Reflection on Class

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.

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.

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

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

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)

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!

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.

Rough Draft

http://clemsonrestaurantdatabase.weebly.com/

"The Ethics Tradition" (38-81)

“The Ethics Tradition” (pages 38-81)
-Chapter focuses on ethical theories of Aristotle, Kant, utilitarianism, and an ethic of care.

Aristotle
-Ancient but time honored.
-Aristotle helped to shape Christianity, he influenced St. Thomas Aquinas.
-Metaphysics serve an indirect role in Aristotle’s ethics (unlike Plato where it was at the forefront).
-Metaphysics is abstract thinking, so Aristotle is more concrete in his teachings.
-He said that Ethics is the study of what is involved in good actions.
-Ethics is not a subject with hard and fast answers like Math.
-Don’t try to make ethics more definite than it is; a code of ethics has to be very general.
-Ethics is very indefinite while technological matters are very definite, but they can be coupled together.
-Ethics is about what is sought for its own sake (goodness itself) not for the sake of money or success.
-Right thing does not mean something that was easy or typical but rather it means going beyond that and doing more than was expected, easy or understandable. It also carries over to doing it just because it was the right thing to do that is for its own sake.
-He said we are unique because we have a lower animal nation and a divine nature. Our divine nature is our rational powers, and we must cultivate these carefully.
-From him, ethics is to seek after the good; therefore, only a person and not an action can be virtuous.
-Virtue is habit that must be adopted; it is a habit to choose and to will ethically. Repeated actions shape out habits, so if we continue carefully deliberate our ethically choices it will become habitual.
-Each person is responsible for his or her character. This may sound abstract, but what he is saying is that if you solely follow the rules and regulations or say your corporation this would not necessarily constitute ethical behavior. For example, if you are doing it for the sake of retaining your job and financial situation this would not be ethical.
-He says ethics comes from reason. We don’t admire what comes easy. Ex. Rich person returns excess change to counter attendant vs. poor person doing the same action. So this is why Aristotle says it depends on the PERSON and not the action.
-Ethics is not mathematical (ex. Apples fall to ground –cannot go anywhere else so there is no otherwise but the possibility of the otherwise matters in ethics.)
-A friend does what is good for the sake of a friend, so like in this situation the basis of ethics is the abandonment of self interest.
-Ethics cannot be reduced to politics or law because it must guide us when politics or laws are silent or are in error.
-Whistle blowing laws means obligation is specifically in opposition to practical concerns such as pleasing one’s boss or retaining one’s employment. Ex. Roger Boisjoly lost his job because he refused to follow certain organizational procedures and decisions. He wrote “smoking gun” memo. He was repositioned after he threatened to file suit against employer under whistle blowing laws. But his boss make work environment so unpleasant that he quit.
-Aristotle separates ethics from science and technology. Many contemporary thinkers disagree. They say that you can use science to help define ethics. For example, it is safe to live with HIV patients as long as certain behaviors are avoided.

Kant
-Immanuel Kant is a European philosopher, whose ethical theory is based on a sense of duty.
-He uses deontology which is an ethical system emphasizing obligation or duty; he emphasizes a categorical imperative rule of ethics.
-It is based on moral reason, which involves reasoning with unseen principles. It does not involve our intuitive feelings according to him.
-His ethics are based on one’s freely chosen decisions to act in good will out of a sense of duty.
-We are distinguished from other creatures due to our reasoning capabilities so these are meant to serve as a basis for judging ethics.
The Categorical Imperative is to act in such a way that if you could you would make the principle guiding your action a universal binding law that everyone had to follow. It would apply to everyone, everywhere, and always without exception.
-So since the law comes from our reasoning power it provides common ground.
-Even though his law is based on duty, it is based on an independently arrived at definition of duty. Therefore, in a sense it is duty based in freedom and not based on force or limitation of freedom.
-It is based on the centrality of reason to all human beings.
-It combines personal with universal because he says that a person should arrive at a decision that is a guide for everyone in the same situation. The decision must be identically understood by all rational beings. Therefore, the decision can never be egocentric or self serving.
-Useful to us because emphasizes a sense of duty or doing what is right regardless of competing interests or outcomes; it states that ethics is both a individual and social matter; and it is comparable to the Golden Rule.
-But we need to keep in mind that real ethical decisions are never strong and clear as the categorical imperative states.
-However thinking in terms of what any other reasonable person would do in your situation to make the right ethical decision can be helpful.
-The principle guiding one’s actions is what determines goodness. For example, if a merchant doesn’t take advantage of a customer when the business is thriving because it would negatively impact the merchant’s business in the long run. So decision not to cheat customer cannot be judged at face value because the merchant could not cheat his customer solely because he doesn’t want future negative impact on his business. So his self interest could still rule a so called honest ethical decision.

Utilitarianism
-Based on usefulness. It is based on accomplishing the greatest useful goodness for the greatest number of people.
-Connected to science and technology because it is sensitive to the masses and it allows for quantitative calculation of what to do ethically.
-Ex. FAA didn’t install fire detection and suppression technologies into commercial aircraft due to cost-benefit analysis. But ethically summed up a human life in dollar amount. Another example is the FDA and drugs.
-This approach is especially useful in medicine.
-Ex. 3 livers but 10 people in need. So have to rank the 10 patients and only given age, sex, current health, complicating medical conditions, martial status, and number of kids. Then after you rank based on these criteria, you get the social, economic, religious, and political characteristics. How you change your rankings based on these new factors reveal your values. This method forces you to confront how you really make decisions and what you hold important.

Feminist and Care Perspectives
-Postmodernism challenges traditional authority such as religion; it views knowledge as complex and socially conditional. This criticism of traditional views applies to ethics as well.
-Feminism can be linked to postmodernism.

Feminist Perspectives on Science as a Value System
-Science and technology are both value systems in themselves.
-Values in scientific method are more favorable to men.
-Science rejects emotions, and women historically have been seen to value emotions more than men. Therefore, women are discouraged from science.
-Feminists argue that scientific investigations isolate and nullify relationships which are characteristically masculine.
-Critics discredit feminists that consider dispassionate logic as masculine because it implies that women are illogically thinkers. Or on the other side considering women as emotional also satisfies stereotypes.
-Don’t use sex related terminology in technical communication.
-Since women tend to avoid conflict and men value interpersonal conflict, in complex organizations where interpersonal conflicts reign men rule.
-Feminism questions the universality and gender indifference traditionally supposed of ethics. It questions if ethics favors men over women. It questions whether or not ethics can be considered one thing or many things constantly evolving.

Ethics of Care
-It characterizes the difference in moral thinking between women and men.
-Women value relationships marked with a caring concern as well as the other person more in moral judgment and ethics than men.
-Men base ethical decisions on justice and impersonalize ethics.
-Traditionally male way of thinking about ethics has been taken for granted and be applied to all humankind generically.
-This view silences women and implies their ethical judgments are incorrect.
-Dichotomy between caring and justice.

Other Views

Confucian Ethics
-Philosophy of eastern Asia.
-Grounded in immediate realities not in timeless absolutes.
-In the immediate world is where morality is played out.
-Human responsibility is in relationships not individual.
-Need for social harmony so individual egos are subordinate to obligations of social relations.
-Morality is one’s behavior towards others in immediate circumstances, so it is not abstract.
-Ethical study involves interpretation rather than reasoning so it is hermeneutic. Interpret particular historical cases (analects).
-Cultivate virtue through activities that compose the tao or way of virtue.
-Li is the principle of propriety that helps to compose tao. Li involves acknowledging one’s place in the world.
-Sense of rightness or appropriateness is yi and it helps achieve tao. It is a sense of justices due to social standing. Related to justice in terms of obligations of relationships.
-The virtue of humanness is ren. Need a fundamental awareness of others and attitude of love.
-It does not define everyone equally. But, it says you should accept your social position. Therefore social context determines ethics rather than Kant’s indifferent ethics.
-Relationships are key. They define duties.
-Tradition is valued while American value innovations in cooperation. They don’t value profits.

Levinas
-Finds ethics in encounters with other people which he terms “the other.”
-Have to understand other person in the relationship in order to determine how to behave.
-Ex. Vietnam Memorial

Gert
-Relates morality to rational thinking, universal audience, and to traditional moral principles while distinguishing it from emotion.
-Morality involves action not feelings, and social relations (not absolute relations) in terms of all including oneself. It is about avoiding evil rather than pursuing good.
-Rules and questions.
-System people can actually use in dealing with real moral problems.
-Combo

Reports and Other Longer Documents Continued (pg 207-275)

Reports and Other Longer Documents Continued (pg 207-275)

Creating Visuals (Oliu, Brusaw, and Alred)
-Plan visuals as you are drafting (incorporate them into your outline)
Criteria for Visuals
-Have a reason for a visual
-Eliminate unnecessary arrows, labels, boxes, etc.
-Define all acronyms, add a key if needed. Keep terminology between text and visual consistent.
-Give units where needed
-Keep lettering readable; have concise captions.
-Assign a figure number for documents with 5 or more illustrations; also include a list if five or more following the table of contents.
-Refer to figure number in text of document.
-Place visuals as close as possible to the text where they are discussed.
-Let the visuals stand out by putting white space around them.
Tables
-Table number, title
-Boxhead-column headings with units
-Stub-left vertical column and includes all items to be shown in body
-Body-data
-Rules/Lines-used to separate table into various parts; don’t use vertical rules to enclose sides of table?
-Source line-below table and states where you got the data
-Footnotes-used to explain items in the table
-Continuing tables- if continue to next page repeat headings with a continued label as well
-Ethics- have to get permission to use copyrighted illustrations
Graphs
-They present numerical data in visual form showing trends and distributions better than tables.
-Less accurate than a table so often accompanied by a table, which gives exact numbers.
Line Graph
-Shows the relationship between two or more sets of figures
-Vertical axis represents amounts usually, while horizontal usually represents increments of time
-Have a zero point where the axes intersect, and equally proportioned divisions for horizontal and vertical (increase by 5 each time, etc).
-Include enough points, gridlines, and a source line.
-Ethics- Don’t distort data!
Bar Graph
-Often used to show different types of information during different periods of time; quantities of the same kind of information over different periods of time; quantities of different information during a fixed period of time; and quantities of the different parts that make up a whole (examples 217-20).
Pie Graph
-Shows part of a whole; circle often equals 100 percent.
-Try to begin at 12 o’clock position and go from largest fraction to smallest.
-Make each wedge distinct (shaded, striped)
-Provide the percent value for each wedge.
Picture Graph
-Modified bar graphs that use pictures to represent the item for which data are presented.
-Easy for nonexpert audiences to understand
-Each symbol should represent a specific number of units, and show larger quantities by increasing the number of symbols and not the size of the symbol.
Dimensional-Column Graphs
-Complicated appearance so can be harder to interpret.
-Can obscure information depending on appearance.
Drawings
-Useful when reader needs an impression of object’ appearance or overview of a series of steps or directions.
Flowcharts
-Diagram that shows the stages of a process from beginning to end.
-Flow left to right or top to bottom in order in which steps occur.
Organizational Charts
-Show how components of an organization are related to one another.
Maps
-Can be used to show specific geographic features (roads, rivers) or to show information according to geographic distribution (houses, populations).
-Make sure to include a scale and indicate direction.
Photographs
-Used to show surface appearance or to record an event or the development of a phenomenon over time.
-Color can help communicate important information (medical books).

Strategies of Persuasion (Ewing)
Rules for Persuasion
1. Consider Whether Your Views Will Make Problems for Readers
-use empathy and tact

2. Don’t Offer New Ideas, Directives, or Recommendations for Change Until Your Readers are Prepared for Them
-Depends on extent of your audience’s resistance to change, the amount of change you are asking for, the uncertainty in the readers’ minds as to your understanding of the situation, and the “perceived threat” of your communication.
-Use common sense but remember you must be explicit in writing because it lacks expressiveness and visual

3. Your Credibility with Readers Affects Your Strategy
-Two types of credibility: given and acquired.
-Given may result from position in organization.
-Acquired credibility is earned by thoughts and facts in the written message. Can cite authorities to gain credibility.

4. If Your Audience Disagrees with Your Ideas or Is Uncertain about Them, Present Both Sides of the Argument
-Shows you are objective
-Treats readers as a mature, informed individual.

5. Win Respect by Making Your Opinion or Recommendation Clear
-Don’t maybe this or maybe that-because in that case nothing gets done.

6. Put Your Strongest Points Last if the Audience is Very Interested in the Argument, First if It Is Not so Interested
-Should be either first or last not in the middle.
-First is primacy and last is recency

7. Don’t Count on Changing Attitudes by Offering Information Alone
-Depends on conditions.

8. “Testimonials” Are Most Likely to Be Persuasive if Drawn from People with Whom Readers Associate
-People’s attitudes and opinions are strongly influenced by the groups to which he
or she belongs (churches, social clubs, ethnic associations, etc.)

9. Be Wary of Using Extreme or “Sensational” Claims and Facts
-Write in terms of the real world as you and your readers perceive it.
-Outlandish comments gain attention but provoke distrust and suspicion.

10. Tailor Your Presentation To the Reasons for Readers’ Attitudes, if You Know Them.
-Especially important if you are trying to change the readers’ attitudes.

11. Never Mention Other People without Considering Their Possible Effect on the Reader
-Mentioning another person can alter your relationship with readers.
-The person could be a friend or an enemy, and the readers will begin thinking
about how your communication will impact their relationship.
-Be careful who you copy reports to as well.

Be Knowledgeable about your readers and remember they are real people.

Proposals (Kolin)
Guidelines for Writing a Successful Proposal
1. Approach proposal as problem solving activity- Solve a problem that affects the reader. It will keep you on track.
2. Regard your audience as skeptical readers-Don’t be overconfident.
3. Research your proposal carefully- Concrete examples persuade readers, unsupported generalizations don’t.
4. Prove that your proposal is workable- No if statements; shouldn’t exceed capabilities.
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic- especially in today’s economy.
6. Package your proposal attractively- Appearance can determine acceptance.

Internal Proposals
-Help company run more efficiently and economically.
-In house message so informal and brief.
-Remember audience
-Parts include: Intro, Background of Problem, Solution/Plan (workable/cost effective), Conclusion.

Sales Proposals
-External proposal, and it is used to sell products or services.
-Audience-business executives; how does it meet requirements (“you attitude”)
-Parts include: Intro (purpose and background of problem), Description of the Proposed Product or Service, Timeable (show can do it in right time), Costs, Qualifications of Your Company, Conclusion

Writing Proposals with Style (Richard Johnson-Sheehan)
-Style works at different levels from sentence to paragraph to document, etc.
-Write plain sentences-use appropriate sentence structure (subject, verb)
-Avoid excessive prepositional phrases
-Sentence should be spoken in one breath.
-Plain Paragraphs- transition sentence, topic sentence, support sentences, point sentence
-Given/New Method: sentences should contain something readers know and something new.
-Appropriate to use passive voice when readers don’t need to know who or what is doing something in the sentence and the subject of the sentence is what the sentence is about (ex. 273).

Notes pages 167-207 ( Reports and Other Longer Documents)

Notes pages 167-207 (Reports and Other Longer Documents)

Reports and Other Longer Documents
-Two types of reports: formal (multi-part and used to present results of a detailed project) and informal (shorter and less components).
-Audience should be analyzed. They include the layperson, the executive, the expert, the technician, and the operator.

Audience Analysis: The Problem and a Solution (Mathes and Stevenson)
-Three fundamental components of communication: writer, message, and audience.
-Look over assumptions on page 171.
-Make the report for dynamic situations (long term).
-College students only write for individual professor. Student learns to write for an audience of one.
-The who of the audience involves their specific operational functions as well as their educational/business backgrounds.
-There are three types of audiences: horizontal, vertical, and external. Horizontal audiences exist on each level. Vertical audiences exist between levels. External audiences exist when any unit interacts with a separate organization.
-Report writer must realize the separation between him or her and any of the three types of audiences.
-Even a horizontal audience could have little in common beyond the fact of working for the same organization, of having the same rank and perhaps of having the same educational level.
-Different divisions in the own company can be external audiences.
-An egocentric organization chart identifies particular individuals and it categorizes people in terms of their proximity to the writer rather than in terms of a hierarchical relationship. It can be formatted to show the people you interact with daily, then the people who are in the same office or project group, etc.
-In this chart, the writer is center and he communicates to the tiers of rings.
-Characterize your audience in terms of operational, objective, and personal characteristics.
-Operational includes how time is spent, professional values, knowledge of your role, daily concerns,
-Objective includes specific, background data about the person. (education, past experience)
-Personal includes name, age.
-Think of consequences of your report and it will guide your writing.
-Classify your audience in terms of how they will use the report. There are three categories primary, secondary, and immediate.
-Primary make decisions or act on the information the report contains.
-Secondary are affected by the decisions and actions.
-Immediate route the report or transmit the information it contains. (can be part of both primary and secondary audiences, just depends on the situation)
-Matrix for Audience Analysis (185) includes audience type and characteristics of the audience.

What to Report (Dodge)
-Managers report criteria are outlined on pages 188-9.
-The summary should contain what the report is about, the significance and implications of the work, and the action called for.
-Managers most frequently read the summary.
-Manager interested in five broad technological areas: technical problems, new projects, experiments, materials/processes, and field troubles.
-Market factors and organization problems are additional areas of interest.
-Manager may not be in same field as writer in terms of educational and experience background.
-Manager has responsibilities too: define the project; provide perspective for project; make sure effective reports are submitted on time; and see that reports are properly distributed.
-The manager can schedule four conferences to make sure that the reports are what he or she wants. (beginning of project conference, completion of the investigation conference, after the report is outlined conference, and after the report is written conference)

The Writing of Abstracts (Arnold)
-Everyone will read the abstract.
-2 purposes are to provide a specialist in the field with enough information about the report to allow him or her to decide whether or not he could profit from it and to provide the administrator or executive with enough knowledge about project and enough results to satisfy most of administrative needs.
-Most difficult part to write.

Ten Report Writing Pitfalls: How to Avoid Them (Vinci)
Ignoring your Audience –who, why, and how (how are you going to present the information based on your audience)
Writing to Impress (don’t do it)- readers don’t like big words
Having More than one Aim-know specific audience and information; write analysis first then introduction
Being inconsistent
Over qualifying- avoid modifiers
Not Defining – know what to define and how to define it (substitution or detailed explanation)
Misintroducing- intro is not table of contents
Dazzling with data-don’t dazzle with a ton of data (what can remove without losing meaning)
Not Highlighting –highlight key points and key elements for understanding
Not Rewriting- multiple drafts

Project Proposal- Final Draft

Executive Summary: Clemson students, residents, and visitors are unaware of the unique, local restaurants in the area. In order to inform them, we will create a restaurant database website. The website will include our standardized reviews of each restaurant. As a group of three college students from different backgrounds, our reviews will be diverse and offer different perspectives on the types and quality of food available at each restaurant. Our website will help the Clemson community become knowledgeable about their dining options and enhance the quality of their overall dining experience.

Although Clemson students, local residents, and visitors frequent restaurants in downtown Clemson, they are unaware of the remotely located, less commercial restaurants in the Clemson area. They need to know about these restaurants in order to make well informed, appropriate decisions when dining out. We will help them become ideal, knowledgeable consumers by creating a restaurant database website detailing locations, prices, and menu items of local restaurants. Students tend to pick the most convenient, closest restaurant without any regard to the cuisine. Due to the fast paced culture of the college-based community, we seem to settle when it comes to meals. However, help is on the way. As three Clemson college students ourselves, we plan to provide a solution to this dining dilemma. In our project, we plan to visit a variety of restaurants all in different price ranges with various atmospheres. On our visits, the three of us will formulate separate ratings for each restaurant based on a standardized system. In order to make our views on each restaurant open to the public, we will create a website with menus of all of the restaurants as well as a write up of our reviews and ratings. The website will be a restaurant database. To add to the creative nature of our idea, we will include a multimedia presentation in the form of a video on the website. We feel as though we are qualified to present our ratings to our audience, because we are three different people with three different perspectives and backgrounds. We all have different tastes and will be sampling a variety of the cuisines offered in all of the restaurants. Most important of all we are all three Clemson college students ourselves; therefore, we understand the atmosphere of Clemson and the mindsets of our viewers when it comes to price, time, and distance. As typical college students, time is always an issue when it comes to projects. Therefore, in order to ensure that our project is organized, we developed a timeline to help guide us in our steps. The goal of our project is to help Clemson college students, residents, and visitors become aware of the many different options open to us when it comes to dining out and to help us become knowledgeable about the different types and quality of food available at these restaurants.
Due to this lack of awareness in the Clemson community, there is a definite need for a restaurant database accessible to Clemson students, residents, and visitors. There are many restaurants in Clemson, Seneca, Anderson, and Central that are completely unknown to campus dwellers and alumni. In the small town atmosphere of Clemson, SC, restaurants are found in several remote locations. It could take years for a student to become aware of some of the most delectable restaurants in Clemson and the surrounding area. Since Clemson is a college-based town, nearly all students live on campus or close to campus. Therefore, most students tend to eat at nearby downtown restaurants very frequently because they are not aware of others. Some hidden treasures of ultimate cuisine are unknown to the majority of Clemson residents.
Also, when people visit Clemson to tour the school, spend time with their children, or attend a sporting event, they are unsure of where to eat. Most people only eat in the most obvious restaurants downtown. Alumni also return to visit Clemson and are unaware of new restaurants that have recently opened or been renovated. Alumni and visitors are also interested in dining in restaurants that are unique to Clemson, not necessarily chains that they can find in their home towns. A website would be an ideal way to lead the consumer to the most appropriate restaurant for their dining occasion. Students are looking for economical, quick choices for their daily meals. An upscale restaurant may also be desired when students are going on dates or dining out with their relatives. This website would meet these needs by allowing students to navigate through our price range categories to find a restaurant that is delicious and appropriate for their occasion. Our rating system and reviews of the restaurants would also help students choose a restaurant that they know will be tasty, have great service, an enjoyable atmosphere, and appropriate formality for the occasion at hand.
In order to achieve our goal of helping the Clemson community become knowledgeable and aware of different restaurants, we have laid out a developed plan. First, we will begin by visiting each of the sixteen restaurants that we have selected to review in this project. These include: Goober's, Calhoun Corners, Sardi's, Pixie and Bill's, Paw's, Mac's, Monterrey's, Mellow Mushroom, Atami, Blue Heron, Friend's Cafe, Mainstreet Cafe, Seneca Family Restaurant, Ancheaux's, Tigertown Tavern, Copper River Grill. At the restaurants we will all order a different meal in order to get a good representation of the restaurant’s food. We will review each restaurant on the quality of food, wait time, service, etc. according to a pre-established rating system. We will choose a widely-used and accredited rating system before visiting the restaurants after much research. At the restaurant we will get a menu in order to scan and post on our website so that the audience has easy access to prices, location, and the type of food offered at each restaurant.
In addition to our own opinions, we will get reviews from others who have eaten at each restaurant. In order to have a variety of reviews, we will collect information from on-campus and off-campus students, faculty and staff, alumni, and visitors. We will ask those that we encounter at the restaurant. We will combine our reviews as well as the reviews of others in order to give each restaurant an overall review.
During this time of restaurant visiting, we will also be setting up the website to feature all of our gathered information. We will attend a website workshop at Clemson Computing and Information Technology (CCIT) in order to learn how to set one up and how to add different components to it so that it will be professional. We will have a home page that describes exactly what our purpose is, who we are, who our target audience is, and how we went about obtaining our findings. There will also be a table of contents. The restaurants will be organized into price ranges because we figure that this is the best way to technically organize the types of restaurants and the most useful way for the audience to navigate the page. We will divide the restaurants into low, medium, and upper price ranges. Each restaurant will have its own link and page. Each page will have a written review by the three of us as well as the combined calculated rating of our scores and the scores of others. The pages will also feature quotes from customers, a copy of the menu, and pictures in order to make the page visually attractive and interesting.
As we finish with the restaurant visits and continue to revise the website, we will also make a video highlighting the top five best-rated restaurants in order to incorporate a multimedia component. We will upload the videos onto the website for the audience to view. We will continue to revise the home page and each restaurant’s individual page until we are satisfied with the end product.
As Clemson University students, Brittany Jones, Brennan Palazola, and I are qualified to prepare this end product of a restaurant database website, which will help others choose a great restaurant. Brittany is a South Carolina resident and her parents regularly visit Clemson. Brennan is from Tennessee and has two siblings that attended Clemson. I am from Tennessee and both of my parents and grandparents are Clemson alumni. As three students with different backgrounds and experiences, we can rate the restaurants objectively as they best suit our experiences and needs. Also, as third-year students, we are familiar with restaurants that may be well-kept secrets and student favorites. We also know which restaurants are great for game days, special occasions, and everyday dining on a student’s budget. Also, we have lived on-campus and off-campus and know which restaurants are convenient for both living styles.
We are planning to visit and rate sixteen restaurants before the completion of this project. We have already visited one restaurant, and we are beginning to acquire menus and price lists. Our first step toward completion of our project will be to learn how to create a website by meeting with technicians at CCIT on Wednesday, October 1. We will have the website completely designed by October 16. Although we may not have dined in every restaurant at this point, we would like to have them all loaded on the website, with or without ratings. We will have all of our ratings completed by the end of October. We will spend the first week of November working on the multimedia aspect of our project. We will film, edit, and post videos from our top five restaurant picks. We would like to interview managers, customers, or employees if possible. We will spend the rest of November revising and tweaking our website to make it most convenient for users. Our project will be complete and refined by the final due date in early December.
In early December, the Clemson community will have a great resource to help with all of our dining out decisions. Due to a lack of awareness and knowledge, Clemson students, residents, and visitors often have difficulty in making the best decision when it comes to a restaurant choice. However, our website will guide them to the best option reducing stress and opening eyes to unknown eateries. As three Clemson residents, we understand our community and hope to broaden its culinary outlook. Once our website is complete, Clemson students, residents, and visitors will never have to fret over where to eat again because the ultimate guide to quality and choice of restaurants in the immediate area will just be a click away.

Business and Technical Correspondence (115-167)

Business and Technical Correspondence (115-167)

Introduction:
-The introduction of the email into correspondence has caused some to because too casual and sloppy.
-No established etiquette for electronic correspondence.
-Saying “no” always presents issues.

Making Your Correspondence Get Results:
-Write for not to; point out benefits to consumer.
-Show readers it will be worthwhile.
-Personalize letter; pronouns are powerful. Make letters like good conversation.
-Use you and yours, and only use I or me sparingly.
-Tone varies from one situation to another (sales promotion letter to service type of organization to law firm).
-Try to be positive and personal (examples 124).
-Write more like you talk, which is direct and to the point. Not exactly the way you speak but bridge the gap (examples 125).
-Can use contractions.

“I Have Some Bad News for You”
-Letters/memos with bad news are the worst to write.
-Empathize with others; view the standpoint of the asker. There are no foolish requests.
-Bad news is best delivered face to face.
-Indirect Bad News message- Thanks, because, sorry, thanks.
-Direct Bad News message- thanks sorry because thanks. No nonsense, does not try to bury bad news.

How to Write Better Memos:
-Purpose is to inform of problem/situation, nailing down responsibility for action and deadline, and establishing a file record of decisions, agreements, and policies.
-Organization facts, meaning, what do we do now.
-Summary at the beginning because it gets the readers undivided attention.
-Good is clear, brief, relevant.
-Add personal touch and diplomacy.
-Format of Memo- To and From lines, Subject, Distribution, Text, Paragraphs, Line Spacing, Underlines and Capitals, Numbers of Pages, Figures and Table.

How to Use Bottom-Line Writing in Corporate Communication
-“Be Brief” is not solution. The problem is the lack of efficiency in the organizational pattern (often put purpose last).
-Length measured not by words but by length of time it takes a reader to comprehend it.
-Managers spend 60 percent of their time reading and writing. Professionals spend 50.
-Messages cost money.
-Organizational patterns can become inefficient due to: social upbringing (learn to beat around the bush), educational programming (one paragraph answer is bad), and indoctrination into anxiety (not look lazy, have to write to superiors).
-Solution is to deprogram self from upbringing, organize messages in a way that is fast and easy to understand, develop self confidence (attitude).

Email: Presenting a Professional Image
-Use active language, clear language, and avoid inflated language.
-Be cautious with abbreviations and avoid colloquialisms (head honcho, Wild West).
-Cut out the clutter, and avoid unnecessary repetition.
-Use specific, non-vague language.
-Follow grammar and punctuation rules (pgs 153-165).

3 Problem Statements

3 Problem Statements:

1. Clemson students, local residents, and visitors know about a select few restaurants that are located in downtown Clemson. But, these consumers do not know about other restaurants in the surrounding areas as well as those less known local restaurants. They need to know about these restaurants in order to make well informed, appropriate decisions when dining out. We will inform them about these restaurants by creating a restaurant database website that will highlight each restaurant in its appropriate category.

2. Clemon students, local residents, and visitors would like to be well informed consumers who know all their restaurant options including price, location, and menu items. Actually, these consumers are unaware of the remotely located, less commercial restaurants in the Clemson area. We will help them become the ideal, well informed consumers by creating a restaurant database website detailing locations, prices, and menu items of local restaurants.

3. The situation that Clemson students, residents, and visitors are facing can be described as consumers who are not informed about their dining options. The situation has negative consequences including poor dining experience, unimpressive service, and uneconimcal prices. We will alleviate the consequences by creating a website that will generate informed consumers.

Rough Draft- Project Proposal

Most college students, residents, and visitors to Clemson are unaware of the multitude of options that are open to them when it comes to dining. We tend to pick the most convenient, closet restaurant without any regard to the cuisine. Due to the fast pace culture of the college-based community, we seem to settle when it comes to meals. However, help is on the way. As three Clemson college students ourselves, we plan to provide a solution to this dining dilemma. In our project, we plan to visit a variety of restaurants all in different price ranges with various atmospheres. On our visits, the three of us will formulate separate ratings for each restaurant based on a standardized system. In order to make our views on each restaurant open to the public, we will create a website with menus of all of the restaurants as well as a write up of our reviews and ratings. The website will be a restaurant database. To add to the creative nature of our idea, we will include a multimedia presentation in the form of a video on the website. We feel as though we are qualified to present our ratings to our peers, because we are three different people with three different perspectives and backgrounds. We all have different tastes and will be sampling a variety of the cuisines offered in all of the restaurants. Most importantly of all we are all three Clemson college students ourselves; therefore, we understand the atmosphere of Clemson and the mindsets of our viewers when it comes to price, time, and distance. As typical college students, time is always an issue when it comes to projects. Therefore, in order to ensure that our project is organized, we developed a timeline to help guide us in our steps. The goal of our project is to help Clemson college students, residents, and visitors become aware of the many different options open to us when it comes to dining out and to help us become
knowledgeable about the different types and quality of food available at these restaurants.

Due to this lack of awareness in the Clemson community, there is a definite need for a restaurant database accessible to Clemson students, residents, and visitors. There are many restaurants in Clemson, Seneca, Anderson, and Central that are completely unknown to campus dwellers and alumni. In the small town atmosphere of Clemson, SC, restaurants are found in several remote locations. It could take years for a student to become aware of some of the most delectable restaurants in Clemson and the surrounding area. Since Clemson is a college-based town, most students tend to live on campus or close to campus. Therefore, most students tend to eat at nearby downtown restaurants very frequently because they are not aware of others. Some hidden treasures of ultimate cuisine are unknown to the majority of Clemson residents.

Also, when people visit Clemson to tour the school, spend time with their children, or attend a sporting event, they are unsure of where to eat. Most people only eat in the most obvious restaurants downtown. Alumni also return to visit Clemson and are unaware of new restaurants that have recently opened or been renovated. Alumni and visitors are also interested in dining in restaurants that are unique to Clemson, not necessarily chains that they can find in their home towns. A website would be an ideal way to lead the consumer to the most appropriate restaurant for their dining occasion. Students are looking for economical, quick choices for their daily meals. An upscale restaurant may also be desired when students are going on dates or dining out with their relatives. This website would meet these needs by allowing students to navigate through our price range categories to find a restaurant that is delicious and appropriate for their occasion. Our rating system and reviews of the restaurants would also help students choose a restaurant that they know will be tasty, have great service, an enjoyable atmosphere, and appropriate formality for the occasion at hand.

In order to achieve our goal of helping the Clemson community become knowledgeable and aware of different restaurants, we have laid out a developed plan. First, we will begin by visiting each of the 16 restaurants that we have selected to review in this project. These include: Goober's, Calhoun Corners, Sardi's, Pixie and Bill's, Paw's, Mac's, Monterrey's, Mellow Mushroom, Atami, Blue Heron, Friend's Cafe, Mainstreet Cafe, Seneca Family Restaurant, Ancheaux's, Tigertown Tavern, Copper River Grill. At the restaurants we will all order a different meal in order to get a good representation of the restaurant’s food. We will review each restaurant on the quality of food, wait time, service, etc. according to a pre-established rating system. We will choose a widely-used and accredited rating system before visiting the restaurants after much research. At the restaurant we will get a menu in order to scan and post on our website so that the audience has easy access to prices, location, and the type of food offered at each restaurant.

In addition to our own opinions, we will get reviews from others who have eaten at each restaurant. In order to have a variety of reviews, we will collect information from on-campus and off-campus students, faculty and staff, alumni, and visitors. We will ask those that we encounter at the restaurant. We will combine our reviews as well as the reviews of others in order to give each restaurant an overall review.

During this time of restaurant visiting, we will also be setting up the website to feature all of our gathered information. We will attend a website workshop on Wednesday, September 25 in order to learn how to set one up and how to add different components to it so that it will be professional. We will have a home page that describes exactly what our purpose is, who we are, who our target audience is, and how we went about obtaining our findings. There will also be a table of contents. The restaurants will be organized into price ranges because we figure that this is the best way to technically organize the types of restaurants and the most useful way for the audience to navigate the page. We will divide the restaurants into low, medium, and upper price ranges. Each restaurant will have its own link and page. Each page will have a written review by the three of us as well as the combined calculated rating of our scores and the scores of others. The pages will also feature quotes from customers, a copy of the menu, and pictures in order to make the page visually attractive and interesting.

As we finish with the restaurant visits and continue to revise the website, we will also make a video highlighting the top five best-rated restaurants in order to incorporate a multimedia component. We will upload the videos onto the website for the audience to view. We will continue to revise the home page and each restaurant’s individual page until we are satisfied with the end product.

As Clemson University students, Brittany Jones, Brennan Palazola, and I are qualified to prepare this end product of a restaurant database website, which will help others choose a great restaurant. Brittany is a South Carolina resident and her parents regularly visit Clemson. Brennan is from Tennessee and has two siblings that attended Clemson. I am from Tennessee and both of my parents are grandparents are Clemson alumni. As three students with different backgrounds and experiences, we can rate the restaurants objectively as they best suit our experiences and needs. Also, as third-year students, we are familiar with restaurants that may be well-kept secrets and student favorites. We also know which restaurants are great for game days, special occasions, and everyday dining on a student’s budget. Also, we have lived on-campus and off-campus and know which restaurants are convenient for both living styles.

We are planning to visit and rate sixteen restaurants throughout before completion of this project. We have already visited one restaurant and our beginning to acquire menus and price lists. Our first step toward completion of our project will be to learn how to create a website by meeting with technicians at the campus technology center, CCIT. We will meet at 10:15 AM on Wednesday, September 24. We will have the website completely designed by October 16. Although we may not have dined in every restaurant at this point, we would like to have them all loaded on the website, with or without ratings. We will have all of our ratings completed by the end of October. We will spend the first week of November working on the multimedia aspect of our project. We will film, edit, and post videos from our top five restaurant picks. We would like to interview managers, customers, or employees if possible. We will spend the rest of November revising and tweaking our website to make it most convenient for users. Our project will be complete and refined by the final due date in early December.

In early December, the Clemson community will have a great resource to help with all of our dining out decisions. Due to a lack of awareness and knowledge, Clemson students, residents, and visitors often have difficulty in making the best decision when it comes to a restaurant choice. However, our website will guide them to the best option reducing stress and opening eyes to hidden eateries before unknown. As three Clemson residents, we understand our community and hope to broaden its culinary outlook. Once our website is complete, Clemson students, residents, and visitors will never have to fret over where to eat again because the ultimate guide to quality and choice of restaurants in the immediate area will just be a click away.

Notes (1-38) -Ethics in Technical Communication

Ethics in Technical Communication:

Chapter 1 Nature of Ethics:

Introduction
-Some ethical concerns with information technology include privacy, ownership of information, copyright, access, freedom of speech, and personal security.
-Historically technical communication has been viewed solely as a means of relaying information to the recipient. However, technical communication is much more complex and it gives shape to the information that is being relayed.
-Purpose of the book is to help us understand our responsibilities regarding the use of technology for our communication.

Why Study Ethics?
-Ethical decisions are a part of everyday life, and you should be well versed in ethics to make sound ethical decisions.
-Spontaneous, unconsidered impulse is not ethically adequate.
-Help us to understand what we value and why.

What is Ethics?
-How do we know what is right?
-Really no concrete, absolute conclusions.
-We are own ethical expert and authority. However, paradoxically we must weigh our options based on a principle of responsibility that connect us all as human beings.

Our Expectations
-Ethics is problematic.
-Along with personal responsibility we must add the social circumstances as an essential component of ethical deliberations.
-No clear, distinct system for coming up with ethical decisions (not like Newtonian Mechanics).

Assumptions
-Ethics refers to general field of study as well as theories of historical figures. It also refers to value systems of an individual.
-Values underlie all communication.
-Ethics is about problems whose solutions are unclear at first; no easy answers.
-Ethics is both individual and social. Sometimes it means the assertion of individual responsibility over social pressure.
-Ethics is not absolute or relative. (Some choices are better in some cases and more right than other choices, but not absolute.)
-Learn from others ethical theories in order to formulate your own.
-No single theory will always be best for all situations; it depends on the circumstances.

Perspectives
-Can examine all perspectives but some include Aristotle, Kant, etc. Show how we apply ancient theories to modern times.
-Perspectives center on European-American traditions.

Scope
-Focus on how ethics relates to technical communication in ways that are unapparent but no less powerful.

Organization
-Outline ethics and then go into history of ethics followed by applying ethical theories to real cases of major ethical dilemmas in recent times.

Terminology
-Values are the intentions that guide an action.
-Ethics deals with values but involves a sense of careful responsibility.
-Ethics usually involves values, but values don’t always include ethics.
-Absolute is definite and unchanging.
-Relative is changing in relation to circumstances (don’t carry relative to extreme).

Chapter 2 Survey of Ethics in Communication and Rhetoric

Introduction
-Rhetoric is the use of reasoned arguments based on socially accepted values and presented to inform and persuade in order to accomplish some socially desirable action.
-Persuasion is the willing, informed collective agreement of a critically thinking audience.

Limitations of History
-Historical views are relevant only in broad terms.
-No universal solutions; cannot adopt past decisions to present cases.
-Shows us how others have dealt with issue, and we can learn from history and apply knowledge to modern day.

Ethics and Rhetoric Linked
-Ethics is related to technical communication, and communication entails rhetoric.
-Technical communication is rhetorical and always has to do with ethics and values.
-Rhetoric is all manners of persuasion, argumentations, and negotiation in communication regardless of the format.

Classical Greece
-Plato puts ethics before any communication.
-Aristotle communication between competing sides in a controversy reveals the proper values and right course of action.
-Sophists viewed communication as altering non absolute ethical values.

Plato and Socrates
-Plato viewed ethics as means of determining right conduct; it was theologically based.
-Plato thought humans should follow soul, and please god which will please themselves.
-According to Plate ethics is unchangeable and absolute.
-Socrates was Plato’s teacher, and he believed that everyone should critically examine one’s life.
-Socrates viewed ethics as never-ending, and we are socially responsible to others and to god.
-Socrates insisted on doing the right thing regardless of the consequences, following his conscience (absolute because driven by god), and requiring that ethical behavior be connected with social involvement.
-Socrates thought that ethical involvement required Communication because we relate to god through others.
-Plato differed from Socrates in that he viewed communication as a one way process from enlightened to those in need of enlightenment.
-Plato insisted on ethical goodness of communicator, meaning the communicator fully understands and is knowledgeable.
-Socrates, Plato, and Kant believed in the loving relationship between communicator and audience.
-Plato and Socrates emphasized communication as situation specific.

Aristotle
-Right course of action cannot be known clearly.
-He described rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion” (19).
-Determine ethical course through debate.
-Ethics is virtue according to him.

The Sophists
-Loose category of freethinkers and teachers.
-Plato was a critic.
-Believed there are no absolutes, and that communication is powerful because it shapes minds, hearts, values, and decisions.
-Language does not refer to anything that exists before and separate from our language use. (Language is everything, shapes the way we think and act.)
-Values are relative because depend on culture/circumstance.
-Social Constructionism is the point of view that all knowledge is only a construct derived from its social context (21).
-Protagoras and Gorgias rejected Plato.
-Sophists brought debate to society.
-Gorgias persuaded through communication (Helen of Troy).
-Sophists had the ability to make the greater point seem the lesser, and made repeated claims appear as accepted truths.
-For Plato ethics comes first, but for sophists rhetoric comes first (because allows persuasion that defines values).

Recent Times
-In past ethics was Plato and Aristotle, and it was a religious matter.
-Ability to reason came to forefront and undermined authority figures (rational inquiry also came to forefront).

Hegel
-Values are arrived at socially.
-Communication is key; supporter of sophists.

Perelamn
-Nothing absolute lies behind or beyond rhetorical language.
-Our language is our values.

Burke
-Modern social constructionist.
-Language is a symbol system.
-Words refer to words.

Weaver
-Values come before discourse.
-All language expresses some values.

Rhetoric, Knowledge, and Values
-Rhetoric deals with values (structure of DNA).
-Gates used rhetoric to explain discourse among African-Americans (highly dependent on social circumstance). Therefore, rhetoric depends on cultural context.
-Michael Foucault claims that language speaks through us, and the same time we use language to justify actions and get things accomplished.
-Foucault claims that power, language use, and knowledge are interconnected (law).
-Keller claims that science has pervaded thoughts (gender vs. sex).
-Habermas concern with rise of science and technology because it sheds away from discussion/discourse.
-Ethics is inseparably connected with communication and rhetoric.