart
-Page 111 image shows the measuring of the ear; images of the face rather than blood/marriage used here to display racism
-makes racism appear scientific and technical
-Distancing between technician and subject
Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle
-Would condemn the Nazis based on virtue and attitudes. Goodness/doing right thing
-he would use technical information already on hand. It could benefit others.
Kant
-Equivalence of all people, who are all rational beings.
-Treat as want to be treated
-Unclear on information already on hand
Utilitarianism
-Greatest good for greatest number
-Good done to Aryan group which is seen as more important, but no utilitarianists would see a radical difference in human worth.
-Would use the information already on hand because would be more useful than just sitting there.
Feminist and Ethics of Care
-Feminists find Nazis completely unethical
-Ethics of Care want caring relationships not value for this relationship so not in support of treating humans like objects (Nazis).
-Would use information already on hand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)