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Subject:Re: Ethics in Technical Writing From:"Elisa R. Sawyer" <elisawyer -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net> Date:Mon, 1 May 2017 15:26:21 -0700
I absolutely think that technical writers should "worry about these things."
Apologies if your wondering about a writer valuing ethics was not directed
at me.
I have actually risked my job in several situations because I was concerned
about the ethics of what I was asked to do.
I also have been fired because I stood up for what I thought was right. I
have thought about some of the decisions that I have made along the way,
and in addition I have encouraged my son to do what he thinks is ethical in
his field.
As time goes on I have become more and more convinced that ethics are
important in life.
Some of the phrases that I use, like "I'm paid to worry about these
things," are simply ways of helping people understand that my job is not
about simply correcting spelling mistakes. I have often worked on API
documentation and in some situations people think that the only task of the
writer is to correct a few typos. That is not actually the case. Good API
documentation is actually rather challenging. I could write a book on this
topic too. :-)
-Elisa
On Mon, May 1, 2017 at 12:51 PM, Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net> wrote:
> You made several good points. Do you think technical writers have an
> ethical duty to âworry about these thingsâ or is such worry just an option?
> Why do you suppose the duty of ethics in technical writing is not often
> discussed?
>
> On 4/30/2017 2:21 PM, Elisa R. Sawyer wrote:
>
>> ...
>> In some situations where I need to ask questions about what, on the
>> surface, appear to be inconsequential minutiae, I sometimes make the point
>> that "I'm paid to worry about these things."
>>
>
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--
Elisa Rood Sawyer
~~~~~^~~~~~
Technical and Creative Writer
"Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today." Mark Twain
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