A company uses a ™ to show something is trademarked or an ® for something registered with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office.
This connects to real-world branding laws, like how companies such as Apple or Nike protect their logos and slogans. It shows that ethical communication extends into business, where protecting intellectual property preserves trust and innovation.
Most ethics violations in technical writing are (probably) unintentional, but they are still ethics violations.
This connects to my own experience of realizing how easy it is to make small mistakes that change meaning, like forgetting a citation or mislabeling a chart. It reminds me to slow down and check my work for bias before submitting.
How a writer presents information in a document can affect a reader’s understanding of the relative weight or seriousness of that information.
This connects to transparency and trust because the way information is organized directly affects how much readers can rely on the writer’s honesty. When writers clearly present crucial details instead of hiding or minimizing them, they build trust with their audience.
saving someone’s life should always outweigh the prospect of financial damage to your company.
This statement relates to accountability and viability. Ethical writers and organizations should take responsibility for the real-world effects of their actions, prioritizing human well-being over profit.
you might tell your best friend their new haircut looks attractive when in fact you believe that it does not.
This example shows fairness and respect in small, everyday ways. Sometimes kindness and empathy take priority over blunt honesty. It makes me think that ethics aren’t always about being direct but they can also be about protecting someone’s feelings when no harm is done.
What if the writer discovers that a company falsified data about the effectiveness of its product?
This clearly connects to integrity. A technical writer must be honest about findings, even if it negatively affects the company. Without integrity, the entire purpose of ethical communication falls apart.
Like other professionals, technical writers come up against ethical issues regularly and must make decisions about how to move forward with a project in the face of ethical dilemmas.
Ethics in writing goes beyond grammar, it’s about honesty and responsibility. I never thought about how even choosing which data to include or omit can become an ethical decision.