• Explain and contrast relevant ethical theories.
• Identify ethical issues in a complex context.
• Articulate and defend positions on ethical issues in a way that is both reasoned and informed by the complexities of those situations

While the Pathways curriculum does not currently apply to the department’s professional writing courses, it sets forth some reasonable goals for ethical reasoning that can help prepare students for writing in the workplace.

After attending the Pathways Summer Seminar in June, I realized that there were some simple ways to incorporate discussions of ethical reasoning into the things that I was already doing in the classroom. Here are four resources that I developed these materials to use as I talk about ethics in my classes.

Professional Writing and Codes of Ethics

This activity asks students to look at the codes of ethics for professional writing associations and then to examine the codes for their own field, looking for places that those codes discuss ethics and communication.

Discussing Ethics Scenarios in Professional Writing

This discussion strategy asks students to choose among eight options as they consider ethical scenarios related to technical and business writing. The technique deepens the class conversation by adding more nuanced options than a polar choice of ethical or not.

Ten Ethical Scenarios for Professional Writing

Used with the discussion strategy in the previous post, this collection of ten scenarios gives students situations from the workplace that challenge them to use their ethical reasoning skills. Connect these scenarios to the first activity by asking students to explain how their code of ethics relates to the choices that they make.

Clippy as an Ethics Case Study

This more complex discussion activity asks students to think though the ethical positions as they relate to a specific workplace situation. Specifically, the activity asks students to consider how Microsoft ignored focus group responses to the Clippy, the virtual assistant that was once a part of the Microsoft Office suite.

In the past, I have discussed ethics once, covering most issues broadly and dealing with the ethics of intellectual property rights in more detail. With these new activities, I plan to make discussion of ethics part of every major project in the course. In the end, I think students will be better prepared with the complicated situations that they will face in the workplace.

[Photo: ETHICS by dannonl, on Flickr]

I use resources from My English Teacher’s Email Survival Kit to set some basic email guidelines and to address specific problems, like abuse of the Reply All feature or unclear subject lines.

I highlight relevant details from infographics that will catch students’ attention. How to Easily Write Better Emails from WhoIsHostingThis has some interesting points:

SHOULD I SEND THIS EMAIL? is another fun one to share, and its flowchart organizational structure appeals to engineers and programmers.

Finally, I have a slideshow of Sassy Email Responses that I wish I could send in reply to messages from students. As I explain in my Teaching Email Courtesies post, students respond well to the examples in the slide show and love the follow-up activity where they violate the rules for fun.

[Photos: eMail by Esparta Palma, on Flickr; excerpts from “How to Easily Write Better Emails” from WhoIsHostingThis]

Times have changed, but it’s still possible to find a happy ending during that first week. You just have to keep the realities of the academic system in mind. With the current system at Virginia Tech, most business and technical writing classes are full before the first day of class. You might think that means that you can send out an email with details on the syllabus and book before the first session so that everyone is ready to go on the first day. Unfortunately, that system only works in fairy tales.

First Week Challenges
Because of the way course request works, your class roster isn’t set until at least the last day to add. Up until that date, someone may drop your course and a new student may add. During the fall and spring terms, that period is a week. During the summer and winter sessions, it’s three days. This enrollment system means that you may have a new student who will not have seen the syllabus or had the opportunity to purchase the textbook as late as eight days into the term during the fall and spring terms and as late as four days into the term during summer and winter sessions.

Even if the enrollment doesn’t change, a few students seem to always have problems getting the books. The bookstore may run out. Their financial aid hasn’t come through. They have to wait until pay day. They have to wait for Amazon shipments. So even if you have the same students you started with in the first day of class, you have to allow up to a week for them to have the textbook.

My Solutions
I have found that to be fair to everyone I either have to delay all deadlines or allow for generous make-ups. Since I hate keeping track of the 1001 reasons and students who need extensions, I use these guidelines to set up deadlines and the course work during the first week:

• I email the syllabus and textbook information before the first class; however, I think of it as a way to help students get ahead, not a pre-class to-do list.
• I take attendance beginning on the first day of class, but I don’t count absences against students until they are enrolled in the class.
• I collect in-class work or quizzes during the first week, but accept that work through the end of the second week of classes. After that, I tighten the due dates.
• I strongly encourage students not to procrastinate if they have the ability to complete the work that first week. Most of them will submit their work prior to that last day, which helps with my workload.
• I assign readings during the first week, but focus on material that will likely be review, like information on process-based writing and the rhetorical considerations of audience and purpose.
• I supplement with online materials that match the textbook readings to help any students who have trouble acquiring the textbook. I do not necessarily provide such supplements after that first week.
• I begin the first major writing project during the first week, but I choose a project that does not rely on the textbook so that everyone can begin the project. Recently, I have been using a Professional Bio Assignment.

I have found that any other system results in heartbreak, either for students or me. From my perspective, these guidelines ultimately save me time and energy. I tried making work due quickly during the winter session because of the very short time allotted for the course, but I had a student add on the last day to add the course, making him three days behind. I had to rearrange all the due dates in the system to give him time to complete the quizzes and other work. Now I set up the course so that these problems don’t come. Students are happier, and so am I. Maybe not happily-ever-after happy, but at least I’m not the evil villain.

[Photo: Berry O'Kelly School, Early 1900s by Universal Pops, on Flickr]

The assignment asks students to examine a genre of professional writing that they would like to get paid to write in the future. Students write a proposal, conduct research, and compose a final report that outlines all aspects of the genre, from the rhetorical situation to the specific genre conventions.

Heilker’s generous collection of resources includes the assignment, related details on the deliverables, and some student-written samples.

Note: If you cannot access the assignment, use the contact form to request access.

Even though it is not covered in the tech writing textbook I am using, I decided that a spreadsheet assignment would help prepare students for the writing they would do in the field. In the activity, students identify kinds of writing that they will do in the workplace (e.g., emails, proposals), and they then gather data about those kinds of writing in spreadsheet form.

I explained my thinking on the assignment in my post on Fitting the Assignment to the Class. I’ve used the assignment four times, with only minor variation. Here’s the most recent version, from Spring 2015:

• The Assignment
• Example Spreadsheet Draft
• Help Using Google’s Spreadsheet Tool
• Peer Review Activity

I spend no time in the class explaining how the spreadsheet tools work. Most students have used a spreadsheet previously, though not necessarily for this sort of assignment. For the technical support on how to use spreadsheets, I give them links to Google’s documentation and to the relevant lynda.com videos (see the link on using Google’s spreadsheet tool above).

I do like the assignment as it stands, but I am considering asking students to add a column for links to an online explanation of how to complete the particular kind of writing. Let’s face it. Students are not going to keep the textbook after the class is over, so a link to additional online explanation could make the spreadsheet more useful to them once they are in the field.

If I were braver, I could use the spreadsheet as scaffolding for the entire course. It would be terrific for a course that didn’t use a textbook at all. Students could identify resources for various kinds of writing and then use what they found as we covered different writing activities in the class.

[Photo: I Love Spreadsheets by Craig Chew-Moulding, on Flickr

I have also been part of plenty of introductions where the participants go around the table, saying their name and position title. These techniques usually relate in learning one another’s names, but you don’t really get to know anyone.

In my professional writing classes, I definitely want students to get to know one another, and I want to learn a bit about who they are as well. I want to accomplish all that however, without silly games and ineffective icebreakers. My solution has been to ask students to compose professional bio statements, like those you might find on a company’s website or in its annual report.

If you would like to learn more about the assignment, check out these resources from my Spring 2015 Technical Writing course:

• The Assignment
• Getting Started
• Example Bios

You can also read more about my goals for the Professional Bio Assignment in my post on the Bedford/St. Martin’s Bits blog.

To ask them for some documentation on their activities, I developed Trip Report Assignments, which ask students to report on where they went and what they did there.

In the end, I allow the trip report assignments to count for missing class work, and I feel more certain that they actually went on the trips that they tell me about. Naturally there are some limits. I use these trip reports as an exception for specific situations. I wouldn’t allow students to make up a dozen classes with trip reports, but in the situation where a student is going to miss one or two classes for a professional event, they work well.