From the project, I learned how difficult it was to obtain responses from people online. I learned the importance of the needs and wants of the client. Much of the work and effort I put into the first project was lost when I switched over to another project to cater to a different audience. I learned how time consuming creating a website and video can be. I also found out that there is a wide variety of fields on the subject of scuba diving (physics, medical, etc).
From the class, I learned how to clearly write and place graphical images in a document. In addition, I learned to be careful of what I say around others, especially if I do not know them. I also learned that I need to view each technical paper I write from an ethical and moral point.
This class has allowed me to learn how to create a website and videos. I have learned how to interact with people both online and coworkers. I will be able to use the material I have learned about writing technical papers and reports and use them in my future employments.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Website up and running.
Website for Beginning Scuba nears completion. Ready to be turned in. Visit the website at http://introtoscuba.weebly.com/.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Dombrowski: (1) Tobacco and Death and (2) Star Wars
Ch 6: Tobacco and Death: When Is A Cause Not A Cause?
- Dombrowski: “”…this chapter more than some others seem to take a particular side on the “debate”””.
- Sophism: a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophists)
- Recent Years:
(a) Sophists showing power of language to shape ideas and opinions and even knowledge itself
(b) Demonstrated effective power of language to challenge prevailing structures of power and authority
- Why was public outraged by the ethical lapses in technical communication associated with the Challenger disaster and not deaths caused by cigarettes?
(a) Challenger – witnessed on television, scarred millions of people, deaths quick and violent
(b) Cigarettes – witnessed by few, deaths slow and painful
Answer: publicity
- Technical and Scientific Information used for corporate and personal gain:
(a) disguising self-serving posturings as technical facts
(b) disguising grim reality as pleasurable indulgences
(c) disguising knowledge as beliefs
Misleading the public and evading ethical responsibilities
Cause
Reason #1: Concerns probabilities and populations rather than certainties and individual persons
- Most people see causation as a fairly direct and mechanical matter
- Another meaning: Statistical Causation – a probability of what will happen in a population or group but says nothing about particular individual cases
- People care about themselves first and populations second (do not realize they are the same thing)
Reason #2: Misinformation, obfuscation, denial, and opposition
- Statistics – one of the most important tools of medicine and public health in modern times
John Stuart Mill – one of the major figures in logical reasoning of the twentieth century
(a) Method of “concomitant variation” by which an increase in an independent variable leads to an increase in a dependent variable, and a decrease yields a decrease (one causes another even though we do not know why)
- Examples statistical causation: public safety, medical community
- Smoking related deaths transcend genders and race; therefore, no other conceivable factor could explain the strength of the observed correlation other than smoking itself (known for over fifty years)
- Unknown: specific, microscopic mechanisms by which smoking causes cancer and other diseases
- Causation is fundamental to examining the role of ethics in technical and scientific communications about smoking and disease
- Sophists are traditionally known as hustlers and charlatans
- Sophists clashed with Aristotle and Plato over the use of rhetoric
- Sophists = Tobacco Industry
- Tobacco decision makers:
(a) know that smoking increases risk for cancers and death
(b) create documents and debate for the tobacco industry knowing the facts
- Challenger decision makers:
(a) not certain mission would end in a disaster
(b) took dangerous risks to achieve organization’s goals
Conclusion: Tobacco decision makers behaved much more unethically than the Challenger decision makers
Documents
Tobacco Industry
(a) sophistical treatment of causation
(b) ability to identify a few legitimate scientists to argue on the issue of causation
(c) Enormous financial and legal resources to use in defense
- Supported by states for tax revenue
- Uses money to settle out of court if about to lose
- Plaintiffs die before jury deliberates
- Tobacco Industry is very secretive / careful about documents (do not leave “smoking guns” around)
- Charges against Tobacco Industry (on an unprecedented magnitude):
(a) fraud
(b) conspiracy
(c) negligence
(d) false advertising
(e) product liability
1950s
- Tobacco Industry needed better public relations to counter against the American Cancer Society
- Published “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” which is widely cited by the Tobacco industry:
(a) articulates a position central to the industry’s subsequent justifications of its activities (causation and proof have not been demonstrated
(b) shows frank disdain by the industry of scientific, medical, and technical research accepted by nearly all medical and scientific professionals outside the industry
(c) attempts to lay upon industry a mantle of scientific honesty and rigor that has been found to be false and deliberately misleading
- Summary: basically attempts to say that industry is a protector of public health and an authority on scientific rigor
- 4 points in document
(a) lung cancer has many possible causes (doesn’t mention smoking was extremely common)
(b) “no agreement among the authorities”
(c) “no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes”
(d) conclusions drawn from statistics can be misleading or confusing
- Tobacco Industry uses words to mislead public
- Tobacco Industry’s statements mixed with serious and comic meanings allowing industry to defer either way
1960s
- US Surgeon General became involved
- Tobacco Industry running out of reputable scientists willing to endorse them
- Nicotine found to be addictive
- Tobacco Industry: protects itself over health of public
1970s
- introduced filters to cigarettes
- told public that it was done because of perception of public that smoking is linked to health problems
- Tobacco Industry “technical documents” acknowledges health hazard then denies it (tries to go both ways)
- People became interested in health of non-smokers (started banning smoking)
- Inversions of meaning and opposition to generally accepted knowledge – hallmarks of sophistical argumentation
- mid 1970s: ignorance is bliss (industry closed down research into effects of smoking because of all the bad health information they were finding)
- public and government kept in the dark by having reports written under supervision of lawyers (lawyer-client confidentiality)
1980s
- Control over information tightened even more
- Reports limited to snippets in order to limit potential damaging information
- Lawyers were present every step of the way in scientific research
1990s
- Secret documents come to light from whistleblowers and disgruntled insiders
- Tobacco Industry backed into a corner from private and public perspective
- Liggett Group (Major Tobacco Company) admitted nicotine was addictive in 1997. Other tobacco companies distance themselves away from it.
- States start suing Tobacco Companies successfully
A Single Word
- Management says nicotine is not addictive
- Documents appear that indicate otherwise (management knew as well)
- Industry defers to public health authorities by putting statements such as “Smoking causes cancer.” on boxes but not necessarily agreeing with the statements
Graphical Images
- Words difficult to pin down regarding their meaning, interpretation, and ethical significance. Graphical Images are even harder (photographs, etc.)
- The charm of diversions is an old theme running throughout the history of rhetoric and ethics.
- R.J. Reynolds: launched campaign geared towards children (ages 9 to 24) to smoke his brand of cigarettes after studies showed that most people were faithful to the first brand of cigarettes smoked
- David McLean (Marlboro Man) was forced to smoke up to five packs of Marlboros a day in order to get the right advertising effect
- Graphical images also used to teach children about the harmful effects of smoking
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotle
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
Utilitarian perspective weighs cost against benefits. Question is to whom? The Tobacco Industry’s plan follows that idea; however, few people outside the industry would view it as ethical.
- Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care
The actions of the Tobacco Industry is 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.
Ch 7: Star Wars: Hope vs. Reality
Examine ethical issues in technical communications involving claims about the software that was to be used in the Star Wars nuclear missile defense system.
- The speculation of communicators had gone too far in the Star Wars Missile Defense System. Went so far as to speculate about technologies that had not been discovered yet, and also suggested a present technical reality that did not exist.
- Claims about the feasibility of and effectiveness of Star Wars were buried in language that freely intermixed past and present technical reality with future goals and wishful expectations.
Context
- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as “Star Wars” after the movie, was to protect the US from annihilation by the nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union.
Overview of SDI
- President Ronald Reagan proposed SDI on March 23, 1983 as a way to defend the US against a nuclear attack.
- Startling announcement because:
(a) vast scope
(b) unanticipated by the public
(c) astronomical expense of the proposed system
- Speech doesn’t offer plan but a goal of the form of a “vision of the future”
- Speech noteworthy not only of important military statement but also for its ethical and moral components as well.
- Value dimension gives speech its ethical thrust.
- Show powerful influence of values in shaping public discourse and technical claims about a highly technical topic.
A Complex System
- 5 key areas
(a) surveillance, acquisition, tracking, and kill assessment
(b) directed energy weapons
(c) kinetic energy weapons
(d) survivability, lethality, and key technologies
(e) systems concepts and battle management
- 4 phases of missile flight
(a) boost
(b) post-boost
(c) midcourse
(d) terminal
- idea for redundant system that tries to intercept missile at each of the four phases (would have to be quick so entirely computer automated)
- ground, air, space, and submarines working together flawlessly and seamlessly. Not to mention having to operate in space and prepare for different strategies such as subsequent missile attacks after they empty themselves and not have all counter defenses work at the same time. Does not help that the US military has a bad record when it comes to software and hardware (imagine surviving the conditions of space).
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
- Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report was fairly optimistic but with significant concern
- Four “misapprehensions” regarding the stated goals of the president’s plan
(a) Separate devices such as lasers are not the same as the total system, which is complex
(b) SDI is unlike any prior technical program such as the Manhattan project
(c) Hopes for completely new technologies cannot be realistic
(d) Accurate predictions cannot be made about the performance of the complex system. No realistic test of the system beforehand. All possible outcomes cannot be anticipated.
- Concerns that system (millions of lines of code) would have to operate flawlessly the first time
- Draws 3 conclusions from the chapter on software
(a) Experience shows that large, complex software systems cannot be reliable and would always have unresolved issues
(b) No guarantee that the system would not fail during battle as a result of software error. High probability of failure drawn from experience with the BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system
(c) No adequate models exist for the development, production, test, and maintenance of software for full-scale BMD systems
Congressional Hearing
- 2 questions
(a) Does the person share the president’s view that Star Wars would render nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete”?
(b) Does the person share the view of Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger that Star Wars would be a “reliable and total” system of protection against nuclear weapons?
- President’s science advisor, George Keyworth, basically said that the purpose now was not defense but leverage in negotiations for arms control and reduction agreements.
- Director of SDI Organization, Lt General Abrahamson, presented the goals, aims, and intentions as practical realities.
- The exchange between Senator Tsongas and various others showed that seemingly definite technical information can be derived from speculation and wishes and from backward reasoning that might not hold up under scrutiny.
SDI Documents, Pro and Con
+ Pro
- Moral, political, or ideological statements used to try to convince others
- Goal reduced from protecting the US and allies to arms deterrent
- Optimism about new technologies yet to be discovered and anything was possible in America
+ Con
- Infeasibility
- Overwhelming consensus of nation’s technical community is that there is no prospect whatever that science and technology can, at any time in the next several decades, make nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.”
- Examples used to show human and software error makes president’s vision impossible
- Amount of resources involved and current technology is impossible
Parnas
- David Parnas: father of software engineering and has experience in designing military software systems.
- The technical is ethical and the ethical is technical for Parnas
- Statement on SDI is an exemplary model of clear, effective, and ethical technical communication in many ways.
- Statement is highly technical yet clear. General but not vague. Direct, incisive, and entirely clear. It has consistent focus and a clear, coherent development of its arguments, which all deal with crucial points.
- On the contrary, SDI supporters very lengthy explanation and very technical. Reader feels compelled to fold out of exhaustion, confusion, or intimidation.
- Clear about the need for truthfulness and for frank, open discussion in public about technical and strategic realities.
- Point was that there was no software that could be developed that would be trustworthy in the sense that it would work 100 percent of the time when it was needed to
- Ethos: a rhetorical term referring to believability on the basis of perceived character
- Parnas also gives credibility to his statements by giving his qualifications as a software engineer and a military systems designer.
- Resignation from panel adds to credibility because he had nothing to gain by resigning but a good bit to lose.
- Everybody on pro SDI panel had something to gain by continuation of project, and Parnas was the only qualified person on the panel
- Parnas explains his sense of professional ethical responsibility that motivated his action.
- As a professional:
(a) I am responsible for my own actions and cannot rely on any external authority to make my decisions for me.
(b) I cannot ignore ethical and moral issues. I must devote some of my energy to deciding whether the task that I have been given is of benefit to society.
(c) I must make sure that I am solving the real problem, not simply providing short-term satisfaction to my supervisor.
- need only to be true to their professional responsibilities
- No inconsistencies between professional responsibilities, public, civic responsibilities, and personal responsibilities.
- Plato, Aristotle, Kant, feminist ethicists, and an ethic of care perspective approve of the way Parnas acts and his caring concern for the public good through honest, open discussion.
- Utilitarianism disagrees because the personal good oftentimes will disagree with the public good or professional good.
- Whistleblower because he made to light wishes of his colleagues for him to shut up. He also made the panel seem unqualified, selfish, ineffective, and unethical.
- Awarded the first Norbert Weiner Award for Social and Professional Responsibilities by the organization Computer Professionals for Social Responsibilities in 1987.
Star Wars Boycott Pledge
- Sense of ethical and civic responsibility by the community showed in the form of the Star Wars Boycott Pledge.
- Department of Defense tried to get many scientists and technical experts to support them.
- Signers were communicating about the technical, political, and ethical matters.
- Petition included 15 Nobel Prize winners and over 50 percent of the faculty of the top twenty US physics departments along with 3700 scientists, engineering professors, and researchers at over 110 academic institutions.
- Sociologist Michael Nusbaumer says “Scientists of all types are increasingly aware of and are being held responsible for their science and its relationship to larger social and political issues.”
Patriot: Small-Scale SDI
- Patriot Missile Defense system : small Star Wars system
- Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) still develops missiles to intercept incoming warheads
- Patriot Missiles were less likely to intercept SCUD missiles during the Persian Gulf War as time went on.
- Our responsibility as technical communicators is to try to ensure as best we can that our representation of information corresponds to the reality.
Technical Claims about Air Operations
- Example when it comes to the discrepancy between claims and reality (a large one in this case).
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
Aristotle – ethical (sought the true, good, and right in this matter)
Kant – ethical (treating audience as he himself would wish to be treated and his sense of duty prevails)
Utilitarian – ethical (actions avoided fruitless costs on a program that would fail)
Feminist – ethical (showed caring towards the public)
Parnas’s statement is an exemplary model of ethical technical communication considering he could have just said nothing and taken the easy way out.
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.
- Dombrowski: “”…this chapter more than some others seem to take a particular side on the “debate”””.
- Sophism: a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophists)
- Recent Years:
(a) Sophists showing power of language to shape ideas and opinions and even knowledge itself
(b) Demonstrated effective power of language to challenge prevailing structures of power and authority
- Why was public outraged by the ethical lapses in technical communication associated with the Challenger disaster and not deaths caused by cigarettes?
(a) Challenger – witnessed on television, scarred millions of people, deaths quick and violent
(b) Cigarettes – witnessed by few, deaths slow and painful
Answer: publicity
- Technical and Scientific Information used for corporate and personal gain:
(a) disguising self-serving posturings as technical facts
(b) disguising grim reality as pleasurable indulgences
(c) disguising knowledge as beliefs
Misleading the public and evading ethical responsibilities
Cause
Reason #1: Concerns probabilities and populations rather than certainties and individual persons
- Most people see causation as a fairly direct and mechanical matter
- Another meaning: Statistical Causation – a probability of what will happen in a population or group but says nothing about particular individual cases
- People care about themselves first and populations second (do not realize they are the same thing)
Reason #2: Misinformation, obfuscation, denial, and opposition
- Statistics – one of the most important tools of medicine and public health in modern times
John Stuart Mill – one of the major figures in logical reasoning of the twentieth century
(a) Method of “concomitant variation” by which an increase in an independent variable leads to an increase in a dependent variable, and a decrease yields a decrease (one causes another even though we do not know why)
- Examples statistical causation: public safety, medical community
- Smoking related deaths transcend genders and race; therefore, no other conceivable factor could explain the strength of the observed correlation other than smoking itself (known for over fifty years)
- Unknown: specific, microscopic mechanisms by which smoking causes cancer and other diseases
- Causation is fundamental to examining the role of ethics in technical and scientific communications about smoking and disease
- Sophists are traditionally known as hustlers and charlatans
- Sophists clashed with Aristotle and Plato over the use of rhetoric
- Sophists = Tobacco Industry
- Tobacco decision makers:
(a) know that smoking increases risk for cancers and death
(b) create documents and debate for the tobacco industry knowing the facts
- Challenger decision makers:
(a) not certain mission would end in a disaster
(b) took dangerous risks to achieve organization’s goals
Conclusion: Tobacco decision makers behaved much more unethically than the Challenger decision makers
Documents
Tobacco Industry
(a) sophistical treatment of causation
(b) ability to identify a few legitimate scientists to argue on the issue of causation
(c) Enormous financial and legal resources to use in defense
- Supported by states for tax revenue
- Uses money to settle out of court if about to lose
- Plaintiffs die before jury deliberates
- Tobacco Industry is very secretive / careful about documents (do not leave “smoking guns” around)
- Charges against Tobacco Industry (on an unprecedented magnitude):
(a) fraud
(b) conspiracy
(c) negligence
(d) false advertising
(e) product liability
1950s
- Tobacco Industry needed better public relations to counter against the American Cancer Society
- Published “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” which is widely cited by the Tobacco industry:
(a) articulates a position central to the industry’s subsequent justifications of its activities (causation and proof have not been demonstrated
(b) shows frank disdain by the industry of scientific, medical, and technical research accepted by nearly all medical and scientific professionals outside the industry
(c) attempts to lay upon industry a mantle of scientific honesty and rigor that has been found to be false and deliberately misleading
- Summary: basically attempts to say that industry is a protector of public health and an authority on scientific rigor
- 4 points in document
(a) lung cancer has many possible causes (doesn’t mention smoking was extremely common)
(b) “no agreement among the authorities”
(c) “no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes”
(d) conclusions drawn from statistics can be misleading or confusing
- Tobacco Industry uses words to mislead public
- Tobacco Industry’s statements mixed with serious and comic meanings allowing industry to defer either way
1960s
- US Surgeon General became involved
- Tobacco Industry running out of reputable scientists willing to endorse them
- Nicotine found to be addictive
- Tobacco Industry: protects itself over health of public
1970s
- introduced filters to cigarettes
- told public that it was done because of perception of public that smoking is linked to health problems
- Tobacco Industry “technical documents” acknowledges health hazard then denies it (tries to go both ways)
- People became interested in health of non-smokers (started banning smoking)
- Inversions of meaning and opposition to generally accepted knowledge – hallmarks of sophistical argumentation
- mid 1970s: ignorance is bliss (industry closed down research into effects of smoking because of all the bad health information they were finding)
- public and government kept in the dark by having reports written under supervision of lawyers (lawyer-client confidentiality)
1980s
- Control over information tightened even more
- Reports limited to snippets in order to limit potential damaging information
- Lawyers were present every step of the way in scientific research
1990s
- Secret documents come to light from whistleblowers and disgruntled insiders
- Tobacco Industry backed into a corner from private and public perspective
- Liggett Group (Major Tobacco Company) admitted nicotine was addictive in 1997. Other tobacco companies distance themselves away from it.
- States start suing Tobacco Companies successfully
A Single Word
- Management says nicotine is not addictive
- Documents appear that indicate otherwise (management knew as well)
- Industry defers to public health authorities by putting statements such as “Smoking causes cancer.” on boxes but not necessarily agreeing with the statements
Graphical Images
- Words difficult to pin down regarding their meaning, interpretation, and ethical significance. Graphical Images are even harder (photographs, etc.)
- The charm of diversions is an old theme running throughout the history of rhetoric and ethics.
- R.J. Reynolds: launched campaign geared towards children (ages 9 to 24) to smoke his brand of cigarettes after studies showed that most people were faithful to the first brand of cigarettes smoked
- David McLean (Marlboro Man) was forced to smoke up to five packs of Marlboros a day in order to get the right advertising effect
- Graphical images also used to teach children about the harmful effects of smoking
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotle
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
Utilitarian perspective weighs cost against benefits. Question is to whom? The Tobacco Industry’s plan follows that idea; however, few people outside the industry would view it as ethical.
- Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care
The actions of the Tobacco Industry is 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.
Ch 7: Star Wars: Hope vs. Reality
Examine ethical issues in technical communications involving claims about the software that was to be used in the Star Wars nuclear missile defense system.
- The speculation of communicators had gone too far in the Star Wars Missile Defense System. Went so far as to speculate about technologies that had not been discovered yet, and also suggested a present technical reality that did not exist.
- Claims about the feasibility of and effectiveness of Star Wars were buried in language that freely intermixed past and present technical reality with future goals and wishful expectations.
Context
- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as “Star Wars” after the movie, was to protect the US from annihilation by the nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union.
Overview of SDI
- President Ronald Reagan proposed SDI on March 23, 1983 as a way to defend the US against a nuclear attack.
- Startling announcement because:
(a) vast scope
(b) unanticipated by the public
(c) astronomical expense of the proposed system
- Speech doesn’t offer plan but a goal of the form of a “vision of the future”
- Speech noteworthy not only of important military statement but also for its ethical and moral components as well.
- Value dimension gives speech its ethical thrust.
- Show powerful influence of values in shaping public discourse and technical claims about a highly technical topic.
A Complex System
- 5 key areas
(a) surveillance, acquisition, tracking, and kill assessment
(b) directed energy weapons
(c) kinetic energy weapons
(d) survivability, lethality, and key technologies
(e) systems concepts and battle management
- 4 phases of missile flight
(a) boost
(b) post-boost
(c) midcourse
(d) terminal
- idea for redundant system that tries to intercept missile at each of the four phases (would have to be quick so entirely computer automated)
- ground, air, space, and submarines working together flawlessly and seamlessly. Not to mention having to operate in space and prepare for different strategies such as subsequent missile attacks after they empty themselves and not have all counter defenses work at the same time. Does not help that the US military has a bad record when it comes to software and hardware (imagine surviving the conditions of space).
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
- Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report was fairly optimistic but with significant concern
- Four “misapprehensions” regarding the stated goals of the president’s plan
(a) Separate devices such as lasers are not the same as the total system, which is complex
(b) SDI is unlike any prior technical program such as the Manhattan project
(c) Hopes for completely new technologies cannot be realistic
(d) Accurate predictions cannot be made about the performance of the complex system. No realistic test of the system beforehand. All possible outcomes cannot be anticipated.
- Concerns that system (millions of lines of code) would have to operate flawlessly the first time
- Draws 3 conclusions from the chapter on software
(a) Experience shows that large, complex software systems cannot be reliable and would always have unresolved issues
(b) No guarantee that the system would not fail during battle as a result of software error. High probability of failure drawn from experience with the BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system
(c) No adequate models exist for the development, production, test, and maintenance of software for full-scale BMD systems
Congressional Hearing
- 2 questions
(a) Does the person share the president’s view that Star Wars would render nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete”?
(b) Does the person share the view of Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger that Star Wars would be a “reliable and total” system of protection against nuclear weapons?
- President’s science advisor, George Keyworth, basically said that the purpose now was not defense but leverage in negotiations for arms control and reduction agreements.
- Director of SDI Organization, Lt General Abrahamson, presented the goals, aims, and intentions as practical realities.
- The exchange between Senator Tsongas and various others showed that seemingly definite technical information can be derived from speculation and wishes and from backward reasoning that might not hold up under scrutiny.
SDI Documents, Pro and Con
+ Pro
- Moral, political, or ideological statements used to try to convince others
- Goal reduced from protecting the US and allies to arms deterrent
- Optimism about new technologies yet to be discovered and anything was possible in America
+ Con
- Infeasibility
- Overwhelming consensus of nation’s technical community is that there is no prospect whatever that science and technology can, at any time in the next several decades, make nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.”
- Examples used to show human and software error makes president’s vision impossible
- Amount of resources involved and current technology is impossible
Parnas
- David Parnas: father of software engineering and has experience in designing military software systems.
- The technical is ethical and the ethical is technical for Parnas
- Statement on SDI is an exemplary model of clear, effective, and ethical technical communication in many ways.
- Statement is highly technical yet clear. General but not vague. Direct, incisive, and entirely clear. It has consistent focus and a clear, coherent development of its arguments, which all deal with crucial points.
- On the contrary, SDI supporters very lengthy explanation and very technical. Reader feels compelled to fold out of exhaustion, confusion, or intimidation.
- Clear about the need for truthfulness and for frank, open discussion in public about technical and strategic realities.
- Point was that there was no software that could be developed that would be trustworthy in the sense that it would work 100 percent of the time when it was needed to
- Ethos: a rhetorical term referring to believability on the basis of perceived character
- Parnas also gives credibility to his statements by giving his qualifications as a software engineer and a military systems designer.
- Resignation from panel adds to credibility because he had nothing to gain by resigning but a good bit to lose.
- Everybody on pro SDI panel had something to gain by continuation of project, and Parnas was the only qualified person on the panel
- Parnas explains his sense of professional ethical responsibility that motivated his action.
- As a professional:
(a) I am responsible for my own actions and cannot rely on any external authority to make my decisions for me.
(b) I cannot ignore ethical and moral issues. I must devote some of my energy to deciding whether the task that I have been given is of benefit to society.
(c) I must make sure that I am solving the real problem, not simply providing short-term satisfaction to my supervisor.
- need only to be true to their professional responsibilities
- No inconsistencies between professional responsibilities, public, civic responsibilities, and personal responsibilities.
- Plato, Aristotle, Kant, feminist ethicists, and an ethic of care perspective approve of the way Parnas acts and his caring concern for the public good through honest, open discussion.
- Utilitarianism disagrees because the personal good oftentimes will disagree with the public good or professional good.
- Whistleblower because he made to light wishes of his colleagues for him to shut up. He also made the panel seem unqualified, selfish, ineffective, and unethical.
- Awarded the first Norbert Weiner Award for Social and Professional Responsibilities by the organization Computer Professionals for Social Responsibilities in 1987.
Star Wars Boycott Pledge
- Sense of ethical and civic responsibility by the community showed in the form of the Star Wars Boycott Pledge.
- Department of Defense tried to get many scientists and technical experts to support them.
- Signers were communicating about the technical, political, and ethical matters.
- Petition included 15 Nobel Prize winners and over 50 percent of the faculty of the top twenty US physics departments along with 3700 scientists, engineering professors, and researchers at over 110 academic institutions.
- Sociologist Michael Nusbaumer says “Scientists of all types are increasingly aware of and are being held responsible for their science and its relationship to larger social and political issues.”
Patriot: Small-Scale SDI
- Patriot Missile Defense system : small Star Wars system
- Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) still develops missiles to intercept incoming warheads
- Patriot Missiles were less likely to intercept SCUD missiles during the Persian Gulf War as time went on.
- Our responsibility as technical communicators is to try to ensure as best we can that our representation of information corresponds to the reality.
Technical Claims about Air Operations
- Example when it comes to the discrepancy between claims and reality (a large one in this case).
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
Aristotle – ethical (sought the true, good, and right in this matter)
Kant – ethical (treating audience as he himself would wish to be treated and his sense of duty prevails)
Utilitarian – ethical (actions avoided fruitless costs on a program that would fail)
Feminist – ethical (showed caring towards the public)
Parnas’s statement is an exemplary model of ethical technical communication considering he could have just said nothing and taken the easy way out.
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.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Dombrowski on Challenger Disaster
Challenger Disaster: Information versus Meaning
What did show?
1) show importance of clear communication
2) powerful role of complex social forces
3) interplay between values and language in communication
Two Governmental Reports
1) Report of Presidential Commission
1.1) Analysis show: lengthy and poor knowledge of technical writing
2) Differences
2.1) More than Information
2.2) Confusing Language
2.3) Conclusions do not follow logically
Conclusion:
- weight ethical implications
- express our judgment clearly
Two Crucial Shifts in Meaning
- O-Ring Charring
- - lack of reaction on managements’ part
- Powerful Role of Assumptions
Challenger shows realistic limitations of optimistic assumptions
“Smoking Gun” Memorandum (by Mr. Boisjoly)
Subject Line – grabs attention (uses key words)
1st paragraph – brief and clearly states its purpose
2nd paragraph – description of past and current affairs
3rd paragraph – hypothetical and plausible outline of consequences caused by the above complications
4th paragraph – cannot fulfill duty to both organization and ethics
Final paragraph – very emotional in giving his conclusion
Graphical Images
- People determine what numbers mean
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotle: ethics and debate
approves memorandum on the subject of ethics
might approve debate between presidential and congressional report
- Kant: responsibilities
Approves: Memorandum and Congressional Report
Disapproves: Presidential Report
- Utilitarianism: good of the many
Unclear on all counts
- Feminist and Ethics of Care
Launch decision unethical by both
Conclusion:
Challenger disaster shows how values and ethical judgment play a key role in the communication of even highly technical information
Changed way information is read and interpreted
Hierarchy problem (different responsibilities and interests)
What did show?
1) show importance of clear communication
2) powerful role of complex social forces
3) interplay between values and language in communication
Two Governmental Reports
1) Report of Presidential Commission
1.1) Analysis show: lengthy and poor knowledge of technical writing
2) Differences
2.1) More than Information
2.2) Confusing Language
2.3) Conclusions do not follow logically
Conclusion:
- weight ethical implications
- express our judgment clearly
Two Crucial Shifts in Meaning
- O-Ring Charring
- - lack of reaction on managements’ part
- Powerful Role of Assumptions
Challenger shows realistic limitations of optimistic assumptions
“Smoking Gun” Memorandum (by Mr. Boisjoly)
Subject Line – grabs attention (uses key words)
1st paragraph – brief and clearly states its purpose
2nd paragraph – description of past and current affairs
3rd paragraph – hypothetical and plausible outline of consequences caused by the above complications
4th paragraph – cannot fulfill duty to both organization and ethics
Final paragraph – very emotional in giving his conclusion
Graphical Images
- People determine what numbers mean
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotle: ethics and debate
approves memorandum on the subject of ethics
might approve debate between presidential and congressional report
- Kant: responsibilities
Approves: Memorandum and Congressional Report
Disapproves: Presidential Report
- Utilitarianism: good of the many
Unclear on all counts
- Feminist and Ethics of Care
Launch decision unethical by both
Conclusion:
Challenger disaster shows how values and ethical judgment play a key role in the communication of even highly technical information
Changed way information is read and interpreted
Hierarchy problem (different responsibilities and interests)
End of Harty
Part 6: And Now a Word (or Two or Three) about Ethics
- Final Important Point: All businesses and technical writing must not only meet the needs of its intended audiences and follow a process approach, but it must also adhere to the strictest ethical and legal standards.
+ Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators (by Dorothy A. Winsor)
Background note: Hierarchy: NASA => Marshall => MTI
- Why do people not communicate material defects, and how to prevent them?
1) Managers and engineers view the same facts but from a different perspective
2) The general difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news
- Knowledge defined as not simply seeing facts but interpreting them.
- Interpretation varies depending upon point of view.
- Communication redefined as not only sharing information but also sharing interpretations.
- Greater tendency to believe in good news than the bad
- Communication within the company is terrible
- Communication outside the company is nonexistent
- Real Life Example: Challenger Explosion
1) Physical Cause of Accident
1.1) Cause: Failure of a rubber seal (O-ring)
1.2) Reason: Failure to question why O-rings became increasingly defective
2) Early Responses to Bad News: Disbelief and Failure to Send Upward
2.1) Reasons
2.1.1) Ignore the problem and it will go away
2.1.2) Schedules to keep
2.1.3) Refusal to take responsibility
2.1.4) Everything is fine to superiors, but serious problems to plant floor
3) Continued Bad News Rejection Despite Contradictory Evidence
3.1) All the companies did not seem concerned about the crew’s lives on the shuttle; thereby continuing to send defective materials until an accident would prompt it to change.
4) Internal Versus External Communication of Concern from MTI Engineers
4.1) Internal Communication was serious while external communication provided no interpretation
4.2) Example of hierarchal problem: Managers did not agree and therefore did not translate the concerns into a language understood by the executives => End result: engineers’ failed to translate technical documents into language that could be understood by the executives, and the disagreement of the managers did not place importance behind the engineers’ fears.
5) The Split Between Managers and Engineers
5.1) Same problem as above. A failure in the link of hierarchy results in the message getting lost.
5.2) Convinced managers too late (might have also convinced themselves a little too late)
6) Conclusion
6.1) Refusal to take responsibility, refusal to communicate bad news both inside and outside the company, split hierarchy lines, and fear of loss of contracts and positions caused the Challenger disaster.
+ How to Lie with Statistics (by Darrell Huff)
1) Statistics
1.1) Sensationalize
1.2) Inflate
1.3) Confuse
1.4) Oversimplify
2) The Sample with the Built-In Bias
2.1) Moral: You can prove about anything you want to by letting your sample bias itself.
3) The Truncated, or Gee-Whiz, Graph
3.1) Truncated to look nicer
3.2) Pay attention before making assumptions
4) The Souped-Up Graph
4.1) Exaggerated axes makes it look more alarming
5) The Well-Chosen Average
5.1) Mean – average
5.2) Median – middle (half way through)
6) The Insignificant Difference of the Elusive Error
6.1) Need to look at the lowest and highest value
7) The One-Dimensional Picture
7.1) Misleading because of the lacking 3D factor
7.2) Book encourages you to shirk responsibility for doing these types of graphs because “everyone else does it” so you can’t help it
8) The Ever-Impressive Decimal
8.1) The more decimals you have, the more exact you are (hence why we have significant digit rules) and deceives readers more than if you gave one number without a decimal which makes it look like an approximation
9) The Semiattached Figure
9.1) Unrelated instances that could be tied together (coincidence)
10) The Unwarranted Assumption, or Post Hoc Rides Again
10.1) Cause and effect reversed and sometimes intermingled
- A well wrapped statistic misleads, yet it can’t be pinned on you
+ Determining the Ethics of Style (by Dan Jones)
1) William Lutz – doublespeak or misleading language is not done by accident but as a product of clear thinking
2) Joseph Williams – Different connotations and denotations of a word
3) Richard Lanham – Why do we call prose either good or bad, and why do people think bad prose threatens the foundations of civilizations
4) What is Ethics?
4.1) Study of right and wrong conduct (simply defined)
4.2) Has many broad terms
5) Ethics and Technical Prose
5.1) Keep in mind who will be affected and how by the way you write
6) Ethics and the Professions
6.1) The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics (p 370)
6.2) STC Ethical Guidelines for Technical Communicators (p 372)
6.3) Obligations to: society, employers, clients, coprofessionals, and professional organization (technical writers, computer professionals, and engineers)
+ Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing (by Carolyn D. Rude)
- Legal and ethical issues pertain both to individuals and to organizations
- Protect individuals and groups from harm (breast cancer sequence is copyrighted so you have to apply to study it. How is that protecting people from harm?)
1) Legal Issues in Editing
1.1) Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks, Patents, Trade Secret
1.2) Copyright
1.2.1) Owner has say whether they can be copied or reproduced
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2.2) Ownership
1.2.3) Copyright expires after 70 years after the owner’s death or 95 years beyond publication
1.2.4) Copyright can be renewed
1.2.5) Ownership can either be one person, multiple people, or corporation
1.4) Copyright Notice, Registration, and Deposit
1.4.1) Registration in Copyright Office gives maximum legal protection (everything is copyrighted regardless after it exists in fixed form)
1.4.2) Problem with this is with lawyers, the more lawyers win over those who can’t afford it (Microsoft over webdomain name infringement Mikesoft which was unintentional and against linux)
1.5) International Copyright Protection
1.5.1) Not all countries offer copyright protection and some are not as good as others
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6) Permissions and “Fair Use”
1.6.1) Written permission for reusing copyrighted material should include the three bullets on p 377
1.6.2) Now have copyright where only 1 computer can have software installed even if you own it
1.6.3) Not everyone reads copyright and license agreements (evidence for Adobe where they said by installing this software you are no longer a person. Not many people paid attention because it’s too long)
1.7) Copyright and Online Publication
1.7.1) Cyberspace law is still developing
1.7.2) Laws act as a deterrent but they mean nothing if someone doesn’t care about the laws
1.8) Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
1.8.1) Employees owe a “duty of trust” to current and former employers
1.9) Product Safety and Liability
1.9.1) Manufacturers cannot avoid responsibility with disclaimers (result: stupid lawsuits and stupid clauses in the new disclaimers)
1.9.2) Instructions, Safety Labels, and the Duty to Warn
1.9.2.1) Clear and complete instructions
1.9.2.2) Show hazards and attach necessary safety labels
1.9.3) The Editor’s Legal Responsibility
1.9.3.1) Encourages editors to be careful in the legal edit (now need lawyers to interpret it)
2) Libel, Fraud, and Misrepresentation
2.1) Libel is a defamatory statement without basis and open yourself up to lawsuits
2.2) Fraud and misrepresentation deceive the public
- Final Important Point: All businesses and technical writing must not only meet the needs of its intended audiences and follow a process approach, but it must also adhere to the strictest ethical and legal standards.
+ Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators (by Dorothy A. Winsor)
Background note: Hierarchy: NASA => Marshall => MTI
- Why do people not communicate material defects, and how to prevent them?
1) Managers and engineers view the same facts but from a different perspective
2) The general difficulty of either sending or receiving bad news
- Knowledge defined as not simply seeing facts but interpreting them.
- Interpretation varies depending upon point of view.
- Communication redefined as not only sharing information but also sharing interpretations.
- Greater tendency to believe in good news than the bad
- Communication within the company is terrible
- Communication outside the company is nonexistent
- Real Life Example: Challenger Explosion
1) Physical Cause of Accident
1.1) Cause: Failure of a rubber seal (O-ring)
1.2) Reason: Failure to question why O-rings became increasingly defective
2) Early Responses to Bad News: Disbelief and Failure to Send Upward
2.1) Reasons
2.1.1) Ignore the problem and it will go away
2.1.2) Schedules to keep
2.1.3) Refusal to take responsibility
2.1.4) Everything is fine to superiors, but serious problems to plant floor
3) Continued Bad News Rejection Despite Contradictory Evidence
3.1) All the companies did not seem concerned about the crew’s lives on the shuttle; thereby continuing to send defective materials until an accident would prompt it to change.
4) Internal Versus External Communication of Concern from MTI Engineers
4.1) Internal Communication was serious while external communication provided no interpretation
4.2) Example of hierarchal problem: Managers did not agree and therefore did not translate the concerns into a language understood by the executives => End result: engineers’ failed to translate technical documents into language that could be understood by the executives, and the disagreement of the managers did not place importance behind the engineers’ fears.
5) The Split Between Managers and Engineers
5.1) Same problem as above. A failure in the link of hierarchy results in the message getting lost.
5.2) Convinced managers too late (might have also convinced themselves a little too late)
6) Conclusion
6.1) Refusal to take responsibility, refusal to communicate bad news both inside and outside the company, split hierarchy lines, and fear of loss of contracts and positions caused the Challenger disaster.
+ How to Lie with Statistics (by Darrell Huff)
1) Statistics
1.1) Sensationalize
1.2) Inflate
1.3) Confuse
1.4) Oversimplify
2) The Sample with the Built-In Bias
2.1) Moral: You can prove about anything you want to by letting your sample bias itself.
3) The Truncated, or Gee-Whiz, Graph
3.1) Truncated to look nicer
3.2) Pay attention before making assumptions
4) The Souped-Up Graph
4.1) Exaggerated axes makes it look more alarming
5) The Well-Chosen Average
5.1) Mean – average
5.2) Median – middle (half way through)
6) The Insignificant Difference of the Elusive Error
6.1) Need to look at the lowest and highest value
7) The One-Dimensional Picture
7.1) Misleading because of the lacking 3D factor
7.2) Book encourages you to shirk responsibility for doing these types of graphs because “everyone else does it” so you can’t help it
8) The Ever-Impressive Decimal
8.1) The more decimals you have, the more exact you are (hence why we have significant digit rules) and deceives readers more than if you gave one number without a decimal which makes it look like an approximation
9) The Semiattached Figure
9.1) Unrelated instances that could be tied together (coincidence)
10) The Unwarranted Assumption, or Post Hoc Rides Again
10.1) Cause and effect reversed and sometimes intermingled
- A well wrapped statistic misleads, yet it can’t be pinned on you
+ Determining the Ethics of Style (by Dan Jones)
1) William Lutz – doublespeak or misleading language is not done by accident but as a product of clear thinking
2) Joseph Williams – Different connotations and denotations of a word
3) Richard Lanham – Why do we call prose either good or bad, and why do people think bad prose threatens the foundations of civilizations
4) What is Ethics?
4.1) Study of right and wrong conduct (simply defined)
4.2) Has many broad terms
5) Ethics and Technical Prose
5.1) Keep in mind who will be affected and how by the way you write
6) Ethics and the Professions
6.1) The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics (p 370)
6.2) STC Ethical Guidelines for Technical Communicators (p 372)
6.3) Obligations to: society, employers, clients, coprofessionals, and professional organization (technical writers, computer professionals, and engineers)
+ Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing (by Carolyn D. Rude)
- Legal and ethical issues pertain both to individuals and to organizations
- Protect individuals and groups from harm (breast cancer sequence is copyrighted so you have to apply to study it. How is that protecting people from harm?)
1) Legal Issues in Editing
1.1) Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks, Patents, Trade Secret
1.2) Copyright
1.2.1) Owner has say whether they can be copied or reproduced
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2.2) Ownership
1.2.3) Copyright expires after 70 years after the owner’s death or 95 years beyond publication
1.2.4) Copyright can be renewed
1.2.5) Ownership can either be one person, multiple people, or corporation
1.4) Copyright Notice, Registration, and Deposit
1.4.1) Registration in Copyright Office gives maximum legal protection (everything is copyrighted regardless after it exists in fixed form)
1.4.2) Problem with this is with lawyers, the more lawyers win over those who can’t afford it (Microsoft over webdomain name infringement Mikesoft which was unintentional and against linux)
1.5) International Copyright Protection
1.5.1) Not all countries offer copyright protection and some are not as good as others
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6) Permissions and “Fair Use”
1.6.1) Written permission for reusing copyrighted material should include the three bullets on p 377
1.6.2) Now have copyright where only 1 computer can have software installed even if you own it
1.6.3) Not everyone reads copyright and license agreements (evidence for Adobe where they said by installing this software you are no longer a person. Not many people paid attention because it’s too long)
1.7) Copyright and Online Publication
1.7.1) Cyberspace law is still developing
1.7.2) Laws act as a deterrent but they mean nothing if someone doesn’t care about the laws
1.8) Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets
1.8.1) Employees owe a “duty of trust” to current and former employers
1.9) Product Safety and Liability
1.9.1) Manufacturers cannot avoid responsibility with disclaimers (result: stupid lawsuits and stupid clauses in the new disclaimers)
1.9.2) Instructions, Safety Labels, and the Duty to Warn
1.9.2.1) Clear and complete instructions
1.9.2.2) Show hazards and attach necessary safety labels
1.9.3) The Editor’s Legal Responsibility
1.9.3.1) Encourages editors to be careful in the legal edit (now need lawyers to interpret it)
2) Libel, Fraud, and Misrepresentation
2.1) Libel is a defamatory statement without basis and open yourself up to lawsuits
2.2) Fraud and misrepresentation deceive the public
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Section 5 Part 2: Cover Letter and Online Resumes
The Basics of a Cover Letter by Steven Graber
Cover letter similar to resume => marketing tool
FORMAT:
1) The Parts of a Letter
+ Two styles
- Personal style
- Business style (aka block style)
1.1) Return Address
- either left or centerline at top of paper
- avoid abbreviations
- include contact info on cover letter if gets separated from resume
1.2) Date
- two lines below return address
1.3) Inside Address
- four lines beneath the date
1.4) Salutation
- two lines beneath company’s address
- vary intro depending on familiarity
1.5) Length
- three or four short paragraphs on one page => ideal
1.6) Enclosure
- used primarily in formal or official correspondence
- not necessary in cover letter
2) Paper Size
- standard size (8.5’’ x 11’’) : any other size is awkward
3) Paper Color and Quality
- use matching paper and envelopes for both resume and cover letter
- regular white or ivory paper (plain)
4) Typing and Printing
- word processing program
- handwritten letters unacceptable
- do not photocopy one resume for everything else => will not be taken seriously
5) Envelope
- standard business-sized envelope that matches stationary
- type envelopes as well
- full name and title, specifically to contact person identified in cover letter
CONTENT:
1) Personalize Each Letter
- find the person who is interviewing
2) Mapping It Out
- overview of capabilities
- stress one or two capabilities
- intro and conclusion one sentence is fine
- make clear interest subject of company
2.1) First Paragraph
- state position applying for
2.2) Second Paragraph
- what I can offer you
2.3) Third Paragraph
- recommendations by other professionals and show how you exceed expectations
2.4) Fourth Paragraph
- look forward to hearing from them
- after one or two weeks, no phone call => a call is acceptable
2.5) Complimentary Close
- two lines beneath body of letter
- aligned with return address and date
- KISS (keep it simple stupid)
- sign letter above full name that appears in resume
TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL COVER LETTERS
1) What Writing Style is Appropriate?
- polite, formal style balances confidence and respect for employer
- clear, objective, and persuasive
2) Tone: Reserved Confidence is Always in Style
- sound polite, confident, and professional
3) Emphasize Concrete Examples
- tangible relevant skills instead of personal attributes
4) Use Powerful Language
- action verbs
- simple language
- keep away from jargon or technical detail
5) Avoid Catchphrases
- explain how you are what you describe
6) Mention Personal Preferences?
- do not include asked salary unless prompted
- if prompted, say negotiable
- out of state, indicate willingness to relocate
7) Proof with Care
- Check for mistakes::other words => read your letter after printing
- Find mistakes and rewording => print again: paper is cheap
COVER LETTER BLUNDERS TO AVOID
1) Unrelated Career Goals
2) Comparisons and Clichés
- expressions detract from your letter’s purpose
3) Wasted Space
- Any unrelated information weakens your application
4) Form Letters
- Do not spam
- Write individual letters
5) Inappropriate Stationary
- graphics will NOT improve cover letter
6) “Amusing” Anecdotes
- don’t know how interview person will react to joke
7) Erroneous Company Information
- verify accuracy of company information
- if not do not say you are familiar with company’s products
8) Desperation
- sound determined, not desperate:: basically same thing as if you were trying to get a date
9) Personal Photos
- unless related, not applicable
10) Confessed Shortcomings
- do not show your weaknesses since employers will focus on that
11) Misrepresentation
- do not pad resume – may come back to haunt you
12) Demanding Statements
- cover letter => what you can do for them and not vice versa
13) Missing Resume
- create checklist of things to go in envelope before mailing
14) Personal Information
- don’t bother
- list interest and hobbies only if related
15) Choice of Pronouns
- use I and don’t refer to yourself like Julius Caesar…in the third person
16) Tone Trouble
- try to sound genuine and not stilted
- err on side of formality
- fine line to tread
17) Gimmicks
- the simplest answer is usually the easiest, and is usually wrong.
- don’t try anything novel…stick to tradition
18) Typographical Errors
- be consistent
- do not misspell
- double check materials and company it goes to to make sure it makes sense and you changed everything
19) Messy Corrections
- cover letter should contain all pertinent information
- retype and never add supplementary note handwritten
20) Omitted Signature
- use blue or black ink and sign your name
COVER LETTERS FOR SPECIAL SITUATIONS
+ Special Situations
- for lack of paid job experience
- out of workplace
- may have discrimination
- ex. College students
+ Emphasize strengths and marketability skills
+ Downplay weakness
RESPONSE TO A “BLIND” Advertisement
- tailor your letter to the information given
- define knowledge of industry, position, and qualifications (if mentioned)
COLD LETTERS
- directly contact potential employers without previous correspondence or a referral
- advertise availability to hiring managers and personnel department
BROADCAST LETTERS
- only applicable to seasoned executives
- tone reflects experience, knowledge, and confidence
+ people who are doing widespread job searches
- end up in human resource department instead of in the hand of a fellow executive
LETTER TO AN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
- offers services primarily for clerical or support staff positions
+ letters addressed to them should:
- focus on who you are
- what type of position you are looking for
- what specific industry
- strongest skills related to the field
- mention personal preferences, including geographic and salary requirements
LETTER TO AN EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRM
- alert an otherwise unknowing recruiter to your availability
- highlight your most impressive accomplishments and attributes
- briefly summarize all relevant experience
- preferences list (geographical location, travel, and salary)
- all mentioned in cover letter
NETWORKING LETTERS
- unless familiar with contact, word your correspondence in a businesslike manner
- state the name of the person who referred you
- make letter politely persuasive
- if met them, ask how they are and remind them about seeing them
THANK YOU LETTERS
- often appropriate or obligatory (correspondence doesn’t end with cover letters)
- acceptable to write thank you note on a generic blank note card but never a postcard
- keep letters short, proofread carefully, and send them promptly
Your Resume on the Internet by Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm
THE MYTH ABOUT THE INTERNET RESUME
+ one resume – several different formats
1) a designed or hard – copy version: ready to send to contacts via mail
-- bulleted lists, bold and italicized text, and other highlights
2) a scannable version – employers who use scanning systems
-- no bullets, bold, italics, or design highlights
3) a plain-text version – no frills plain text to copy and paste into online forms and online resume databases
4) an e-mail version – one formatted to meet the length-of-line restrictions found in most e-mail systems. Copy and paste into an e-mail message and forward to an employer or recruiter in seconds
+ may create HTML version of your resume
- many more job seekers doing that
- turn resumes in employment portfolio
- make sure to not violate copyright or confidentiality clauses
- post it separately from your website and do not link the two
RULES FOR RESPONDING ONLINE
1) Format your resume correctly for e-mail (copy and paste and send may screw formatting)
2) Send resume in body of e-mail message. Do not send as attachment unless specifically instructed by recipient. 20 seconds to catch their eye. Too late with attachment and may not bypass e-mail systems that refuse attachments.
3) Always include a cover letter. If responding to an advertisement: note where you found the advertisement and job codes
4) Use advertised job title or job code in the subject line of e-mail message: allows recipient to sort e-mails.
5) Read the application instructions included in the job announcement and follow them exactly. Jump through the hoops.
- Takes only a couple seconds to delete an e-mail message. Think and read then respond
E-RESUMES ARE NOT JUST FOR E-MAIL
1) easy to have typos if you type into the website
2) system does not allow career changers to build a function resume because everything is set in chronological order
3) Cannot save resume so you have to repeat the resume building effort
Careful where you put your private information: make sure it is protected.
PREPARING A PERFECT PLAIN-TEXT RESUME
Step 1: Check keywords – resume has all keywords that define job qualifications
Step 2: Save your resume as a Text Only document – allows adjustment of margins, works with other word processors
Step 3: Delete any page numbers: making resume appear as one continuous electronic document
Step 4: Use all CAPS for words that need special emphasis: text strips everything (bold, italics); use CAPS judiciously and sparingly
Step 5: Replace each bullet point with a standard keyboard signal: what we are currently doing
Step 6: Use straight quotes in place of curly quotes: don’t transfer either
Step 7: Rearrange text if necessary: line-by-line review to make sure it got transferred correctly
Step 8: Limit line lengths: limit each line to no more than sixty-five characters (including spaces)
Step 9: Save as text only with line breaks
Step 10: Copy the entire text in your ResTextBreak.txt document that you’ve opened in Notepad, and paste it in the body of the e-mail message
- Email to yourself and check format.
- Never use current office address, e-mail address, or phone number on resume. Employers say personal use of company time is stealing
WHERE, OH, WHERE SHOULD THAT RESUME GO?
- limit resume exposure by limiting your postings
1) post it only on one or two large online databases for maximum exposure
2) post it only on one or two targeted resume databases specific to your industry, occupational group, or geographic location
Don’t get responses within a month and a half, remove it from current location and place it elsewhere.
PROTECT YOURSELF ONLINE
1) Does the site have a comprehensive privacy policy?
2) Do you have to register a profile or resume before you can search through the jobs?
3) Are most of the jobs posted by employers or by agencies acting on behalf of employers?
4) Can you set up one or more “e-mail agents” that will send matching jobs to you when you are not at the site?
5) Who has access to the database of resumes?
6) Can you limit access to your personal contact information?
7) Can you store more than one version of your resume so that you can customize it for different types of opportunities?
8) Will you be able to edit your resume once you have posted it?
9) Will you be able to delete your resume after you have found a job?
BEFORE YOU POST, SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Consider:
1) Do you want your resume public?
2) Are you prepared for the consequences should an electronic resume come back to haunt you?
Put date of posting at the end of resume to avoid problems with employers
Cover letter similar to resume => marketing tool
FORMAT:
1) The Parts of a Letter
+ Two styles
- Personal style
- Business style (aka block style)
1.1) Return Address
- either left or centerline at top of paper
- avoid abbreviations
- include contact info on cover letter if gets separated from resume
1.2) Date
- two lines below return address
1.3) Inside Address
- four lines beneath the date
1.4) Salutation
- two lines beneath company’s address
- vary intro depending on familiarity
1.5) Length
- three or four short paragraphs on one page => ideal
1.6) Enclosure
- used primarily in formal or official correspondence
- not necessary in cover letter
2) Paper Size
- standard size (8.5’’ x 11’’) : any other size is awkward
3) Paper Color and Quality
- use matching paper and envelopes for both resume and cover letter
- regular white or ivory paper (plain)
4) Typing and Printing
- word processing program
- handwritten letters unacceptable
- do not photocopy one resume for everything else => will not be taken seriously
5) Envelope
- standard business-sized envelope that matches stationary
- type envelopes as well
- full name and title, specifically to contact person identified in cover letter
CONTENT:
1) Personalize Each Letter
- find the person who is interviewing
2) Mapping It Out
- overview of capabilities
- stress one or two capabilities
- intro and conclusion one sentence is fine
- make clear interest subject of company
2.1) First Paragraph
- state position applying for
2.2) Second Paragraph
- what I can offer you
2.3) Third Paragraph
- recommendations by other professionals and show how you exceed expectations
2.4) Fourth Paragraph
- look forward to hearing from them
- after one or two weeks, no phone call => a call is acceptable
2.5) Complimentary Close
- two lines beneath body of letter
- aligned with return address and date
- KISS (keep it simple stupid)
- sign letter above full name that appears in resume
TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL COVER LETTERS
1) What Writing Style is Appropriate?
- polite, formal style balances confidence and respect for employer
- clear, objective, and persuasive
2) Tone: Reserved Confidence is Always in Style
- sound polite, confident, and professional
3) Emphasize Concrete Examples
- tangible relevant skills instead of personal attributes
4) Use Powerful Language
- action verbs
- simple language
- keep away from jargon or technical detail
5) Avoid Catchphrases
- explain how you are what you describe
6) Mention Personal Preferences?
- do not include asked salary unless prompted
- if prompted, say negotiable
- out of state, indicate willingness to relocate
7) Proof with Care
- Check for mistakes::other words => read your letter after printing
- Find mistakes and rewording => print again: paper is cheap
COVER LETTER BLUNDERS TO AVOID
1) Unrelated Career Goals
2) Comparisons and Clichés
- expressions detract from your letter’s purpose
3) Wasted Space
- Any unrelated information weakens your application
4) Form Letters
- Do not spam
- Write individual letters
5) Inappropriate Stationary
- graphics will NOT improve cover letter
6) “Amusing” Anecdotes
- don’t know how interview person will react to joke
7) Erroneous Company Information
- verify accuracy of company information
- if not do not say you are familiar with company’s products
8) Desperation
- sound determined, not desperate:: basically same thing as if you were trying to get a date
9) Personal Photos
- unless related, not applicable
10) Confessed Shortcomings
- do not show your weaknesses since employers will focus on that
11) Misrepresentation
- do not pad resume – may come back to haunt you
12) Demanding Statements
- cover letter => what you can do for them and not vice versa
13) Missing Resume
- create checklist of things to go in envelope before mailing
14) Personal Information
- don’t bother
- list interest and hobbies only if related
15) Choice of Pronouns
- use I and don’t refer to yourself like Julius Caesar…in the third person
16) Tone Trouble
- try to sound genuine and not stilted
- err on side of formality
- fine line to tread
17) Gimmicks
- the simplest answer is usually the easiest, and is usually wrong.
- don’t try anything novel…stick to tradition
18) Typographical Errors
- be consistent
- do not misspell
- double check materials and company it goes to to make sure it makes sense and you changed everything
19) Messy Corrections
- cover letter should contain all pertinent information
- retype and never add supplementary note handwritten
20) Omitted Signature
- use blue or black ink and sign your name
COVER LETTERS FOR SPECIAL SITUATIONS
+ Special Situations
- for lack of paid job experience
- out of workplace
- may have discrimination
- ex. College students
+ Emphasize strengths and marketability skills
+ Downplay weakness
RESPONSE TO A “BLIND” Advertisement
- tailor your letter to the information given
- define knowledge of industry, position, and qualifications (if mentioned)
COLD LETTERS
- directly contact potential employers without previous correspondence or a referral
- advertise availability to hiring managers and personnel department
BROADCAST LETTERS
- only applicable to seasoned executives
- tone reflects experience, knowledge, and confidence
+ people who are doing widespread job searches
- end up in human resource department instead of in the hand of a fellow executive
LETTER TO AN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
- offers services primarily for clerical or support staff positions
+ letters addressed to them should:
- focus on who you are
- what type of position you are looking for
- what specific industry
- strongest skills related to the field
- mention personal preferences, including geographic and salary requirements
LETTER TO AN EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRM
- alert an otherwise unknowing recruiter to your availability
- highlight your most impressive accomplishments and attributes
- briefly summarize all relevant experience
- preferences list (geographical location, travel, and salary)
- all mentioned in cover letter
NETWORKING LETTERS
- unless familiar with contact, word your correspondence in a businesslike manner
- state the name of the person who referred you
- make letter politely persuasive
- if met them, ask how they are and remind them about seeing them
THANK YOU LETTERS
- often appropriate or obligatory (correspondence doesn’t end with cover letters)
- acceptable to write thank you note on a generic blank note card but never a postcard
- keep letters short, proofread carefully, and send them promptly
Your Resume on the Internet by Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm
THE MYTH ABOUT THE INTERNET RESUME
+ one resume – several different formats
1) a designed or hard – copy version: ready to send to contacts via mail
-- bulleted lists, bold and italicized text, and other highlights
2) a scannable version – employers who use scanning systems
-- no bullets, bold, italics, or design highlights
3) a plain-text version – no frills plain text to copy and paste into online forms and online resume databases
4) an e-mail version – one formatted to meet the length-of-line restrictions found in most e-mail systems. Copy and paste into an e-mail message and forward to an employer or recruiter in seconds
+ may create HTML version of your resume
- many more job seekers doing that
- turn resumes in employment portfolio
- make sure to not violate copyright or confidentiality clauses
- post it separately from your website and do not link the two
RULES FOR RESPONDING ONLINE
1) Format your resume correctly for e-mail (copy and paste and send may screw formatting)
2) Send resume in body of e-mail message. Do not send as attachment unless specifically instructed by recipient. 20 seconds to catch their eye. Too late with attachment and may not bypass e-mail systems that refuse attachments.
3) Always include a cover letter. If responding to an advertisement: note where you found the advertisement and job codes
4) Use advertised job title or job code in the subject line of e-mail message: allows recipient to sort e-mails.
5) Read the application instructions included in the job announcement and follow them exactly. Jump through the hoops.
- Takes only a couple seconds to delete an e-mail message. Think and read then respond
E-RESUMES ARE NOT JUST FOR E-MAIL
1) easy to have typos if you type into the website
2) system does not allow career changers to build a function resume because everything is set in chronological order
3) Cannot save resume so you have to repeat the resume building effort
Careful where you put your private information: make sure it is protected.
PREPARING A PERFECT PLAIN-TEXT RESUME
Step 1: Check keywords – resume has all keywords that define job qualifications
Step 2: Save your resume as a Text Only document – allows adjustment of margins, works with other word processors
Step 3: Delete any page numbers: making resume appear as one continuous electronic document
Step 4: Use all CAPS for words that need special emphasis: text strips everything (bold, italics); use CAPS judiciously and sparingly
Step 5: Replace each bullet point with a standard keyboard signal: what we are currently doing
Step 6: Use straight quotes in place of curly quotes: don’t transfer either
Step 7: Rearrange text if necessary: line-by-line review to make sure it got transferred correctly
Step 8: Limit line lengths: limit each line to no more than sixty-five characters (including spaces)
Step 9: Save as text only with line breaks
Step 10: Copy the entire text in your ResTextBreak.txt document that you’ve opened in Notepad, and paste it in the body of the e-mail message
- Email to yourself and check format.
- Never use current office address, e-mail address, or phone number on resume. Employers say personal use of company time is stealing
WHERE, OH, WHERE SHOULD THAT RESUME GO?
- limit resume exposure by limiting your postings
1) post it only on one or two large online databases for maximum exposure
2) post it only on one or two targeted resume databases specific to your industry, occupational group, or geographic location
Don’t get responses within a month and a half, remove it from current location and place it elsewhere.
PROTECT YOURSELF ONLINE
1) Does the site have a comprehensive privacy policy?
2) Do you have to register a profile or resume before you can search through the jobs?
3) Are most of the jobs posted by employers or by agencies acting on behalf of employers?
4) Can you set up one or more “e-mail agents” that will send matching jobs to you when you are not at the site?
5) Who has access to the database of resumes?
6) Can you limit access to your personal contact information?
7) Can you store more than one version of your resume so that you can customize it for different types of opportunities?
8) Will you be able to edit your resume once you have posted it?
9) Will you be able to delete your resume after you have found a job?
BEFORE YOU POST, SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Consider:
1) Do you want your resume public?
2) Are you prepared for the consequences should an electronic resume come back to haunt you?
Put date of posting at the end of resume to avoid problems with employers
Monday, October 27, 2008
Resumes and other Written Materials for a Job Search part 1
Resumes and Other Written Materials for a Job Search
(1) No ONE way to write a resume or a cover letter
(a) Purpose of writing a resume and a cover letter is to get an interview
(b) Guides offer ADVICE
(c) Common sense be your guide as you write advertisements for yourself
(2) Managers agreed that:
(a) Looked at resumes and cover letters
(b) Sometimes scanned an applicant’s application materials
To determine as quickly as possible who to interview
Application Materials:
(1) Preparation and experience candidates had in the following skills and areas
(a) Written and oral communication skills
(b) Computer skills
(c) Interpersonal skills, as demonstrated by the ability to work as a member of a team
(d) Self-reliance and initiative, as demonstrated by the ability to work alone
(e) A sense of what the world of work demands in terms of professionalism and deadlines
(f) Specific skills in at least one business or technical area supplemented by secondary skills in a variety of related areas
(g) A sense of business and personal ethics
(h) The ability to manage time, set priorities, and work under stress
Writing Resumes and Letters in the Language of Employers
(1) Employers read with one though in mind: What can the candidates do for us?
(Why use a Resume?)
(2) Message of Resume: “I have something to offer you.”
(3) Marketing Rule: Don’t confuse customers by flaunting things that don’t speak to their needs.
(Giving your Message)
(4) Language
(a) Employers – “I need”
(b) You – “I want”
(5) Trying to get an interview is like school work (You have to do your research / study). Make sure you know what the industry you are going to needs and looks for. Try to get others in the same industry to review your resume and tell you what the industry needs.
(6) Old Message: How do you stand out? Why should I hire you?
(The Importance of Knowing what the Job is all About)
(7) A need for people to get things done (realistically)
(8) Teach me is a passive solution (and a problem) – the idea is “I want to contribute”
(Letters of Application)
(9) Good letters have this in common
(a) Looked like business letters. Paragraphing, neatness, and white 8 ½ in x 11 in stationary
(b) Succinct
(c) No misspellings or grammatical errors
Layout of a good Letter
Paragraph:
(1) First paragraph stated who the writer was and what he wanted
(2) 2 – 4 paragraphs explain why the writer wrote to the employer and mentioned areas of mutual interest, special talents that might be of interest to employers, or other factors relating to qualifications that could be better described in a letter than in a resume
(3) Final paragraph suggested a course of action
(Hard Work and Attention to Detail Make for a Good Letter)
(10) Print is letter quality
(11) Get someone to check for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors (like an English teacher)
(Don’t Delegate the Job of Letter Writing)
(12) The value of a resume is frequently more in its preparation than in its use.
(Resume Preparation)
(13) Make resume a testimony to your ability to organize your thoughts
(Nancy Jones – A Good Resume Made Better)
(14) Summary – Emphasize related subjects with double spacing while single spacing non impressive subjects or stuff you hope they will miss
(Janet Smith – The Proper Use of Headlines)
(15) Summary – What you did not where you did it
(Mark Meyers – The Functional Resume)
(16) Summary – Feature functions of the job he wanted and then describe things he had done that pertained to each area.
(Preparing a Resume for a Specific Job)
(17) Summary – Make resume appeal to each particular employer (and write courses and activities that pertain to the degree they want in hopes of them accepting it)
(Bruce Gregory Robertson – A Resume Reflecting an Active Mind and Body)
(Michelle Trio – The Curriculum Vitae)
(18) Latin for “course of life”
(The Job Objective)
(19) Summary - don’t state the objective – show it with your credentials ( Don’t agree)
(One Page or Two?)
(20) Summary – as long as you need to
(Additional Advice about Resumes)
(21) Show critics a resume without telling them it’s yours and ask:
(a) What qualifications does this person have?
(b) What do you see this person doing with these qualifications?
(c) What kind of an employer would want to hire this person?
(d) Does the resume project an image of a certain kind of person and what kind?
(22) In other words: “What message do you get about me?”
Notes:
(1) Do not pad your resume with false statements
(2) First Impression is Last Impression <= Saying
(3) Imagine trying to impress a girl / boy you really like. What would you do to get their attention?
(4) What is a secretarial manual?
(5) Anybody else find the final paragraph of the good letter a little too presumptious?
(1) No ONE way to write a resume or a cover letter
(a) Purpose of writing a resume and a cover letter is to get an interview
(b) Guides offer ADVICE
(c) Common sense be your guide as you write advertisements for yourself
(2) Managers agreed that:
(a) Looked at resumes and cover letters
(b) Sometimes scanned an applicant’s application materials
To determine as quickly as possible who to interview
Application Materials:
(1) Preparation and experience candidates had in the following skills and areas
(a) Written and oral communication skills
(b) Computer skills
(c) Interpersonal skills, as demonstrated by the ability to work as a member of a team
(d) Self-reliance and initiative, as demonstrated by the ability to work alone
(e) A sense of what the world of work demands in terms of professionalism and deadlines
(f) Specific skills in at least one business or technical area supplemented by secondary skills in a variety of related areas
(g) A sense of business and personal ethics
(h) The ability to manage time, set priorities, and work under stress
Writing Resumes and Letters in the Language of Employers
(1) Employers read with one though in mind: What can the candidates do for us?
(Why use a Resume?)
(2) Message of Resume: “I have something to offer you.”
(3) Marketing Rule: Don’t confuse customers by flaunting things that don’t speak to their needs.
(Giving your Message)
(4) Language
(a) Employers – “I need”
(b) You – “I want”
(5) Trying to get an interview is like school work (You have to do your research / study). Make sure you know what the industry you are going to needs and looks for. Try to get others in the same industry to review your resume and tell you what the industry needs.
(6) Old Message: How do you stand out? Why should I hire you?
(The Importance of Knowing what the Job is all About)
(7) A need for people to get things done (realistically)
(8) Teach me is a passive solution (and a problem) – the idea is “I want to contribute”
(Letters of Application)
(9) Good letters have this in common
(a) Looked like business letters. Paragraphing, neatness, and white 8 ½ in x 11 in stationary
(b) Succinct
(c) No misspellings or grammatical errors
Layout of a good Letter
Paragraph:
(1) First paragraph stated who the writer was and what he wanted
(2) 2 – 4 paragraphs explain why the writer wrote to the employer and mentioned areas of mutual interest, special talents that might be of interest to employers, or other factors relating to qualifications that could be better described in a letter than in a resume
(3) Final paragraph suggested a course of action
(Hard Work and Attention to Detail Make for a Good Letter)
(10) Print is letter quality
(11) Get someone to check for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors (like an English teacher)
(Don’t Delegate the Job of Letter Writing)
(12) The value of a resume is frequently more in its preparation than in its use.
(Resume Preparation)
(13) Make resume a testimony to your ability to organize your thoughts
(Nancy Jones – A Good Resume Made Better)
(14) Summary – Emphasize related subjects with double spacing while single spacing non impressive subjects or stuff you hope they will miss
(Janet Smith – The Proper Use of Headlines)
(15) Summary – What you did not where you did it
(Mark Meyers – The Functional Resume)
(16) Summary – Feature functions of the job he wanted and then describe things he had done that pertained to each area.
(Preparing a Resume for a Specific Job)
(17) Summary – Make resume appeal to each particular employer (and write courses and activities that pertain to the degree they want in hopes of them accepting it)
(Bruce Gregory Robertson – A Resume Reflecting an Active Mind and Body)
(Michelle Trio – The Curriculum Vitae)
(18) Latin for “course of life”
(The Job Objective)
(19) Summary - don’t state the objective – show it with your credentials ( Don’t agree)
(One Page or Two?)
(20) Summary – as long as you need to
(Additional Advice about Resumes)
(21) Show critics a resume without telling them it’s yours and ask:
(a) What qualifications does this person have?
(b) What do you see this person doing with these qualifications?
(c) What kind of an employer would want to hire this person?
(d) Does the resume project an image of a certain kind of person and what kind?
(22) In other words: “What message do you get about me?”
Notes:
(1) Do not pad your resume with false statements
(2) First Impression is Last Impression <= Saying
(3) Imagine trying to impress a girl / boy you really like. What would you do to get their attention?
(4) What is a secretarial manual?
(5) Anybody else find the final paragraph of the good letter a little too presumptious?
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Multimedia Content
Regardless on whether it's on video or PowerPoint, the idea of this would be to convince experienced divers that they are more at risk than ever.
The ad proceeds:
(1)Show the tropical ocean, the relaxation, the group bonding, and the pictures and videos from deep in the ocean.
(2)Tell experienced divers that they can go to these places, but first they need to take a refresher course in order to minimize the accidents. The refresher course they need can be found in The Physics of Scuba Diving with pictures to accommodate the theories.
(3)Tell experienced divers they are now ready to go diving deep into the ocean. Reshow some of the wonderful places and organisms (yes people included) that they can see.
(4)Tell them to remember what they learned from the book and to return safely.
Note: Videos and pictures will be found on the internet. (probably youtube)Also possible to get underwater pictures and video from the local diving school in Clemson that I took scuba diving with.
The ad proceeds:
(1)Show the tropical ocean, the relaxation, the group bonding, and the pictures and videos from deep in the ocean.
(2)Tell experienced divers that they can go to these places, but first they need to take a refresher course in order to minimize the accidents. The refresher course they need can be found in The Physics of Scuba Diving with pictures to accommodate the theories.
(3)Tell experienced divers they are now ready to go diving deep into the ocean. Reshow some of the wonderful places and organisms (yes people included) that they can see.
(4)Tell them to remember what they learned from the book and to return safely.
Note: Videos and pictures will be found on the internet. (probably youtube)Also possible to get underwater pictures and video from the local diving school in Clemson that I took scuba diving with.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Nazi Records - Dombrowski - Ch 4
Nazi Records: The Origin and Use of Information
- Emotional disengagement of the researcher from the human research subject, and the implicit superiority of the researcher by which the subject is deliberately kept in the dark about what is really going on.
- Technical communicators and technical documents produced are not ethically neutral
Origination, Dissemination, and Use of Information
- Values of Nazi Medical Science
- Objectivization
- Impersonalness
- Emotional disengagement
“Research” Information
- Nothing ventured, nothing gained: does not apply to human research
Values in Nazi Medical “Science”
- Traditional View
- Justifying actions by looking at the big picture
- Masked Language
- “Euthanasia” reinterpreted as putting someone to death in a way that is perceived as humane and on the basis of their unworthiness to live
Means and ends could ethically taint technical information we are dealing with.
Kant – sentient beings should be treated alike and is more essential than bare humanness in deciding ethical responsibility.
Nazi Technical Memorandum
- What we can do, we should do, largely because we can do it. Circular logic and values
Graphical Images
-
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotelian perspective
- condemns Nazi regime based on virtue and cultivated ethics
- argue to use technical information for potential benefit of others
- Kantian perspective
- condemns Nazi regime for not treating all sentient beings equal (ethics)
- if one were to benefit (yes)
- if one was a victim (no)
- Utilitarianism
- according to the book – no one knows because they did not think of this circumstance
- however they would probably condemn the regime
- in favor of communication
- Feminist and Ethics of Care
- condemn Nazi regime because of authoritarian government
- recommended to share findings
So if all the theorists’ say yes, why do we not use the information.
Conclusion: This chapter does a great job of telling us why to not treat subjects with objectivity and distance ourselves from them. It gives you the consequence of doing so; however, it fails to take into account the fact that the technical writers did not have much of a choice in Nazi Germany. You either cooperated with your government or you and your family died. Simple as that. So book neglects to tell you when it would be appropriate to do so, if at all.
- Emotional disengagement of the researcher from the human research subject, and the implicit superiority of the researcher by which the subject is deliberately kept in the dark about what is really going on.
- Technical communicators and technical documents produced are not ethically neutral
Origination, Dissemination, and Use of Information
- Values of Nazi Medical Science
- Objectivization
- Impersonalness
- Emotional disengagement
“Research” Information
- Nothing ventured, nothing gained: does not apply to human research
Values in Nazi Medical “Science”
- Traditional View
- Justifying actions by looking at the big picture
- Masked Language
- “Euthanasia” reinterpreted as putting someone to death in a way that is perceived as humane and on the basis of their unworthiness to live
Means and ends could ethically taint technical information we are dealing with.
Kant – sentient beings should be treated alike and is more essential than bare humanness in deciding ethical responsibility.
Nazi Technical Memorandum
- What we can do, we should do, largely because we can do it. Circular logic and values
Graphical Images
-
Ethical Appraisal
- Aristotelian perspective
- condemns Nazi regime based on virtue and cultivated ethics
- argue to use technical information for potential benefit of others
- Kantian perspective
- condemns Nazi regime for not treating all sentient beings equal (ethics)
- if one were to benefit (yes)
- if one was a victim (no)
- Utilitarianism
- according to the book – no one knows because they did not think of this circumstance
- however they would probably condemn the regime
- in favor of communication
- Feminist and Ethics of Care
- condemn Nazi regime because of authoritarian government
- recommended to share findings
So if all the theorists’ say yes, why do we not use the information.
Conclusion: This chapter does a great job of telling us why to not treat subjects with objectivity and distance ourselves from them. It gives you the consequence of doing so; however, it fails to take into account the fact that the technical writers did not have much of a choice in Nazi Germany. You either cooperated with your government or you and your family died. Simple as that. So book neglects to tell you when it would be appropriate to do so, if at all.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Ethics Tradition Dombrowski
Aristotle:
(1) perspective: virtue and personal character
(2) explains basic notions: ex. goodness, truth, justice, and rightness
(3) standards of guiding ethical determinations
Kant:
(1) duty or obligation based on fundamental universal principle
(2) principle can be figured out rationally
(3) ethics can be understood by all people
(4) doing the right thing because it is right regardless of consequences
Utilitarianism:
(1) socially desirable course (weighs cost and benefits)
(2) tries to be fair by being impersonal
(3) treats people like interchangeable parts in machinery
(4) unresponsive to individual feelings or interests
(5) government agencies take this approach in an effort to be impartial
Which ethics code or combination do you follow? What situations do you use what? What decides that?
Mark Wicclair and David Farkas:
distinguish ethics from relativistic, self-interested approaches, the law, and religion
3 types of ethical principles:
(1) goal based (utilitarianism)
(2) duty based (kant)
(3) rights based
Aristotle:
Ethics is a subject that does not allow hard and fast answers like mathematics
Making practical and concrete the abstract, metaphysical thinking of his teacher Plato
St Thomas Aquinas - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/#A4
Ethics is about what is sought for goodness itself
Ethics derives from reason
Ethical behavior must be deliberated, actively weighed, and chosen for its own sake
One is does not behave virtuously by nature (contrary to Catholic Church: we just have many temptations)
How does this relate to today?
Some of us think that we can behave ethically occasionally and take the easy way out the rest of the way. Aristotle would question the motives of the person doing so.
Scientists distance themselves to pursue fuller truths (like philosophers of old) that are hidden to the ordinary person
Cousteau, Sagan, and religious priests throughout the ages: they speak to us not as an individual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Yves_Cousteau#Defense_of_the_environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Scientific_advocacy
Kant:
Ethical system is based on a sense of duty
Ex. World War II
Humans are endowed with moral reason fundamental ethical principle, the categorical imperative: "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal Law of Nature.
"Theory of duty is founded on the radically autonomous free will and its capacity to choose otherwise and on its reasoned self-persuasion not to choose otherwise. It is duty based in freedom. Whereas, we usually think of a duty as an onerous burden and a limitation of our freedom.
Another categorical imperative: “Act so that in your own person as well as in the person of every other you are treating mankind also as an end, never merely as a means.”
As a end? What does that mean?
Does this mean we can still treat mankind as a means as long as we treat them as an end?
Ex of treating mankind as a means: Nazi technology, making a promise as a lie
Gilligan:
Moral judgments made by women based on greater concern on feelings and welfare of others. Flexible approach to judgments that weighed contingencies
Men make a rigid insistence on impersonal rules of justice regardless of feeling and contingency
Given brief, objective description of each person
Ex. Medical board of three heart donors and 10 people in need of heart transplants
Should decisions be based on past, should we give leeway for change, would we want to be judged by our past?
Postmodernism seeks to replace modernistic attitudes and values and to rectify their negative effects
Science:
Men isolate each part
Women see the whole organism
Feminists believe we need to create an economy that gives a win-win situation and not a Darwinian male environment where the strongest survive.
Evolution of the economy as worked in the past. Point of view on bailout bill? Is it a win-win situation?
“joystick”, “cockpit”, “male and female couplings” Your take on it? I see it as words that are no longer associated with male or female. There is a reason why couplings are called male and female. The same reason in my opinion why the cpu is called the master while the memory is called the slave.
Confucian ethics:
Grounded in immediate realities not timeless absolutes
Human responsibilities as being constituted in relationships
Real world is the stage where morality is really played out
One’s behavior towards others (explains social code in countries like china and japan)
Virtue does not come from logic or reasoning but from examples of what others have done in the past
Ren, li, ye
Sense of human being related to others, traditional rituals, conscious reenactment of the fundamental sense of righteousness
Accept where you are and make the best out of it (ex. Japanese)
Eastern (Tradition). Western (Innovation) (Ex. Guns in Japan, Bushido Code)
Levinas:
Ethics is human nature in relation to others
Gert:
Morality involves actions, social relations, and avoidance of evil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism
No exit
(1) perspective: virtue and personal character
(2) explains basic notions: ex. goodness, truth, justice, and rightness
(3) standards of guiding ethical determinations
Kant:
(1) duty or obligation based on fundamental universal principle
(2) principle can be figured out rationally
(3) ethics can be understood by all people
(4) doing the right thing because it is right regardless of consequences
Utilitarianism:
(1) socially desirable course (weighs cost and benefits)
(2) tries to be fair by being impersonal
(3) treats people like interchangeable parts in machinery
(4) unresponsive to individual feelings or interests
(5) government agencies take this approach in an effort to be impartial
Which ethics code or combination do you follow? What situations do you use what? What decides that?
Mark Wicclair and David Farkas:
distinguish ethics from relativistic, self-interested approaches, the law, and religion
3 types of ethical principles:
(1) goal based (utilitarianism)
(2) duty based (kant)
(3) rights based
Aristotle:
Ethics is a subject that does not allow hard and fast answers like mathematics
Making practical and concrete the abstract, metaphysical thinking of his teacher Plato
St Thomas Aquinas - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/#A4
Ethics is about what is sought for goodness itself
Ethics derives from reason
Ethical behavior must be deliberated, actively weighed, and chosen for its own sake
One is does not behave virtuously by nature (contrary to Catholic Church: we just have many temptations)
How does this relate to today?
Some of us think that we can behave ethically occasionally and take the easy way out the rest of the way. Aristotle would question the motives of the person doing so.
Scientists distance themselves to pursue fuller truths (like philosophers of old) that are hidden to the ordinary person
Cousteau, Sagan, and religious priests throughout the ages: they speak to us not as an individual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Yves_Cousteau#Defense_of_the_environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Scientific_advocacy
Kant:
Ethical system is based on a sense of duty
Ex. World War II
Humans are endowed with moral reason fundamental ethical principle, the categorical imperative: "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal Law of Nature.
"Theory of duty is founded on the radically autonomous free will and its capacity to choose otherwise and on its reasoned self-persuasion not to choose otherwise. It is duty based in freedom. Whereas, we usually think of a duty as an onerous burden and a limitation of our freedom.
Another categorical imperative: “Act so that in your own person as well as in the person of every other you are treating mankind also as an end, never merely as a means.”
As a end? What does that mean?
Does this mean we can still treat mankind as a means as long as we treat them as an end?
Ex of treating mankind as a means: Nazi technology, making a promise as a lie
Gilligan:
Moral judgments made by women based on greater concern on feelings and welfare of others. Flexible approach to judgments that weighed contingencies
Men make a rigid insistence on impersonal rules of justice regardless of feeling and contingency
Given brief, objective description of each person
Ex. Medical board of three heart donors and 10 people in need of heart transplants
Should decisions be based on past, should we give leeway for change, would we want to be judged by our past?
Postmodernism seeks to replace modernistic attitudes and values and to rectify their negative effects
Science:
Men isolate each part
Women see the whole organism
Feminists believe we need to create an economy that gives a win-win situation and not a Darwinian male environment where the strongest survive.
Evolution of the economy as worked in the past. Point of view on bailout bill? Is it a win-win situation?
“joystick”, “cockpit”, “male and female couplings” Your take on it? I see it as words that are no longer associated with male or female. There is a reason why couplings are called male and female. The same reason in my opinion why the cpu is called the master while the memory is called the slave.
Confucian ethics:
Grounded in immediate realities not timeless absolutes
Human responsibilities as being constituted in relationships
Real world is the stage where morality is really played out
One’s behavior towards others (explains social code in countries like china and japan)
Virtue does not come from logic or reasoning but from examples of what others have done in the past
Ren, li, ye
Sense of human being related to others, traditional rituals, conscious reenactment of the fundamental sense of righteousness
Accept where you are and make the best out of it (ex. Japanese)
Eastern (Tradition). Western (Innovation) (Ex. Guns in Japan, Bushido Code)
Levinas:
Ethics is human nature in relation to others
Gert:
Morality involves actions, social relations, and avoidance of evil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism
No exit
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Short Short Draft
1.1 Blood
Blood is a tissue that circulates in a closed circuit known as the circulatory system. A person that weighs 70 kg has 5 to 6 liters of blood which represents about 10% of the total body weight.
Blood is made of:
• A liquid:
o blood plasma
• Solids:
o red and white blood cells
o platelets
The red blood cells are shaped like biconcave disks and number between 4 to 5 million per cubic millimeter. A red blood cell contains 70% water and 30% hemoglobin. The key property of hemoglobin is to bind with gas into an unstable combination. Oxygen (O) is taken at the level of the lungs through a process called oxyhemoglobin and later released in the different tissues of the body. At this point, the hemoglobin charges itself with carbon dioxide (CO2) through a process called carboxyhemoglobin. The carboxyhemoglobin will go to the lungs and release the carbon dioxide in the process of re-oxygenation.
The blood is a lighter shade of red if it contains more oxyhemoglobin and is a darker shade of red if it contains more carboxyhemoglobin.
The hemoglobin can also combine with other gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) to create a very stable combination which can lead to asphyxia since the hemoglobin can no longer carry oxygen. This is why it is critical to protect the air intake for the compressor from exhaust gases that come from cars, boats, and the compressor itself.
1.2 Boyle-Mariotte Law
1.2.1 Experimental test
At 1 bar of pressure, the volume under the piston is 1 liter
At 2 bars of pressure, the volume under the piston is 0.5 liters
At 3 bars of pressure, the volume under the piston is 0.33 liters
At 4 bars of pressure, the volume under the piston is 0.25 liters
1.2.2 Law
At constant temperature, the variation of the volume, V, of a gas is inversely proportional to the absolute pressure
p1 x V1 = p2 x V2
where either p1 x V1 or p2 x V2 is held constant
1.2.3 Application to diving
A balloon which has a volume of 8 liters at the surface will have a volume:
4 liters at -10 meters since absolute pressure is 2 bars
2 liters at -30 meters since absolute pressure is 4 bars
1 liter at -70 meters since absolute pressure is now 8 bars
3 important applications are worth mentioning.
1.2.3.1 Lungs Volume
The lungs contain 6 liters of air at the surface. The diver receives air pressurized to the surrounding pressure from the regulator i.e. the absolute pressure at which the diver finds him/herself. At 30 meters the pressure is 4 bars. At 30 meters the volume of gas contained in the lungs is 4 x 6 = 24 liters, which is the volume the air would take at the surface. When the diver goes back up to the surface, the pressure becomes smaller and consequently, the volume of air will increase. Therefore it is important to breathe normally and exhale to let the air contained in the lungs out and avoid submitting the lungs to an expansion from the large internal pressure versus the external pressure.
1.2.3.2 Diving time
A diver takes a 12 liter tank inflated at 200 bars with a reserve calibrated at 30 bars. Knowing that the diver breathes at a rate of 16 breaths per minute at the surface and inhales 1 liter per breath, how long can the diver stay at a depth of 20 meters and 50 meters?
Starting point
Consumption at the surface is 16 x 1 = 16 liters per minute
Number of liters available in the tank is 200 x 12 = 2,400 liters
Number of liters earmarked is 30 x 12 = 360 liters
When the diver reaches the reserve air, the diver must go back to the surface or risk running out of air
The available amount of air for diving is equal to the total number of liters minus the reserve liters
2,400 – 360 = 2,040 liters of air available for diving
At 20 meters
The absolute pressure is 3 bars.
The consumption is 16 x 3 = 48 liters per minute because the diver consumes 3 liter at every breath (Mariotte Law)
Diving time = 2,040 / 48 = 42 minutes
At 50 meters
The absolute pressure is 6 bars.
The consumption is 16 x 6 = 96 liters per minute because the diver consumes 6 liters at every breath (Mariotte Law)
Diving time = 2,040 / 96 = 21 minutes
“The greater the depth, the shorter the dive”
1.2.3.3 Floatability
The diver uses lead weights to fight the buoyancy of his/her diving suit and BC (Buoyancy Compensator). When the diver goes back up, the pressure reduces and the volume of the air in the BC increases which increases the Archimedes force and increases the speed at which the diver goes up. A potentially dangerous situation (see decompression below)
As a rule of thumb the diver must always remember to go as slow as the slowest bubbles.
Blood is a tissue that circulates in a closed circuit known as the circulatory system. A person that weighs 70 kg has 5 to 6 liters of blood which represents about 10% of the total body weight.
Blood is made of:
• A liquid:
o blood plasma
• Solids:
o red and white blood cells
o platelets
The red blood cells are shaped like biconcave disks and number between 4 to 5 million per cubic millimeter. A red blood cell contains 70% water and 30% hemoglobin. The key property of hemoglobin is to bind with gas into an unstable combination. Oxygen (O) is taken at the level of the lungs through a process called oxyhemoglobin and later released in the different tissues of the body. At this point, the hemoglobin charges itself with carbon dioxide (CO2) through a process called carboxyhemoglobin. The carboxyhemoglobin will go to the lungs and release the carbon dioxide in the process of re-oxygenation.
The blood is a lighter shade of red if it contains more oxyhemoglobin and is a darker shade of red if it contains more carboxyhemoglobin.
The hemoglobin can also combine with other gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) to create a very stable combination which can lead to asphyxia since the hemoglobin can no longer carry oxygen. This is why it is critical to protect the air intake for the compressor from exhaust gases that come from cars, boats, and the compressor itself.
1.2 Boyle-Mariotte Law
1.2.1 Experimental test
At 1 bar of pressure, the volume under the piston is 1 liter
At 2 bars of pressure, the volume under the piston is 0.5 liters
At 3 bars of pressure, the volume under the piston is 0.33 liters
At 4 bars of pressure, the volume under the piston is 0.25 liters
1.2.2 Law
At constant temperature, the variation of the volume, V, of a gas is inversely proportional to the absolute pressure
p1 x V1 = p2 x V2
where either p1 x V1 or p2 x V2 is held constant
1.2.3 Application to diving
A balloon which has a volume of 8 liters at the surface will have a volume:
4 liters at -10 meters since absolute pressure is 2 bars
2 liters at -30 meters since absolute pressure is 4 bars
1 liter at -70 meters since absolute pressure is now 8 bars
3 important applications are worth mentioning.
1.2.3.1 Lungs Volume
The lungs contain 6 liters of air at the surface. The diver receives air pressurized to the surrounding pressure from the regulator i.e. the absolute pressure at which the diver finds him/herself. At 30 meters the pressure is 4 bars. At 30 meters the volume of gas contained in the lungs is 4 x 6 = 24 liters, which is the volume the air would take at the surface. When the diver goes back up to the surface, the pressure becomes smaller and consequently, the volume of air will increase. Therefore it is important to breathe normally and exhale to let the air contained in the lungs out and avoid submitting the lungs to an expansion from the large internal pressure versus the external pressure.
1.2.3.2 Diving time
A diver takes a 12 liter tank inflated at 200 bars with a reserve calibrated at 30 bars. Knowing that the diver breathes at a rate of 16 breaths per minute at the surface and inhales 1 liter per breath, how long can the diver stay at a depth of 20 meters and 50 meters?
Starting point
Consumption at the surface is 16 x 1 = 16 liters per minute
Number of liters available in the tank is 200 x 12 = 2,400 liters
Number of liters earmarked is 30 x 12 = 360 liters
When the diver reaches the reserve air, the diver must go back to the surface or risk running out of air
The available amount of air for diving is equal to the total number of liters minus the reserve liters
2,400 – 360 = 2,040 liters of air available for diving
At 20 meters
The absolute pressure is 3 bars.
The consumption is 16 x 3 = 48 liters per minute because the diver consumes 3 liter at every breath (Mariotte Law)
Diving time = 2,040 / 48 = 42 minutes
At 50 meters
The absolute pressure is 6 bars.
The consumption is 16 x 6 = 96 liters per minute because the diver consumes 6 liters at every breath (Mariotte Law)
Diving time = 2,040 / 96 = 21 minutes
“The greater the depth, the shorter the dive”
1.2.3.3 Floatability
The diver uses lead weights to fight the buoyancy of his/her diving suit and BC (Buoyancy Compensator). When the diver goes back up, the pressure reduces and the volume of the air in the BC increases which increases the Archimedes force and increases the speed at which the diver goes up. A potentially dangerous situation (see decompression below)
As a rule of thumb the diver must always remember to go as slow as the slowest bubbles.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Part 2 of Part 4 of the Harty Reading
Questions to ask when including a visual:
Why include your visual?
Is the information in your visual accurate?
"Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.""
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
Is your visual focused?
Are terms and symbols in your visual defined and consistent?
Does your visual specify measurements and distances?
Is the lettering readable?
Is the caption clear?
Is there a figure or table number?
Is a list of figures or tables needed?
Are figures or tables needed?
Are figure or table numbers referred to in your text?
Are visuals appropriately placed?
Do visuals stand out from the surrounding text?
Elements included in a table:
Table number
Table title
Boxhead
Stub
Body
Rules
Source line
Footnotes
Continuing tables
You have to have sources or a credit line when reprinting a graph or using data printed to create your own graph.
Visuals are necessary because some of your audience may be visual learners. In addition, your audience will obtain a greater understanding of your speech by including visuals. Nonexperts require a lengthier explanation than experts do as a rule. Visuals aid in determining the correlation between data.
Rules every persuader should know:
1. Consider whether your views will make problems for readers
2. Don’t offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for change until your readers are prepared for them
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about them, present both sides of the argument
5. Win respect by making your opinion or recommendation clear
6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the argument, first if it is not so interested
7. Don’t count on changing attitudes by offering information alone
8. “Testimonials” are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people whom readers associate
9. Be wary of using extreme or “sensational” claims and facts
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for readers’ attitudes, if you know them
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader
Ex. Bush exclaiming that China should be more like Taiwan a day before he was to visit China
Why did public opinion towards the war in Iraq drop so quickly?
Politicians use which of the above rules of persuasion when running for office. Which do they not use or disobey?
Mr. Drye, a stand up comedian and COMM 250 professor, comments that part of public speaking (especially after dinner) is getting to know your audience. Dinner is not a time to enjoy but a time to prepare and to get to know your audience.
Guidelines for writing a successful proposal
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity
2. Regard your audience as skeptical readers
3. Research your proposal carefully
4. Prove that your proposal is workable
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic
6. Package your proposal attractively
How many of the guidelines did you follow when writing your own respective proposals?
The organization of an internal proposal
The introduction
Background of the problem
The solution or plan
The conclusion
Sales proposal questions:
Does the writer’s firm understand our problem?
Can the writer’s firm deliver what it promises?
Can the job be completed on time?
What assurances does the writer offer that the job will be done exactly as
proposed?
Organization of a Sales Proposal
Introduction
Statement of purpose and subject of proposal
Background of the problem you propose to solve
Description of the proposed product or service
Carefully show your potential customers that your product or service is
right for them.
Describe your work in suitable detail – what it looks like, what it does, and
how consistently well it will perform its job
Stress any special features, maintenance advantages, warranties, or service benefits
Timetable
Costs
Qualifications of your company
Conclusion
Our project proposal was a sales proposal.
Guidelines for writing plain sentences
1. The subject should be what the sentence is about
2. Make the “doer” the subject. Subject is the “doer”
3. State the action in the verb
4. Put the subject early in the sentence
5. Eliminate nominalizations
6. Avoid excessive prepositional phrases
7. Eliminate redundancy
8. Make sentences “breathing length”
IN SHORT “KISS” – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
The elements of a paragraph
Transition sentence
Topic sentence
Support sentences
Point sentences
Align sentences in a paragraph
The Given/New method – write something the readers already know into each sentence of every paragraph
Passive Voice is appropriate in scientific and technical proposals because who will be doing what is not always predictable.
Why include your visual?
Is the information in your visual accurate?
"Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.""
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
Is your visual focused?
Are terms and symbols in your visual defined and consistent?
Does your visual specify measurements and distances?
Is the lettering readable?
Is the caption clear?
Is there a figure or table number?
Is a list of figures or tables needed?
Are figures or tables needed?
Are figure or table numbers referred to in your text?
Are visuals appropriately placed?
Do visuals stand out from the surrounding text?
Elements included in a table:
Table number
Table title
Boxhead
Stub
Body
Rules
Source line
Footnotes
Continuing tables
You have to have sources or a credit line when reprinting a graph or using data printed to create your own graph.
Visuals are necessary because some of your audience may be visual learners. In addition, your audience will obtain a greater understanding of your speech by including visuals. Nonexperts require a lengthier explanation than experts do as a rule. Visuals aid in determining the correlation between data.
Rules every persuader should know:
1. Consider whether your views will make problems for readers
2. Don’t offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for change until your readers are prepared for them
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about them, present both sides of the argument
5. Win respect by making your opinion or recommendation clear
6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the argument, first if it is not so interested
7. Don’t count on changing attitudes by offering information alone
8. “Testimonials” are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people whom readers associate
9. Be wary of using extreme or “sensational” claims and facts
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for readers’ attitudes, if you know them
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader
Ex. Bush exclaiming that China should be more like Taiwan a day before he was to visit China
Why did public opinion towards the war in Iraq drop so quickly?
Politicians use which of the above rules of persuasion when running for office. Which do they not use or disobey?
Mr. Drye, a stand up comedian and COMM 250 professor, comments that part of public speaking (especially after dinner) is getting to know your audience. Dinner is not a time to enjoy but a time to prepare and to get to know your audience.
Guidelines for writing a successful proposal
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity
2. Regard your audience as skeptical readers
3. Research your proposal carefully
4. Prove that your proposal is workable
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic
6. Package your proposal attractively
How many of the guidelines did you follow when writing your own respective proposals?
The organization of an internal proposal
The introduction
Background of the problem
The solution or plan
The conclusion
Sales proposal questions:
Does the writer’s firm understand our problem?
Can the writer’s firm deliver what it promises?
Can the job be completed on time?
What assurances does the writer offer that the job will be done exactly as
proposed?
Organization of a Sales Proposal
Introduction
Statement of purpose and subject of proposal
Background of the problem you propose to solve
Description of the proposed product or service
Carefully show your potential customers that your product or service is
right for them.
Describe your work in suitable detail – what it looks like, what it does, and
how consistently well it will perform its job
Stress any special features, maintenance advantages, warranties, or service benefits
Timetable
Costs
Qualifications of your company
Conclusion
Our project proposal was a sales proposal.
Guidelines for writing plain sentences
1. The subject should be what the sentence is about
2. Make the “doer” the subject. Subject is the “doer”
3. State the action in the verb
4. Put the subject early in the sentence
5. Eliminate nominalizations
6. Avoid excessive prepositional phrases
7. Eliminate redundancy
8. Make sentences “breathing length”
IN SHORT “KISS” – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
The elements of a paragraph
Transition sentence
Topic sentence
Support sentences
Point sentences
Align sentences in a paragraph
The Given/New method – write something the readers already know into each sentence of every paragraph
Passive Voice is appropriate in scientific and technical proposals because who will be doing what is not always predictable.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Reports: What they do and how to write them
Reports and Other Longer Documents
Define: Report is a generic term for a variety of documents that vary in form and
purpose.
Ex: Check lists, interoffice memos, e-mails, letters to clients, and full blown documents
Main purpose of a formal report is to present the results of a detailed project. A detailed project often involves considerable capital, time, and effort.
Different types of audiences:
(1) the layperson
(2) the executive
(3) the expert
(4) the technician
(5) the operator
Personal examples: Senior Project
Internship in Mexico
Every communication situation involves three fundamental components: a writer, a message, and an audience.
Do not assume different things for the report.
The report is more important than the investigation to the writer’s career.
Draw an Egocentric Organization Chart with four degrees
Ex: (1) you
(2) audiences in own group
(3) audiences in close proximity to your group
(4) audiences elsewhere in the organization
(5) audiences outside the organization
Know your audience: A systematic characterization is made in terms of operational (daily concerns and attitudes, his role within the organization, etc), objective (education), and personal characteristics (age, attitude, etc)
Ex. Dad writing down information after having a talk with a coworker
IMPORTANT: Write report without “stepping on anybody’s toes” or without embarrassing anyone
Operation characteristics example: Senior Project – stripping post (loss of jobs)
Primary audiences – who makes decisions or act on the basis of the information a report contains
Secondary audiences – who are affected by the decisions and actions
Immediate audiences – who route the report or transmit the information it contains
Roles rather than individuals provide continuity.
Ex. Senior Project (Old head industrial engineer and plant floor manager moved/promoted so had to present my project and what I was doing to new ones)
What Management Looks For In Engineering Reports
(1) What’s the report about and who wrote it
(2) What does it contribute?
(3) What are the conclusions and recommendations?
(4) What are their importance and significance?
(5) What’s the implication to the Company?
(6) What actions are suggested? Short range? Long range?
(7) Why? By whom? When? How?
Five broad technological areas
(1) Technical problems
(2) New projects and products
(3) Experiments and tests
(4) Materials and processes
(5) Field troubles
NOTE: The writer of a report for management should write at a technical level suitable for a reader whose educational and experience background is in a field different from his own.
Management Responsibilities
(1) Define the project and the required reports
(2) Provide proper perspective for the project and the required reporting
(3) See that effective reports are submitted on time
(4) See that the reports are properly distributed
Abstract has two purposes:
(1) it provides the specialist in the field with enough information about the report to permit him to decide whether he could read it with profit
(2) it provides the administrator or executive with enough knowledge about what has been done in the study or project and with what results to satisfy most of his administrative needs
General rules for writing the abstract
(1) Your abstract must include enough specific information about the project or study to satisfy most of the administrative needs of a busy executive.
(2) Your abstract must be a self-contained unit, a complete report-in-miniature.
(3) Your abstract must be short.
(4) Your abstract must be written in fluent, easy-to-read prose.
(5) Your abstract must be consistent in tone and emphases with report paper, but it does not need to follow the arrangement, wording, or proportion of the original.
(6) Your abstract should make the widest possible use of abbreviations and numerals, but it must not contain any tables or illustrations
Ten Report Writing Pitfalls:
(1) Ignoring your audience
(2) Writing to impress
(3) Having more than one aim
(4) Being inconsistent
(5) Overqualifying
(6) Not defining
(7) Misintroducing
(8) Dazzling with data
(9) Not highlighting
(10) Not rewriting
Define: Report is a generic term for a variety of documents that vary in form and
purpose.
Ex: Check lists, interoffice memos, e-mails, letters to clients, and full blown documents
Main purpose of a formal report is to present the results of a detailed project. A detailed project often involves considerable capital, time, and effort.
Different types of audiences:
(1) the layperson
(2) the executive
(3) the expert
(4) the technician
(5) the operator
Personal examples: Senior Project
Internship in Mexico
Every communication situation involves three fundamental components: a writer, a message, and an audience.
Do not assume different things for the report.
The report is more important than the investigation to the writer’s career.
Draw an Egocentric Organization Chart with four degrees
Ex: (1) you
(2) audiences in own group
(3) audiences in close proximity to your group
(4) audiences elsewhere in the organization
(5) audiences outside the organization
Know your audience: A systematic characterization is made in terms of operational (daily concerns and attitudes, his role within the organization, etc), objective (education), and personal characteristics (age, attitude, etc)
Ex. Dad writing down information after having a talk with a coworker
IMPORTANT: Write report without “stepping on anybody’s toes” or without embarrassing anyone
Operation characteristics example: Senior Project – stripping post (loss of jobs)
Primary audiences – who makes decisions or act on the basis of the information a report contains
Secondary audiences – who are affected by the decisions and actions
Immediate audiences – who route the report or transmit the information it contains
Roles rather than individuals provide continuity.
Ex. Senior Project (Old head industrial engineer and plant floor manager moved/promoted so had to present my project and what I was doing to new ones)
What Management Looks For In Engineering Reports
(1) What’s the report about and who wrote it
(2) What does it contribute?
(3) What are the conclusions and recommendations?
(4) What are their importance and significance?
(5) What’s the implication to the Company?
(6) What actions are suggested? Short range? Long range?
(7) Why? By whom? When? How?
Five broad technological areas
(1) Technical problems
(2) New projects and products
(3) Experiments and tests
(4) Materials and processes
(5) Field troubles
NOTE: The writer of a report for management should write at a technical level suitable for a reader whose educational and experience background is in a field different from his own.
Management Responsibilities
(1) Define the project and the required reports
(2) Provide proper perspective for the project and the required reporting
(3) See that effective reports are submitted on time
(4) See that the reports are properly distributed
Abstract has two purposes:
(1) it provides the specialist in the field with enough information about the report to permit him to decide whether he could read it with profit
(2) it provides the administrator or executive with enough knowledge about what has been done in the study or project and with what results to satisfy most of his administrative needs
General rules for writing the abstract
(1) Your abstract must include enough specific information about the project or study to satisfy most of the administrative needs of a busy executive.
(2) Your abstract must be a self-contained unit, a complete report-in-miniature.
(3) Your abstract must be short.
(4) Your abstract must be written in fluent, easy-to-read prose.
(5) Your abstract must be consistent in tone and emphases with report paper, but it does not need to follow the arrangement, wording, or proportion of the original.
(6) Your abstract should make the widest possible use of abbreviations and numerals, but it must not contain any tables or illustrations
Ten Report Writing Pitfalls:
(1) Ignoring your audience
(2) Writing to impress
(3) Having more than one aim
(4) Being inconsistent
(5) Overqualifying
(6) Not defining
(7) Misintroducing
(8) Dazzling with data
(9) Not highlighting
(10) Not rewriting
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Final Draft of Proposal for Scuba Diving
Executive Summary:
Studies show that the more experienced a diver is, the more likely they are to have an accident. Experienced divers think they can cut corners, that the rules are for beginners; what they do not realize is that diving rules are grounded on human physiology and physics. No matter how experienced or physically fit a diver is, there are limits the human body cannot pass. This document will prevent diving accidents resulting from the failure to follow the rules by making the fundamental physiological and physical laws behind the rules of diving comprehensible to all so that divers internalize them.
Introduction:
Many people discover the underwater world and learn the basic rules of diving. However, very few people understand that the sources of the diving rules are very simple physiological and physical laws. Consequently many don’t internalize the rules, underestimate their values, take risks and eventually have an accident. The purpose of this document is to make the fundamental physiological and physical laws comprehensible to all so that the diving rules become meaningful to divers and are fully internalized.
60% of recreational diving accidents happen to experienced or very experienced divers (levels 3 to 5 and instructors) with a median age of 34 years. These divers knew the rules, were officially sanctioned as good and proficient divers, yet did not understand enough the fundamental nature of these rules and chose to ignore them.
As a result, this document will review the fundamental laws of diving with a strong emphasis on clarity and basic understanding. Each law is concluded with a real life application to diving, allowing the reader to deepen their understanding of the law. A table that summarizes the list of accidents versus the laws involved along with a one page summary will conclude the document. This document will approach the rules of diving not from a moralistic point of view nor from a legalistic point of view but from a fundamental physics law point of view to allow better comprehension and internalization of the rules.
Searching on the internet, I found sites with advice by experienced divers and sites which required the reader to have great technical skills in the field of biology, physiology, and physics. I did not find a site that showed the fundamental physics, biology, and physiology behind diving and did not present the technical information in a way that was easy to comprehend at the high school level without having technical expertise in the field.
Body:
• Current Situation
o In the book, Open Water Diver by the SSI, there are 15 pages dedicated to the understanding of physiology (half on basic physiology and half on the symptoms) out of 214 pages. Only three percent of the book is spent on understanding the physiology of diving, and it does not include any physics about diving.
o According to the May 2007 issue of Undercurrent, there are no concrete figures for the number of newly certified divers each year and for the number of active US divers (active divers are defined as divers who are diving five or more times a year). However, Ben Davison, publisher of the newsletter, Undercurrent, estimates that there are 1.2 million active divers plus or minus 15 percent.
o The same physiological and physics laws apply to most accidents when they happen. They happen because people fail to follow basic rules not because they are unknown but because their values are not understood.
According to the yearly report by the FFESSM (Federation Francais d’Etudes et de Sports Sous-Marins) in 1998, 40 percent of accidents that occurred were by divers ranging from level 3 to 5. (French scuba diving levels are as follows: Beginner, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5.) 80 percent of accidents were from decompression sickness. There were 320 diving accidents recorded.
In the Statics of Diving Accidents by Dr. Bruno Grandjean, the chart shows diving statics from 1995 to 2004. You see a general trend where over 40 percent of diving accidents happen to level 3 to 5 divers and instructors each year.
The Statics of Diving Accidents by Dr. Bruno Grandjean showed 335 diving accidents in the year 2004. Of the 335 diving accidents that were recorded, 21 percent were due to errors in the procedure. Errors in procedures include running out of air and ascending to the surface too quickly.
• Project Plan / Methodology
o Intro
o Table of contents
o Physiology
Blood (hemoglobin carries O2 and CO2)
Circulation of blood in the body (blood going to the tissues is 500 m2 of capillary veins)
Breathing (lung capacity, exchange of CO2/O2)
o Physics
Archimedes
• Experimental test
• Principle
• Application to diving
Notions of mass, density and weight
Notions of pressure
• Force exerted by a solid
• Force exerted by a the air
• Force exerted by a liquid
• Hydrostatic pressure experimental test
• Fundamental principal of hydrostatic
∆p = pN – pM = omega * h = ro * g * h
Where:
pN = pressure at point N
pM = pressure at point M
Omega = weight of the volume of liquid
Ro = weight of the volume of mass
h = difference of elevation between the horizontal plane containing N and the horizontal plane containing M
g = Earth’s gravity
• Absolute pressure
Boyle-Mariotte Law
• Experimental test
• Law
At constant temperature, the volume V of a gas varies inversely proportional to the absolute pressure
P1*V1 = P2*V2
• Application to diving
o Lung Volume
o Diving Time
o Floatability
o Computation Tables
Dalton’s Law
• Experimental test
• Law
“At a given temperature, the absolute pressure of a mixed gas is equal to the sum of the partial pressure that these gas would have they occupied alone the total volume.”
pa = absolute pressure of the mixed gas
pp = partial pressure
The partial pressure of a gas from a mixture is equal to the product of the total pressure of the mixture multiplied by the volume percentage of the gas under consideration
pp = X/100 (percentage volume) * pa
• Application to diving
Mechanism of gas dissolution in a liquid
• Experimental test
Open a soft drink bottle or a bottle of Champagne and watch the bubbles rise up
• Henry’s Law
“At constant temperature and at saturation, the quantity of gas dissolved per unit of volume in a liquid is proportional to the pressure of the gas above the liquid”
• Tension
p = kC
Where
p = pressure of gas,
C = concentration of gas in solution
k = constant of Henry relative to couple gas/liquid
• Under saturation, saturation, over saturation
• Tissues
• De-saturation – Over-saturation
Temperature
• Water temperature impact
Optical underwater
• Description
• Application to diving
Sound
• Diving
o Conclusion
o Edition
o Index
• Qualifications
o As a Diver
Certified SSI (Scuba Schools International) diver
Dived in the US and in France.
Enjoy being around and going into the water
Know French and American scuba diving instructors who can give me insights into advanced scuba diving rules and experiences
o Scientific Knowledge
Engineering student
Mastered all the basic physics and physiological concepts that are used in this document
Took a math course in differential equations
o Capacity to organize for comprehension
Demonstrated communication skills in four different languages
Capacity to adapt the message to the level of understanding of my recipients
Examples
• Explaining to Mexican workers different ways to improve efficiency
• Presenting to the manager of the factory different wa
• Timeline
o Sept 14 – Sept 28
Physics
• Archimedes
• Notions of mass, density and weight
• Notions of pressure
• Boyle – Marriotte Law
• Dalton’s Law
• Mechanism of gas dissolution in a liquid
• Temperature
• Optical underwater
• Sound
o Sept 29 – Oct 5
Introduction
Table of Contents
Conclusion
Edition
Index
Physiology
o Oct 6 – Oct 10
Research
• Examples
• Drawings
o Oct 13 – Oct 16
Final Review
Conclusion:
Focusing on basic fundamental laws and their application to diving is a theme that will be used throughout the document to obtain a better comprehension of the rules. This will allow the reader to internalize the rules, and be less inclined to take risks and skip the rules when nobody is around to enforce them.
This document will make an effort to use graphics by borrowing heavily from the internet to reinforce the text’s message. Examples for each law will help the reader compute real life examples.
Most, if not all, of the information found on the internet is very technical and detailed or would give rules and then answers without explaining how the answers were derived. The reader is expected to know complicated math and have significant knowledge of physiology and biology. This document is unique because it attempts to cover all the fundamental laws of physiology and physics that are available at the high school level and makes them understandable and applicable for diving. There are no expectations of high level biology, math, and physics knowledge. This document will provide the answers and the methods to which the answers are found.
May this document prevent accidents for all of us that “know better” or don’t have time to memorize “the rules”.
Studies show that the more experienced a diver is, the more likely they are to have an accident. Experienced divers think they can cut corners, that the rules are for beginners; what they do not realize is that diving rules are grounded on human physiology and physics. No matter how experienced or physically fit a diver is, there are limits the human body cannot pass. This document will prevent diving accidents resulting from the failure to follow the rules by making the fundamental physiological and physical laws behind the rules of diving comprehensible to all so that divers internalize them.
Introduction:
Many people discover the underwater world and learn the basic rules of diving. However, very few people understand that the sources of the diving rules are very simple physiological and physical laws. Consequently many don’t internalize the rules, underestimate their values, take risks and eventually have an accident. The purpose of this document is to make the fundamental physiological and physical laws comprehensible to all so that the diving rules become meaningful to divers and are fully internalized.
60% of recreational diving accidents happen to experienced or very experienced divers (levels 3 to 5 and instructors) with a median age of 34 years. These divers knew the rules, were officially sanctioned as good and proficient divers, yet did not understand enough the fundamental nature of these rules and chose to ignore them.
As a result, this document will review the fundamental laws of diving with a strong emphasis on clarity and basic understanding. Each law is concluded with a real life application to diving, allowing the reader to deepen their understanding of the law. A table that summarizes the list of accidents versus the laws involved along with a one page summary will conclude the document. This document will approach the rules of diving not from a moralistic point of view nor from a legalistic point of view but from a fundamental physics law point of view to allow better comprehension and internalization of the rules.
Searching on the internet, I found sites with advice by experienced divers and sites which required the reader to have great technical skills in the field of biology, physiology, and physics. I did not find a site that showed the fundamental physics, biology, and physiology behind diving and did not present the technical information in a way that was easy to comprehend at the high school level without having technical expertise in the field.
Body:
• Current Situation
o In the book, Open Water Diver by the SSI, there are 15 pages dedicated to the understanding of physiology (half on basic physiology and half on the symptoms) out of 214 pages. Only three percent of the book is spent on understanding the physiology of diving, and it does not include any physics about diving.
o According to the May 2007 issue of Undercurrent, there are no concrete figures for the number of newly certified divers each year and for the number of active US divers (active divers are defined as divers who are diving five or more times a year). However, Ben Davison, publisher of the newsletter, Undercurrent, estimates that there are 1.2 million active divers plus or minus 15 percent.
o The same physiological and physics laws apply to most accidents when they happen. They happen because people fail to follow basic rules not because they are unknown but because their values are not understood.
According to the yearly report by the FFESSM (Federation Francais d’Etudes et de Sports Sous-Marins) in 1998, 40 percent of accidents that occurred were by divers ranging from level 3 to 5. (French scuba diving levels are as follows: Beginner, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5.) 80 percent of accidents were from decompression sickness. There were 320 diving accidents recorded.
In the Statics of Diving Accidents by Dr. Bruno Grandjean, the chart shows diving statics from 1995 to 2004. You see a general trend where over 40 percent of diving accidents happen to level 3 to 5 divers and instructors each year.
The Statics of Diving Accidents by Dr. Bruno Grandjean showed 335 diving accidents in the year 2004. Of the 335 diving accidents that were recorded, 21 percent were due to errors in the procedure. Errors in procedures include running out of air and ascending to the surface too quickly.
• Project Plan / Methodology
o Intro
o Table of contents
o Physiology
Blood (hemoglobin carries O2 and CO2)
Circulation of blood in the body (blood going to the tissues is 500 m2 of capillary veins)
Breathing (lung capacity, exchange of CO2/O2)
o Physics
Archimedes
• Experimental test
• Principle
• Application to diving
Notions of mass, density and weight
Notions of pressure
• Force exerted by a solid
• Force exerted by a the air
• Force exerted by a liquid
• Hydrostatic pressure experimental test
• Fundamental principal of hydrostatic
∆p = pN – pM = omega * h = ro * g * h
Where:
pN = pressure at point N
pM = pressure at point M
Omega = weight of the volume of liquid
Ro = weight of the volume of mass
h = difference of elevation between the horizontal plane containing N and the horizontal plane containing M
g = Earth’s gravity
• Absolute pressure
Boyle-Mariotte Law
• Experimental test
• Law
At constant temperature, the volume V of a gas varies inversely proportional to the absolute pressure
P1*V1 = P2*V2
• Application to diving
o Lung Volume
o Diving Time
o Floatability
o Computation Tables
Dalton’s Law
• Experimental test
• Law
“At a given temperature, the absolute pressure of a mixed gas is equal to the sum of the partial pressure that these gas would have they occupied alone the total volume.”
pa = absolute pressure of the mixed gas
pp = partial pressure
The partial pressure of a gas from a mixture is equal to the product of the total pressure of the mixture multiplied by the volume percentage of the gas under consideration
pp = X/100 (percentage volume) * pa
• Application to diving
Mechanism of gas dissolution in a liquid
• Experimental test
Open a soft drink bottle or a bottle of Champagne and watch the bubbles rise up
• Henry’s Law
“At constant temperature and at saturation, the quantity of gas dissolved per unit of volume in a liquid is proportional to the pressure of the gas above the liquid”
• Tension
p = kC
Where
p = pressure of gas,
C = concentration of gas in solution
k = constant of Henry relative to couple gas/liquid
• Under saturation, saturation, over saturation
• Tissues
• De-saturation – Over-saturation
Temperature
• Water temperature impact
Optical underwater
• Description
• Application to diving
Sound
• Diving
o Conclusion
o Edition
o Index
• Qualifications
o As a Diver
Certified SSI (Scuba Schools International) diver
Dived in the US and in France.
Enjoy being around and going into the water
Know French and American scuba diving instructors who can give me insights into advanced scuba diving rules and experiences
o Scientific Knowledge
Engineering student
Mastered all the basic physics and physiological concepts that are used in this document
Took a math course in differential equations
o Capacity to organize for comprehension
Demonstrated communication skills in four different languages
Capacity to adapt the message to the level of understanding of my recipients
Examples
• Explaining to Mexican workers different ways to improve efficiency
• Presenting to the manager of the factory different wa
• Timeline
o Sept 14 – Sept 28
Physics
• Archimedes
• Notions of mass, density and weight
• Notions of pressure
• Boyle – Marriotte Law
• Dalton’s Law
• Mechanism of gas dissolution in a liquid
• Temperature
• Optical underwater
• Sound
o Sept 29 – Oct 5
Introduction
Table of Contents
Conclusion
Edition
Index
Physiology
o Oct 6 – Oct 10
Research
• Examples
• Drawings
o Oct 13 – Oct 16
Final Review
Conclusion:
Focusing on basic fundamental laws and their application to diving is a theme that will be used throughout the document to obtain a better comprehension of the rules. This will allow the reader to internalize the rules, and be less inclined to take risks and skip the rules when nobody is around to enforce them.
This document will make an effort to use graphics by borrowing heavily from the internet to reinforce the text’s message. Examples for each law will help the reader compute real life examples.
Most, if not all, of the information found on the internet is very technical and detailed or would give rules and then answers without explaining how the answers were derived. The reader is expected to know complicated math and have significant knowledge of physiology and biology. This document is unique because it attempts to cover all the fundamental laws of physiology and physics that are available at the high school level and makes them understandable and applicable for diving. There are no expectations of high level biology, math, and physics knowledge. This document will provide the answers and the methods to which the answers are found.
May this document prevent accidents for all of us that “know better” or don’t have time to memorize “the rules”.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Talking Points For Business and Technical Correspondence
Business and Technical Correspondence
3 forms of business and technical correspondence
(1) letter
(2) memo
(3) email
(A) Making Your Correspondence Get Results by David Lewis
(1) Write for him, not to him
(2) Personalize your letters
a. Pronouns are very effective
(3) Mastering your personality in print
The difficulty lies in making your letters sound more the way you talk without completely writing as if you were talking to the person. Personal Experience: You are more likely to get results by keeping your letters short and simple. (Especially if you are emailing to people of and in different countries) The higher ups do not have time to try to read and understand a lengthy paragraph causing them to skip the letter entirely. Making it easy for them to understand and read is essential.
(B) “I Have Some Bad News for You” by Allan Glatthorn
How to Break Bad News:
(1) Successful manager is people-sensitive, able to empathize
(2) Bad news is best delivered face to face, allowing the person to express their opinion and to make sure there is no hidden message
(3) Everyone values honesty and forthrightness
The Indirect Bad News Message
(1) THANKS – begin with positive statement
(2) BECAUSE – state reasons for rejection first
(3) SORRY – present the bad news
(4) THANKS – another expression of appreciation
Reasons for Using: You want further contact with the petitioner, you want to project the image of a caring individual, and/or because you believe the petitioner won’t be able to handle a more direct statement.
The Direct Message of Bad News
(1) THANKS – courteous expression of appreciation
(2) SORRY – move quickly to bad news (stated directly)
(3) BECAUSE – reasons come after (stated directly)
(4) THANKS – message ends courteously but the door is closed
Reasons for Using: You want to discourage any further requests from the petitioner, want to project an image of toughness and directness, and/or are addressing an individual who prefers forthrightness and equates indirectness with softness or dishonesty
(C) How to Write Better Memos by Harold Mintz
Memos are primarily used for:
(1) informing people of a problem or situation
(2) nailing down responsibility for action, and a deadline for it
(3) Establishing a file record of decisions, agreements, and policies
Organization of the Memo
Should answer three basic questions concerning its subject
(1) What are the facts?
(2) What do they mean?
(3) What do we do now?
Literary Qualities
A memo needs to be clear, brief, and relevant. Also needs to have a personal, human approach.
Format of the Memo
To and From Lines – Names and Departments
Subject – Summarize it in ten words or less
Distribution – only to people involved or interested
Text – Use applicable headings listed after the three questions under
“Organization”
Paragraphs – If numbering or lettering them helps in any way, do it
Line Spacing – Single space within paragraphs, double space between
Underlines and Capitals – Used sparingly and only to emphasize important points
Number of Pages – some companies max 1 page memo – therefore need second
or third memo to back it up
Figures and Tables – Use them, enhance impact of memos
(D) How to Use Bottom-Line Writing in Corporate Communications by John Fielden and Ronald Dulek
Comprehension is the Key
High Cost of Comprehension
Time and mistakes is money.
Programming for Inefficiency
Social Upbringing
Educational Programming
Indoctrination into Anxiety
What can I do?
Responsibility of the individual - Reject your social and educational
programming
Learn to write efficiently and organize your messages to make it easy and
fast to comprehend
Develop self confidence to send bottom-line messages upward in nonsensitive messages
Have A/The Superior’s And Subordinate’s Credo posted on the door of each manager and subordinate respectively
(E) E-Mail: Presenting a Professional Image by Janis Fisher Chan
For A Seamless Style: Use language that communicates clearly, accurately, and
Concisely
Use Active Language
Use Plain English
Avoid Inflated Language
Cut Out the Clutter: Eliminate Unnecessary Words
Use only one word for a one-word idea
Avoid unnecessary repetition
Use specific Language
Strengthen Those Sentences: Use Short, Simple, Focused Sentences and Good
Grammar
Watch Those Modifiers
…Use Complete Sentences
Keep Sentences Short, Simple, and Focused
Avoid Choppy Sentences
Make Sure That Subjects and Verbs Agree
…Use Pronouns Correctly
…Use Gender-Neutral Language
Use plural instead of singular pronouns
Eliminate the pronoun altogether
Speak directly to your reader
Structure the sentence so you can use “who”
..Punctuate Properly: Use Commas, Semicolons, and Other Punctuation
Marks to Help Convey Your Message
Pointers for Using Commas
Avoid comma splices
Don’t set off essential information with commas
Don’t use a comma to separate a group of words form the
subject of the sentence
As a rule, use a comma after an introductory clause
Pointers for Using Semicolons
Two Primary Uses
Join two closely related independent clauses
To separate elements in a series that already
contains commas
Pointers for Using Apostrophes
Apostrophes used to signify ownership
Apostrophes that replace the missing letter in contractions
Pointers for Using Dashes and Parentheses
Make writing more expressive
3 forms of business and technical correspondence
(1) letter
(2) memo
(3) email
(A) Making Your Correspondence Get Results by David Lewis
(1) Write for him, not to him
(2) Personalize your letters
a. Pronouns are very effective
(3) Mastering your personality in print
The difficulty lies in making your letters sound more the way you talk without completely writing as if you were talking to the person. Personal Experience: You are more likely to get results by keeping your letters short and simple. (Especially if you are emailing to people of and in different countries) The higher ups do not have time to try to read and understand a lengthy paragraph causing them to skip the letter entirely. Making it easy for them to understand and read is essential.
(B) “I Have Some Bad News for You” by Allan Glatthorn
How to Break Bad News:
(1) Successful manager is people-sensitive, able to empathize
(2) Bad news is best delivered face to face, allowing the person to express their opinion and to make sure there is no hidden message
(3) Everyone values honesty and forthrightness
The Indirect Bad News Message
(1) THANKS – begin with positive statement
(2) BECAUSE – state reasons for rejection first
(3) SORRY – present the bad news
(4) THANKS – another expression of appreciation
Reasons for Using: You want further contact with the petitioner, you want to project the image of a caring individual, and/or because you believe the petitioner won’t be able to handle a more direct statement.
The Direct Message of Bad News
(1) THANKS – courteous expression of appreciation
(2) SORRY – move quickly to bad news (stated directly)
(3) BECAUSE – reasons come after (stated directly)
(4) THANKS – message ends courteously but the door is closed
Reasons for Using: You want to discourage any further requests from the petitioner, want to project an image of toughness and directness, and/or are addressing an individual who prefers forthrightness and equates indirectness with softness or dishonesty
(C) How to Write Better Memos by Harold Mintz
Memos are primarily used for:
(1) informing people of a problem or situation
(2) nailing down responsibility for action, and a deadline for it
(3) Establishing a file record of decisions, agreements, and policies
Organization of the Memo
Should answer three basic questions concerning its subject
(1) What are the facts?
(2) What do they mean?
(3) What do we do now?
Literary Qualities
A memo needs to be clear, brief, and relevant. Also needs to have a personal, human approach.
Format of the Memo
To and From Lines – Names and Departments
Subject – Summarize it in ten words or less
Distribution – only to people involved or interested
Text – Use applicable headings listed after the three questions under
“Organization”
Paragraphs – If numbering or lettering them helps in any way, do it
Line Spacing – Single space within paragraphs, double space between
Underlines and Capitals – Used sparingly and only to emphasize important points
Number of Pages – some companies max 1 page memo – therefore need second
or third memo to back it up
Figures and Tables – Use them, enhance impact of memos
(D) How to Use Bottom-Line Writing in Corporate Communications by John Fielden and Ronald Dulek
Comprehension is the Key
High Cost of Comprehension
Time and mistakes is money.
Programming for Inefficiency
Social Upbringing
Educational Programming
Indoctrination into Anxiety
What can I do?
Responsibility of the individual - Reject your social and educational
programming
Learn to write efficiently and organize your messages to make it easy and
fast to comprehend
Develop self confidence to send bottom-line messages upward in nonsensitive messages
Have A/The Superior’s And Subordinate’s Credo posted on the door of each manager and subordinate respectively
(E) E-Mail: Presenting a Professional Image by Janis Fisher Chan
For A Seamless Style: Use language that communicates clearly, accurately, and
Concisely
Use Active Language
Use Plain English
Avoid Inflated Language
Cut Out the Clutter: Eliminate Unnecessary Words
Use only one word for a one-word idea
Avoid unnecessary repetition
Use specific Language
Strengthen Those Sentences: Use Short, Simple, Focused Sentences and Good
Grammar
Watch Those Modifiers
…Use Complete Sentences
Keep Sentences Short, Simple, and Focused
Avoid Choppy Sentences
Make Sure That Subjects and Verbs Agree
…Use Pronouns Correctly
…Use Gender-Neutral Language
Use plural instead of singular pronouns
Eliminate the pronoun altogether
Speak directly to your reader
Structure the sentence so you can use “who”
..Punctuate Properly: Use Commas, Semicolons, and Other Punctuation
Marks to Help Convey Your Message
Pointers for Using Commas
Avoid comma splices
Don’t set off essential information with commas
Don’t use a comma to separate a group of words form the
subject of the sentence
As a rule, use a comma after an introductory clause
Pointers for Using Semicolons
Two Primary Uses
Join two closely related independent clauses
To separate elements in a series that already
contains commas
Pointers for Using Apostrophes
Apostrophes used to signify ownership
Apostrophes that replace the missing letter in contractions
Pointers for Using Dashes and Parentheses
Make writing more expressive
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Problem Statement 1,2,3
Problem Statement 1
Many people discover the underwater world and learn the basic rules of diving. However, very few people understand that the sources of the diving rules are very simple physiological and physical laws. Consequently many don’t internalize the rules, underestimate their values, take risks and eventually have an accident. The purpose of this document is to make the fundamental physiological and physical laws comprehensible to all so that the diving rules become meaningful to divers and are fully internalized.
Problem Statement 2
Ideally, experienced divers should internalize the rules and know the inherent risks in diving. However, studies show that the more experienced a diver is, the more likely they are to have an accident. Experienced divers think they can cut corners, that the rules are for beginners; what they do not realize is that diving rules are grounded on human physiology and physics. No matter how experienced or physically fit a diver is, there are limits the human body cannot pass. This document will reduce and hopefully prevent diving accidents by negligence of the rules by
Problem Statement 3
As divers become more experienced, they become cocky and feel that the rules are for beginners because they were never taught why the rules exist. The rules are based on human physiology and physics. No matter the diving experience or physical fitness, the human body cannot go past a certain limit. This misconception and lack of information leads to diving accidents which can result in death. This document will inform divers the reasoning behind the rules, allowing them to internalize the rules, and ultimately prevent diving accidents.
Many people discover the underwater world and learn the basic rules of diving. However, very few people understand that the sources of the diving rules are very simple physiological and physical laws. Consequently many don’t internalize the rules, underestimate their values, take risks and eventually have an accident. The purpose of this document is to make the fundamental physiological and physical laws comprehensible to all so that the diving rules become meaningful to divers and are fully internalized.
Problem Statement 2
Ideally, experienced divers should internalize the rules and know the inherent risks in diving. However, studies show that the more experienced a diver is, the more likely they are to have an accident. Experienced divers think they can cut corners, that the rules are for beginners; what they do not realize is that diving rules are grounded on human physiology and physics. No matter how experienced or physically fit a diver is, there are limits the human body cannot pass. This document will reduce and hopefully prevent diving accidents by negligence of the rules by
Problem Statement 3
As divers become more experienced, they become cocky and feel that the rules are for beginners because they were never taught why the rules exist. The rules are based on human physiology and physics. No matter the diving experience or physical fitness, the human body cannot go past a certain limit. This misconception and lack of information leads to diving accidents which can result in death. This document will inform divers the reasoning behind the rules, allowing them to internalize the rules, and ultimately prevent diving accidents.
Draft of Proposal
Executive Summary:
Introduction:
Many people discover the underwater world and learn the basic rules of diving. However, very few people understand that the sources of the diving rules are very simple physiological and physical laws. Consequently many don’t internalize the rules, underestimate their values, take risks and eventually have an accident. 60% of the recreational diving accidents happen to experienced or very experienced divers (levels 3 to 5 and instructors) with a median age of 34 years. These divers knew the rules, were officially sanctioned as good and proficient divers, yet did not understand enough the fundamental nature of these rules and chose to ignore them. The purpose of this document is to make the fundamental physiological and physical laws comprehensible to all so that the diving rules become meaningful to divers and are fully internalized. May this document prevent accidents for all of us that “know better” or don’t have time to memorize “the rules”
Body:
• Current Situation
o In the book, Open Water Diver by the SSI, there are 15 pages dedicated to the understanding of physiology (half on basic physiology and half on the symptoms) out of 214 pages. Only three percent of the book is spent on understanding the physiology of diving, and it does not include any physics about diving.
o The same physiological and physics laws apply to most accidents when they happen. They happen because people fail to follow basic rules not because they are unknown but because their values are not understood.
According to the yearly report by the FFESSM (Federation Francais d’Etudes et de Sports Sous-Marins) in 1998, 40 percent of accidents that occurred were by divers ranging from level 3 to 5. (French scuba diving levels are as follows: Beginner, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5.) 80 percent of accidents were from decompression sickness. There were 320 diving accidents recorded.
In the Statics of Diving Accidents by Dr. Bruno Grandjean, the chart shows diving statics from 1995 to 2004. You see a general trend where over 40 percent of diving accidents happen to level 3 to 5 divers and instructors each year.
• Project Plan / Methodology
o Intro
o Table of contents
o Physiology
Blood (hemoglobin carries O2 and CO2)
Circulation of blood in the body (blood going to the tissues is 500 m2 of capillary veins)
Breathing (lung capacity, exchange of CO2/O2)
o Physics
Archimedes
• Experimental test
• Principle
• Application to diving
Notions of mass, density and weight
Notions of pressure
• Force exerted by a solid
• Force exerted by a the air
• Force exerted by a liquid
• Hydrostatic pressure experimental test
• Fundamental principal of hydrostatic
∆p = pN – pM = omega * h = ro * g * h
Where:
pN = pressure at point N
pM = pressure at point M
Omega = weight of the volume of liquid
Ro = weight of the volume of mass
h = difference of elevation between the horizontal plane containing N and the horizontal plane containing M
g = Earth’s gravity
• Absolute pressure
Boyle-Mariotte Law
• Experimental test
• Law
At constant temperature, the volume V of a gas varies inversely proportional to the absolute pressure
P1*V1 = P2*V2
• Application to diving
Dalton’s Law
• Experimental test
• Law
“At a given temperature, the absolute pressure of a mixed gas is equal to the sum of the partial pressure that these gas would have they occupied alone the total volume.”
pa = absolute pressure of the mixed gas
pp = partial pressure
The partial pressure of a gas from a mixture is equal to the product of the total pressure of the mixture multiplied by the volume percentage of the gas under consideration
pp = X/100 (percentage volume) * pa
• Application to diving
Mechanism of gas dissolution in a liquid
• Experimental test
Open a soft drink bottle or a bottle of Champagne and watch the bubbles rise up
• Henry’s Law
“At constant temperature and at saturation, the quantity of gas dissolved per unit of volume in a liquid is proportional to the pressure of the gas above the liquid”
• Tension
p = kC
Where
p = pressure of gas,
C = concentration of gas in solution
k = constant of Henry relative to couple gas/liquid
• Under saturation, saturation, over saturation
• Tissues
• De-saturation – Over-saturation
Temperature
• Water temperature impact
Optical underwater
• Description
• Application to diving
Sound
• Diving
o Conclusion
o Edition
o Index
• Qualifications
o I am a certified SSI (Scuba Schools International) diver. I dived in the US and in France. In addition, I enjoy going into the water. I know French and American scuba diving instructors who can give me insights into advanced scuba diving rules and experiences.
• Timeline
o Finish 8 to 10 pages per week
o This will allow the completion of 25 pages by Oct 4.
Conclusion:
Introduction:
Many people discover the underwater world and learn the basic rules of diving. However, very few people understand that the sources of the diving rules are very simple physiological and physical laws. Consequently many don’t internalize the rules, underestimate their values, take risks and eventually have an accident. 60% of the recreational diving accidents happen to experienced or very experienced divers (levels 3 to 5 and instructors) with a median age of 34 years. These divers knew the rules, were officially sanctioned as good and proficient divers, yet did not understand enough the fundamental nature of these rules and chose to ignore them. The purpose of this document is to make the fundamental physiological and physical laws comprehensible to all so that the diving rules become meaningful to divers and are fully internalized. May this document prevent accidents for all of us that “know better” or don’t have time to memorize “the rules”
Body:
• Current Situation
o In the book, Open Water Diver by the SSI, there are 15 pages dedicated to the understanding of physiology (half on basic physiology and half on the symptoms) out of 214 pages. Only three percent of the book is spent on understanding the physiology of diving, and it does not include any physics about diving.
o The same physiological and physics laws apply to most accidents when they happen. They happen because people fail to follow basic rules not because they are unknown but because their values are not understood.
According to the yearly report by the FFESSM (Federation Francais d’Etudes et de Sports Sous-Marins) in 1998, 40 percent of accidents that occurred were by divers ranging from level 3 to 5. (French scuba diving levels are as follows: Beginner, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5.) 80 percent of accidents were from decompression sickness. There were 320 diving accidents recorded.
In the Statics of Diving Accidents by Dr. Bruno Grandjean, the chart shows diving statics from 1995 to 2004. You see a general trend where over 40 percent of diving accidents happen to level 3 to 5 divers and instructors each year.
• Project Plan / Methodology
o Intro
o Table of contents
o Physiology
Blood (hemoglobin carries O2 and CO2)
Circulation of blood in the body (blood going to the tissues is 500 m2 of capillary veins)
Breathing (lung capacity, exchange of CO2/O2)
o Physics
Archimedes
• Experimental test
• Principle
• Application to diving
Notions of mass, density and weight
Notions of pressure
• Force exerted by a solid
• Force exerted by a the air
• Force exerted by a liquid
• Hydrostatic pressure experimental test
• Fundamental principal of hydrostatic
∆p = pN – pM = omega * h = ro * g * h
Where:
pN = pressure at point N
pM = pressure at point M
Omega = weight of the volume of liquid
Ro = weight of the volume of mass
h = difference of elevation between the horizontal plane containing N and the horizontal plane containing M
g = Earth’s gravity
• Absolute pressure
Boyle-Mariotte Law
• Experimental test
• Law
At constant temperature, the volume V of a gas varies inversely proportional to the absolute pressure
P1*V1 = P2*V2
• Application to diving
Dalton’s Law
• Experimental test
• Law
“At a given temperature, the absolute pressure of a mixed gas is equal to the sum of the partial pressure that these gas would have they occupied alone the total volume.”
pa = absolute pressure of the mixed gas
pp = partial pressure
The partial pressure of a gas from a mixture is equal to the product of the total pressure of the mixture multiplied by the volume percentage of the gas under consideration
pp = X/100 (percentage volume) * pa
• Application to diving
Mechanism of gas dissolution in a liquid
• Experimental test
Open a soft drink bottle or a bottle of Champagne and watch the bubbles rise up
• Henry’s Law
“At constant temperature and at saturation, the quantity of gas dissolved per unit of volume in a liquid is proportional to the pressure of the gas above the liquid”
• Tension
p = kC
Where
p = pressure of gas,
C = concentration of gas in solution
k = constant of Henry relative to couple gas/liquid
• Under saturation, saturation, over saturation
• Tissues
• De-saturation – Over-saturation
Temperature
• Water temperature impact
Optical underwater
• Description
• Application to diving
Sound
• Diving
o Conclusion
o Edition
o Index
• Qualifications
o I am a certified SSI (Scuba Schools International) diver. I dived in the US and in France. In addition, I enjoy going into the water. I know French and American scuba diving instructors who can give me insights into advanced scuba diving rules and experiences.
• Timeline
o Finish 8 to 10 pages per week
o This will allow the completion of 25 pages by Oct 4.
Conclusion:
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Talking Points for pp. 1 - 49
Socrates:
(1) "the unexamined life is not worth living"
(2) Important for 3 reasons
(a) insisted on doing the right thing regardless of consequences
(b) ethics is a matter of pleasing God
(c) ethical behavior requires active social involvement, whether as a teacher, civic leader,
or social critic
Plato:
(1) considered the founder of philosophy
(2) philosophy is a matter of discovering and pursuing truth
(3) and Socrates held that teachers have a responsibility to instill both ethical values and
rhetorical arts in their pupils
(4) ethics and rhetoric are closely tied, but ethics comes first
(a) the ONLY purpose of rhetoric is to serve ethics
(5) ethics is metaphysical and idealistic
(6) "to know what virtue is"
Aristotle:
(1) ethics ultimately stems from the divinely ordained nature of things
(a) practical affairs -> the ethical course of action had to be determined in a debate
(2) ethical judgements have to be rhetorically argued in order to reveal the intrinsic goodness of
the differing sides and to allow one to prevail
(3) ethics is the study of what is involved in good actions
(4) ethics is a subject that does not allow hard and fast answers, like mathematics does
(5) ethics is about what is sought for its own sake - goodness itself - and not for the sake of
something else such as money or success
(6) Doing the right thing for its own sake
(7) Virtuous -> the disposition to seek after the good
(8) humans are creatures of habit; therefore, habitually virtuous by deliberating about the
ethical and behaving accordingly
(9) does not declare absolute rules
(10) ethics is not metaphysical or idealistic
(11) "The object of our inquiry is not to know what virtue is, but to become good men"
(12) Ethics in technical communication would not have to do with technology itself but rather
with our decisions about how and when to use it
Nobel and the Nobel peace prize?
(13) moral wisdom must be combined with practical wisdom in order to yield ethical action
(14) ethics cannot be reduced to politics or the law because it must guide us when the law or
political rules are silent or in error
The Sophists: (The Lawyers?)
(1) are no absolutes and that communication is immensely powerful precisely because it shapes
minds, hearts, values, and decisions
(2) values are relative because they depend on circumstances
(3) rhetoric is only a skill, a collection of techniques that could be readily acquired by anyone
(4) ethics and rhetoric are closely tied but rhetoric comes first
(a) rhetoric allows the negotiation and persuasion that defines social values
(5) rhetoric and its techniques are quite separate from ethics
Kant:
(1) emphasizes duty and respect for others, regardless of personal consequences
(2) ethical theory is based on a sense of duty, which is important both for what it is and for what
it is not
(3) all humans are endowed with a sense of moral reason
(4) From this obligatory nature of ethics derives the fundamental importance of duty as the
responsibility to carry out these directives regardless of anything else, solely because it is the
right thing to do
(5) fundamental ethical principle, the categorical imperative: "Act as if the maxim of your action
were to become by your will a universal Law of Nature."
(6) Theory of duty is founded on the radically autonomous free will and its capacity to choose
otherwise and on its reasoned self-persuasion not to choose otherwise. It is duty based in
freedom. Whereas, we usually think of a duty as an onerous burden and a limitation of our
freedom.
Feminist Ethical Thinkers:
(1) cornerstone of ethics -> genuinely caring relationship
Hegel:
(1) values are arrived at socially
(a) by forces that were working to preserve their own self-interest
(2) modern "rehabilitator" of the sophists
Perelman:
(1) our language is our values
(2) Persuasion amounts to a process of social negotiation, ratification, and propagation
(3)
Burke:
(1) values are worked out socially and rhetorically rather than received from on high
(a) rhetoric worked to shape value judgements
Weaver:
(1) Values come before our discourse rather than stemming from it
Rationalists, social constructionists, and other theorists have shown that all language use entails ethical values and cannot do otherwise
Mark Wicclair and David Farkas:
(1) distinguish ethics from relativistic, self-interested approaches, the law, and religion
(2) humanistic approach to ethics -> how to be "a good human being"
(3) 3 ethical principles
(a) goal-based (e.g. utilitarianism)
(b) duty-based (e.g. Kantian ethics)
(c) rights-based
(1) "the unexamined life is not worth living"
(2) Important for 3 reasons
(a) insisted on doing the right thing regardless of consequences
(b) ethics is a matter of pleasing God
(c) ethical behavior requires active social involvement, whether as a teacher, civic leader,
or social critic
Plato:
(1) considered the founder of philosophy
(2) philosophy is a matter of discovering and pursuing truth
(3) and Socrates held that teachers have a responsibility to instill both ethical values and
rhetorical arts in their pupils
(4) ethics and rhetoric are closely tied, but ethics comes first
(a) the ONLY purpose of rhetoric is to serve ethics
(5) ethics is metaphysical and idealistic
(6) "to know what virtue is"
Aristotle:
(1) ethics ultimately stems from the divinely ordained nature of things
(a) practical affairs -> the ethical course of action had to be determined in a debate
(2) ethical judgements have to be rhetorically argued in order to reveal the intrinsic goodness of
the differing sides and to allow one to prevail
(3) ethics is the study of what is involved in good actions
(4) ethics is a subject that does not allow hard and fast answers, like mathematics does
(5) ethics is about what is sought for its own sake - goodness itself - and not for the sake of
something else such as money or success
(6) Doing the right thing for its own sake
(7) Virtuous -> the disposition to seek after the good
(8) humans are creatures of habit; therefore, habitually virtuous by deliberating about the
ethical and behaving accordingly
(9) does not declare absolute rules
(10) ethics is not metaphysical or idealistic
(11) "The object of our inquiry is not to know what virtue is, but to become good men"
(12) Ethics in technical communication would not have to do with technology itself but rather
with our decisions about how and when to use it
Nobel and the Nobel peace prize?
(13) moral wisdom must be combined with practical wisdom in order to yield ethical action
(14) ethics cannot be reduced to politics or the law because it must guide us when the law or
political rules are silent or in error
The Sophists: (The Lawyers?)
(1) are no absolutes and that communication is immensely powerful precisely because it shapes
minds, hearts, values, and decisions
(2) values are relative because they depend on circumstances
(3) rhetoric is only a skill, a collection of techniques that could be readily acquired by anyone
(4) ethics and rhetoric are closely tied but rhetoric comes first
(a) rhetoric allows the negotiation and persuasion that defines social values
(5) rhetoric and its techniques are quite separate from ethics
Kant:
(1) emphasizes duty and respect for others, regardless of personal consequences
(2) ethical theory is based on a sense of duty, which is important both for what it is and for what
it is not
(3) all humans are endowed with a sense of moral reason
(4) From this obligatory nature of ethics derives the fundamental importance of duty as the
responsibility to carry out these directives regardless of anything else, solely because it is the
right thing to do
(5) fundamental ethical principle, the categorical imperative: "Act as if the maxim of your action
were to become by your will a universal Law of Nature."
(6) Theory of duty is founded on the radically autonomous free will and its capacity to choose
otherwise and on its reasoned self-persuasion not to choose otherwise. It is duty based in
freedom. Whereas, we usually think of a duty as an onerous burden and a limitation of our
freedom.
Feminist Ethical Thinkers:
(1) cornerstone of ethics -> genuinely caring relationship
Hegel:
(1) values are arrived at socially
(a) by forces that were working to preserve their own self-interest
(2) modern "rehabilitator" of the sophists
Perelman:
(1) our language is our values
(2) Persuasion amounts to a process of social negotiation, ratification, and propagation
(3)
Burke:
(1) values are worked out socially and rhetorically rather than received from on high
(a) rhetoric worked to shape value judgements
Weaver:
(1) Values come before our discourse rather than stemming from it
Rationalists, social constructionists, and other theorists have shown that all language use entails ethical values and cannot do otherwise
Mark Wicclair and David Farkas:
(1) distinguish ethics from relativistic, self-interested approaches, the law, and religion
(2) humanistic approach to ethics -> how to be "a good human being"
(3) 3 ethical principles
(a) goal-based (e.g. utilitarianism)
(b) duty-based (e.g. Kantian ethics)
(c) rights-based
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