Tech communication ethics (was Re: Ambiguous words and Phrases)

[Tim Mantyla <TimMantyla -at- nustep -dot- com>]

Dori has started a list and a discussion of ethics, I hope. I like that! 
Any additions or suggestions?

--Tim


> From: "Dori Green" <dgreen -at- associatedbrands -dot- com>

> If writing ambiguously on purpose is not prohibited in the STC's Code of
> Ethics for Technical Writers, it should be.  If STC does not have a Code
> of Ethics for Technical Writers, it should.
> Dori Green


> From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>

> 
> The concern in writing marketing materials or sales scripts is not that 
> information be conveyed accurately or completely, but that an emotional 
> environment conducive to a sale be created.
> 
> Andrew Warren wrote:
> > V Suresh wrote:
> > ...
> >> It actually leaves a customer helpless if they ever get into
> >> a hassle with the bank.
> >>
> >> If you ask me, the Banks by using such ambiguous words can
> >> easily get away from any tight corners.
> > 
> >     I don't see that.  The loan isn't approved until the bank
> >     says it is; "approved in principle" is no more harmful to
> >     the applicant than "nearing approval", "not yet approved",
> >     or "awaiting approval".
> > 
> >> Isn?t there a need to give more clarity to a customer than
> >> that?
> > 
> >     The sentence only lacks clarity if the reader is unfamiliar
> >     with the phrase "in principle".  If the reader knows the
> >     phrase, it actually ADDS clarity.
 
> >     I guess the bank could simplify the language in the loan-
> >     approval letter, but the customer's eventually going to
> >     have to read the loan docs, and the language is MUCH more
> >     complicated there.  Simplifying the letter isn't going to
> >     do much to improve a customer's overall comprehension of
> >     the system.

> From: Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>


> In general, when a business sector characteristically obscures important 

> information with ambiguous words, I don't like it. I take a dim view of 
> it.  Sometimes I might see that the ambiguity hss been introduced by a 
> writer who doesn't understand the subject matter, but that's a different 

> matter.
...
> The financial industry in the United States has been under fire in 
> recent years for creating consumer documentation that requires, in the 
> words of Senator Carl Levin, a 27th-grade education to comprehend.
> 
> At Sen. Levin's request, the General Accounting Office (GAO) undertook a 

> study of the credit card industry, and found that the terms of credit 
> card agreements are written at a 10th-12th grade level, well above the 
> 8th-grade level at which half of US adults read.
> 
> See the full report, which discusses the results found by readability 
> consultants:
> 
> http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06929.pdf
> 
> BTW, Sen. Levin's committee held hearings about this and other credit 
> card practices.  One public hearing featured credit card company 
> executives in attendance to answer question, and it was a spectacle 
> worthy of the Roman forum.  Levin read, for a solid minute, from the 
> text of an agreement from a major credit card company, and then asked 
> one of the executives if he believed that credit card holders knew what 
> it meant.  The exec stated that yes, he thought most of them did. The 
> audience erupted in gales of derisive laughter.
> 
> TW tie-in: This might be a good example of how to make document reviews 
> more popular and entertaining, but not if you're prone to blushing.
> 
> Ned Bedinger
> doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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