Reflection

This semester has been a great learning experience for me. At the beginning of the course I was discouraged with all the reading, blogging and working on our website. Now that we are finished it was well worth it and I can truly say that I have learned something valuable to take on into my future. I would have to say that I have no regrets.

Tobacco and Death/Star Wars

Chapter 6: Tobacco and Death, When is a Cause not a Cause?
-technical communication misled the public and now has gotten millions into serious medical issues

CAUSE-
1) a fairly direct and mechanical matter
2) statistical approach
-"the tobacco industry has engaged in an aggressive program of misinformation, obfuscation, denial, and opposition that has clouded the connection between smoking and disease in the minds of the public"
-statistics is a very important tool in medicine and public health
-practically all scientists and doctors studying smoking agree that smoking causes lung cancer as well as other diseases, causation and not coincidence

SOPHISTS-
-"clever users of words to manipulate and deceive"
-interested in winning arguments, prevailing in debates, and achieving favorable judgments for oneself
-the techniques of the sophists as traditionally represented do seem to closely resemble those of the tobacco industry, and our ethical judgment of them is similarly negative
-sophists insist that every topic has two sides worthy of argument, and their reputation for contention for the sake of contention and for the sake of thier self-interest
-"Thank You for Not Smoking"

DOCUMENTS-
-industry has avoided not only a single judgment against them but had also avoided the crucial first judgment against them, which would act as a watershed yielding a cascade of further cases based on that precedent
1950s-
-Dr. Ernst Wynder's report on smoking and its affects led to the industry beginning a PR campaign using the fact that there is no real proof or cause, used the newspaper
-TIRC- famous and widely cited documents
1) articulates a position central to the industry's subsequent justifications of its activities, namely that causation and proof have not been demonstrated
2) shows the frank disdain by the industry of scientific, medical, and technical research accepted by nearly all medical and scientific professionals outside the industry
3) attempts to lay upon industry a mantle of scientific honesty and rigor that has been found to be false and deliberately misleading
-document also portrays the industry as a victim of malicious publicity from other agents, while in reality the public is the victim
1960s-
-Surgeon General appointed an advisory committee to investigate the health effects of smoking
-industry now struggling to find reputable scientists willing to defend their position
-unimpeachable evidence that nicotine is addictive has been found
-the addictiveness of nicotine was taken as accepted even though the exact mechanism by which the addiction occurs or operates is not known, which is opposite of smoking and cancer
1970s-
-industry interested in filtered cigarettes as a way to respond
-entrapped in their own web of deceit in trying to justify and market the newly developed filtered cigarettes
-justified on the basis of only a perception among the public that smoking is linked to health problems, w/out actually acknowledging the reality that smoking causes health problems
-use of euphemisms, "biological activity," a euphemism for cancerous tumors
-inversions of meaning and opposition to generally accepted knowledge are hallmarks of sophistical argumentation
-closed down several research operations in order to not learn things they didn't want to learn
-potentially damaging research either was not funded or was restricted to be under the management of the lawyers, hoped that the findings could then be kept from gov't and public
1980s-
-the control of info by lawyers in order to prevent disclosures that would be detrimental to the industry was tightened
-later went on to control the entire reporting process and whole documents
-conpletely shutdown lines if some research was about to be reported
1990s-
-huge volumes of documents are coming to the spotlight
-1997, negotiated the terms of a single enormouse settlement that would quell some of the public clamor, ran into delay and oppisition and other tobacco compancies began distancing themselves from it

A SINGLE WORD-
-"believe," investigation into possible perjury charges against those CEO's, abandoned the investigation becuase of the single word, "believe"

GRAPHICAL IMAGES-
-photographic image of the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie
-Joe Camel, care free, living for the moment, not worried about cancer years later,
-the charm of diversions is an old theme running throughout the history of rhetoric and ethics
-RJR realized the importance of catching young people to smoke, smokers of the future, slowly fading off, worried, reasoning for Joe Camel
-Marlboro Man, "Thank you for not Smoking," David McLean

ETHICAL APPRAISAL-
- Aristotle-does not approve of the tactics used by the Tobacco Industry. The industry was unethical and was dishonest in their debate for why smoking is not unhealthy. Debate was pointless because the truth of whether smoking cigarettes is harmful to one’s health is already apparent.
- Kant-tobacco documents are clearly unethical because they do not act in a manner which could become a universal principle applying to everyone. The Tobacco Industry has not treated everyone in a way which they would want to be treated. They have continually opposed those working for the public good for the benefit of their industry.
- Utilitarian-weighs cost against benefits.
- Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care-actions of the Tobacco Industry are unethical because they are impersonal corporations driven by their own goals and do not care that many people die a slow, painful death as a result of smoking.

Chapter 7: Star Wars, Hope vs. Reality
-never actually happened, different technical communication than smoking

CONTEXT-
-began during nuclear stalemate with Soviet Union
-seemed highly appealing at an emotional level and what seems plausible at a stated technical level turned out to be technically impossible
-lots of money spent before it was terminated

OVERVIEW OF SDI-
-Reagan announced on national TV that US was initiating a program to protect US from nuclear attack, 1983
-this proposal stemmed from "technological optimism," speech not clear on how it was going to happen however
-program ended up only protecting a small amount of the USA

A COMPLEX SYSTEM-
-Fletcher report-
-all in all very confusing and unrealistic

CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
-OTA issued a background paper on one element of the overall program, titled "Directed Energy Missile Defense in Space"
-four "misapprehensions"
1) individual, separate devices such as lasers are not the same as the total system in which they would be used together, which would be extremely complex
2) SDI is unlike any prior technical program such as the Manhattan project
3) hopes for entirely new technologies cannot be realistic.
4) accurate predictions cannot be made about the performance of this complex system. All possible outcomes cannot be anticipated.
*all related to the software issue
-serious concerns were voiced from the earliest days of the project by technically knowledgeable government authorities about the feasibility of SDI and its software

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING
-executive branch, president vs. congress, 1984
-president's science advisor, Keyworth- "powerful new technologies are becoming available that justify a major technology development effort to provide future technical options to implement a technical strategy"
-Senator John Glenn objected to these statements on behalf of Congress
-another incident showed that seemingly hard numbers can have only weak foundations reflecting more hopes than realities

SDI DOCUMENTS. PRO AND CON
Pro-
-commonly began arguments by explaining how terrible nuclear warfare would be
-would not directly emphasize technological feasibility
-presupposes the desirability of a technological fix to any and all problems
-even when three panels were put together by the white house even their explicitly optimistic statement is couched in vague, conditional language that is typical of nearly all the technical statements made in support of SDI
Con-
-many technical experts voiced opposition immediately
-Lin concludes that the SDI software project as described in the president's speech is impossible
-the fundamental validity of the algorithms running the computer could never be proven to encompass all conceivable threats
David L. Parnas-
-father of software engineering and has experience in designing military software systems
-resigned because of the Fletcher panel
-his statement is a great example of perfect technical communication
-he says that no software system could possibly be developed along the lines required by SDI that would be "trustworthy"
-many of the potential difficulties could not be completely anticipated and debugged before hand
-claims that SDIO is not an efficient way to fund research on subsystems even if the total system is unworkable, he identifies this as a "moral issue"

STAR WARS BOYCOTT PLEDGE

ETHICAL APPRAISAL
Aristotle-
- Undecided: unclear whether supporters could be characterized as representing a virtuous persona or whether they deny any suggestion over feasibility and realistically
Kant-
- Undecided: same dilemma (in what way were the supporters of SDI acting: virtuous or themselves)
Utilitarianism-
- Ethical if carried through with intended purpose (defense)
- Unethical if carried through knowing it would be ineffective
Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care-
- Feminist perspective opposed to military
- Defense of US and Allies shows caring
- On the other hand unethical considering SDI supporters tried to stop dissenting voices
-Resignation of David Parnas

CONCLUSION
- SDI had a laudable goal.
- Many reasons for SDI not working. Most important was software would not work as needed.
- Concern for security can cloud our judgment over highly technical matters.
- Our ethical responsibility as communicators is to make sure that our hopes and wants do not cloud our claims about our technical abilities.

Harty Part 6: And Now a Word (or Two or Three) about Ethics

-business and technical writers have a very real moral and ethical obligations

Dorothy A. Winsor: Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators
1) Managers and engineers viewing the same facts from different perspectives
*knowledge is not just seeing facts but rather interpreting them, and that interpretation varies depending upon ones vantage point
2) General difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news, particularly when it must be passed to superiors or outsiders

PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT
-failure of a rubber seal in the solid rocket booster

EARLY RESPONSES TO BAD NEWS: DISBELIEF AND FAILURE TO SEND UPWARD
-when O-ring anomalies first began appearing in early 1984, neither engineers nor management at MTI treated them as serious problems in their communications to Marshall, did not send an interpretation UPWARD!

CONTINUED BAD NEWS REJECTION DESPITE CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE
-optimistic view of o-rings continued despite mounting evidence that the rings were not functioning well

INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION OF CONCERN FROM MTI ENGINEERS
-MTI management may have an inaccurate understanding of the situation and a memo was written to clear this up
-his concern was keep within MTI

THE SPLIT BETWEEN MANAGERS AND ENGINEERS
-engineers and managers were disagreeing,
-engineers had hard time expressing their concern "upward"

CONCLUSION
-no one at MTI or Marshall wanted to believe that a problem existed
-even when MTI engineers came to believe that a problem existed, that had a difficult time convincing their management, with its different perspective on operations, to interpret the facts in the same light
-on the night before launch, MTI personnel were unable to convince MArshall of the situation's gravity, even though they looked at the same facts
-both were reluctant to communicate bad news to those outside the company


Darrel Huff: How to Lie with Statistics
-without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense

The sample with the built-in-bias-
-you can prove about anything you want to by letting your sample bias itself
The truncated, or gee-whiz graph-
-you can chop off the bottom of many types of graphs to deceive
The souped-up graph-
-change the proportion between the ordinate and the abscissa, exaggerates
The well-chosen average-
-comparing the mean vs. the median
The insignificant difference or the elusive error
-so small to determine the outcome, 98-101 IQ
The one-dimensional picture-
The over-impressive decimal-
The semiattached figure-
The unwarranted assumption, or post hoc rides again-


Dan Jones: Determining the Ethics of Style
WHAT IS ETHICS?
-the study of right and wrong conduct
-the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation
-a guiding philosophy

ETHICS AND TECHNICAL PROSE

ETHICS AND THE PROFESSIONS
- the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

Carolyn D. Rude: Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing

LEGAL ISSUES IN EDITING
-Intellectual property: copyright, trademarks, patents, trade secrets
-copyright
ownership
copyright notice, registration, and deposit
international copyright protections
-Permission and "fair use"
-copyright and online publication
-trademarks, patents, and trade secrets
-product safety and liability
-libel, fraud, and misrepresentation

The Basics of a Cover Letter (pages 306-333)

Format
The Parts of a Letter
-Return address
-Date
-Inside address
-Salutation
-Length
-Enclosure
Paper Size
Paper Color and Quality
Typing and Printing
Envelope

Content
Personalize each letter
Mapping it out
-First paragraph
-Second paragraph
-Third paragraph
-Fourth paragraph
-Complimentary close

Tips for successful cover letters
What writing style is appropriate?
Tone: Reserved confidence is always in style
Emphasize concrete examples
Use powerful language
Avoid catchphrases
Mention personal preferences
Proof with care

Cover letter blunders to avoid
Unrelated career goals
Comparisons and cliches
Wasted space
Form letters
Inappropriate stationery
"Amusing" anecdotes
Erroneous company information
Desperation
Personal photos
Confessed shortcomings
Misrepresentation
Demanding statements
Missing resume
Personal information
Choice of pronouns
Tone trouble
Gimmicks
Typographical errors
Messy corrections
Omitted signature

Cover letters for special situations

Response to a "blind" advertisement

Cold letters

Broadcast letters

Letter to an employment agency

Letter to an executive search firm

Networking letters

Thanks you letters

Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm: You Resume on the Internet

The myth about the internet resume

Rules for responding online

E-resumes are not just for e-mail

Preparing a perfect plain-text resume
-ten steps

Where, oh, where should that resume go?
Protect yourself online
Before you post, something to think about

Resume blasters: the wave of the future or a new for of spam?

Help resumes and cover letters

Online guides and guidance
Online writing lab (OWL), Purdue University- http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
The Damn Good Resume- damngood.com
The Resume Place- resume-place.com
Susan Ireland- susanireland.com

Harty: Pages 275-307

Part 5: Resumes and Other Written Materials for a Job Search

What preparation and experience candidates had in the following skills and areas:
-written and oral communication skills
-computer skills
-interpersonal skills, as demonstrated by the ability to work as a member of a team
-self-reliance and initiative, as demonstrated by the ability to work alone
-a sense of what the world of work demands in terms of professionalism and deadlines
-specific skills in at least one business or technical area supplemented by secondary skill sin a variety of related areas
-a sense of business and personal ethics
-the ability to manage time, set priorities, and work under stress

Why use a resume?
-Purpose is to convey a message, a purpose easily forgotten in the ritual of preparing it
-"Don't confuse customers by flaunting things that don't speak to their needs"

Giving your message
-start with the written word even if you are going to meet the potential employer in person
-the importance of knowing what the job is all about is key

Letters of Application
-looked like business letters
-they were succinct
-no misspellings or grammatical errors
-all followed a similar pattern
1) first paragraph stated who the writer was and what he wanted
2) body paragraphs indicated why the writer wrote to the employer and mentioned areas of mutual interest, special talents, or other qualifications that are better suited in a letter than a resume
3) a final paragraph suggesting a course of action
-hard work and attention to detail make for a good letter
-don't delegate the job of letter writing

Resume Preparation
-make it a testimony to your ability to organize your thoughts
-must look sufficiently attractive to get an employer to read it
-use headlines properly

The Functional Resume
-solution is to feature the functions of the job he wanted and then describe things he had done that pertained to each area
-under each function he developed the equivalent of a mini-resume

Preparing a Resume for a Specific Job
-functional resume allows you to develop a different message for each job or type of job you wish to apply for
-diff. functions can be highlighted, depending on what the job requires, and your specific experiences rearranged under diff. headings

A Resume Reflecting an Active Mind and Body

The Curriculum Vitae- "course of life"
-resume for academic positions and as such does not need a statement of goals or interest

The Job Objective
-need to keep this in mind while writing a resume, effects the structure of the entire resume

Additional Advice
-what qualifications does this person?
-what do you see this person doing with these qualifications?
-what kind of an employer would want to hire this person
-does the resume project an image of a certain kind of person? What kind? Aggressive? Thoughtful? Energetic? What?

Multimedia

For the multimedia component of our final website project, we thought about shooting video and pictures of things pertaining to Clemson Tailgating.
some ideas of videos:
-different tailgates/atmospheres
-activities
-Clemson traditions ex) Alma Matter, cadence count, etc
-cooking clips with tips
-having videos on the setup of a tailgate

Chapter 4- Dombrowski: Nazi Records; The Origin and Use of Information

Organization, Dissemination, and Use of Information
Nazi past-
-most of the information learned was retrieved from the Nuremberg trials
-found at the horrendous institutionalized abuse of people in the name of scientific and medical research

Controversy in the Present
-Medical specimens- scandals have arisen over human anatomical samples used in medical education
-"Research" information- the use of research done by the Nazi's in present day experiments to improve survival equipment

Values in Nazi Medical "Science"
Traditional view- "the healer became the killer, and healing became killing"
-the execution of numberless Jews and non-Jews was legitimated as medically necessary for the sake of racial health and purity
-masked language also played an important role in communications about the medical killings in many ways, both externally to the public and internally to bureaucrats, military officers, and doctors
Nazi anti-science-
-for some these horrible activities done in the name of medical science are explained on the basis of the intrinsic inhumaneness and unethicalness of science itself
-Nazi activities are extreme forms of the basic principles underlying all science and technology
-other say that many medical researchers, and a good deal of the general population in Nazi Germany, were disenchanted with traditional empirical science, so disenchanted as to deliberately, specifically oppose traditional science

Research in the U.S.
-the means by which info or knowledge in the form of evidence is obtained can greatly affects its validity and usability
-regardless of the indications of guilt that such evidence might reveal, if it was obtained illegally, then the information is considered not to exist and cannot be used as evidence

Nazi Technical Memorandum
-"Technical memorandum by Just on Gassing Vans"
-something is strange because there is a glaring absence of words
-masked language
-subject title of the document
-the document is actually technically excellent
-keep in mind that the technical values of excellence, effectiveness, efficiency and expediency came to replace many of the traditional social values of Germany
-"What we can do, we should do, largely because we can do it" - page 103
-Other technical communication in Nazi Germany
-the acquisition of Jewish skulls, particularly communist, by "induced death"
-document preventing the reproduction of specific race, Jews,
-there is an extreme emotional and ethical distance between the subject and researcher

Graphical Images
-Nuremberg Race Laws- making it illegal to have inter-racial blood relationships
-social Darwinism, "survival of the fittest"
-ethical problem was that political values came first
-technical procedures were established to identify Jews
-use of technology allows distancing between technician and the subject
-use of technology allows technician to remain detached from values behind the technology

Ethical Appraisal
Aristotle-condemns Nazi regime
Kant-assumes the equivalence of all people, indeed of all rational beings
Utilitarianism- seeks the greatest good for the greatest number, while what is good is defined in terms of usefulness
Feminist and Ethics of Care-Nazis showed an absolutely uncaring attitude toward their victims and absolutely refused to maintain any relationship with them, therefore their actions were utterly unethical