Lesson by Daniel Roche
Description (for Instructors)
This in-person lesson plan uses a series of example-based discussions and analytic activities to help students navigate the concept of “ethics” in professional writing. Students analyze an array of texts, evaluate the effect of various textual manipulations on the texts’ meaning, and apply research strategies to find examples of ethical and unethical business texts.
The following lesson is designed to be completed synchronously over Zoom, with a web browser available to all students. Students respond to discussion prompts via chat and, at certain points, perform online searches to find real-world examples of ethical/unethical texts. However, this lesson can be adapted into 1.) an in-person lesson or 2.) an asynchronous lesson using various tools, such as an interactive quiz, on the Course Management System (CMS) of your choice.
Materials
Explanation (for Students)
1. Discuss Term
Consider the term “ethics,” as well as your associations with it. Some questions you may consider are as follows:
- What is ethical writing?
- What is unethical writing?
Take 2-3 minutes to jot down some of your ideas. Then, we’ll discuss our associations, definitions, and ideas as a class.
2. Misleading Ads Search
Using a web browser, find an advertisement that intends to mislead its consumer. You may try searching “misleading advertisement” on Google for results. When you find an advertisement you like, please post a link to the chat. Then, we’ll discuss as a class what drew you to the advertisement and what about it you find misleading.
3. Misleading Sentences Analysis
Read the following two sentences. Consider what impressions they each give. As a result of reading each sentence, what would you make of Serbian-Albanian relations? Which sentence better reflects what causes distrust between Serbs and Albanians—their deliberate actions, as in (1a), or the circumstances of their history, as in (1b)?
1a.) “Serbs and Albanians DISTRUST each other because they HAVE ‘ENGAGED in generations of cultural conflict.”
1b.) “Generations of cultural conflict HAVE CREATED distrust between Serbs and Albanians.”
For Instructors:
As you discuss students’ reactions to these sentences, you may choose to highlight a key philosophical component of syntax: Our choices of subjects and verbs reflect a philosophy of human action: Do we freely choose to act, or do our circumstances choose our actions for us?
4. Unintended Obscurity
Consider the following passage from Ochs’ and Schieffelin’s Planned and Unplanned Discourse. What do you think the writers are trying to say in this passage? What gets in the way of their clarity? Why would someone write in such a manner?
E. Ochs and B. Schieffelin, Planned and Unplanned Discourse“A major condition affecting adult reliance on early communicative patterns is the extent to which the communication has been planned prior to its delivery. Adult speech behavior takes on many of the characteristics of child language, where the communication is spontaneous and relatively unpredictable.”
For Instructors:
During this discussion and analysis, it may benefit students to have a “clarified” version of the above passage to aid their analysis. The following sentence could serve as a legible distillation: “When adults speak spontaneously they rely on patterns of child language.”
You should also make it clear to students that the responsibility of clarity/meaning falls both on the writer and the reader. You may also want to share the following quotes from Joseph M. Williams’ Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace:
- “…as socially responsible readers, we also have a responsibility toward writers to read hard enough to understand the necessary complexity in what they write.”
- “Most of us work hard to understand—at least until we decide that a writer hasn’t worked equally hard to help us, or, worse, has deliberately made our reading more difficult than it has to be.”
5. Keywords Exercise
Read through the following sentences and take note of any words/phrases that are used to intentionally manipulate or obscure the sentence’s meaning. Post your answers in the chat.
- “You may have already won a brand new car!”
- “Some doctors recommend ginko biloba for improved cognitive function.”
- “Our best deal yet! This Saturday get up to 50% off!”
- “This drink from acai berries from the ancient Amazon rainforest will virtually change your health for the better in a matter of days!”
For Instructors:
In the preceding examples, the following words can be identified as either manipulative or obscuring: “may,” “some,” “yet,” and “virtually.”
6. Business Buzzwords
Use your web browser to search “business buzzwords.” Please type out a few examples of buzzwords and post them to the chat. Then, discuss the following questions:
- What effect do these buzzwords have on your interpretation of or reaction to different business texts?
- What effect do these buzzwords have on the meaning of the business texts themselves?
- Why might people use buzzwords in their business writing? What purpose might they serve?
7. Doublespeak
Use your web browser to search “examples of doublespeak.” Please type out a few examples and post them to the chat. Then, read the following examples of doublespeak in professional discourse:
- The State Department announced that it will no longer use the word “killing” in its reports on human rights around the world. Instead, it will refer to such acts as “unlawful to arbitrary deprivation of life.”
- The National Transportation Safety Board was cited for labeling plane crashes “controlled flights into terrain.”
- The Defense Department won honorable mention for calling peace “permanent prehostility” and combat is called “violence processing.”
After analyzing all these examples of doublespeak, discuss the following questions:
- What effect does doublespeak have on your interpretation of or reaction to different business texts?
- What effect does doublespeak have on the meaning of the business texts themselves?
- Why might people use doublespeak in their business writing? What purpose might it serve?
For Instructors:
Before conducting this activity step, you may want to introduce the definition of “doublespeak.” Possible points to make are as follows:
- The term comes from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
- Doublespeak refers to the softening, or the complete disguising, of truth.
- Examples of doublespeak are using the term “downsize” instead of “laying off,” or “collateral damage” instead of “civilian casualties.”
8. Intended Misdirection Analysis
Read the following passage from the Sears Company. (For background context, a few years ago, the Sears Company was accused of overcharging for automobile repairs. The following passage comes from a response they gave to the public.)
“With over two million automotive customers serviced last year in California alone, mistakes may have occurred. However, Sears wants you to know that we would never intentionally violate the trust customers have shown in our company for 105 years.”
Once you’ve read the passage, make a note of all the keywords and phrases that are being used to help soften the issue (cause misdirection). What effect do these keywords and phrases have on the audience’s reaction?
For Instructors:
When guiding the analysis of Sears Company’s public announcement, you may want to highlight the following elements:
- In the first sentence, the writer avoids mentioning Sears as the party responsible for mistakes.
- The writer uses the passive voice to imply that mistakes simply occurred, seemingly on their own.
- In the second sentence of the announcement the writer conveniently recasts Sears as the specific responsible agent, only as this technique emphasizes Sears’ good actions: Sears … would never intentionally violate…
9. Syntactical Misdirection Analysis
Read the following three sentences. The first sentence is copied directly from the Sears Company’s apology announcement. The second and third sentences express the same information as the first, but with restructured syntax. Consider how these different sentence structures affect audience perception/interpretation of the issue. How can syntax work to hide and/or bring out the truth?
1.) “With over two million automotive customers serviced last year in California alone, mistakes may have occurred.”
2.) “When we serviced over two million automotive customers last year in California, we made mistakes. However, you should know that no intentional violation of 105 years of trust occurred.”
3.) “Mistakes were made when Sears serviced over two million automotive customers last year in California.”