And now a word on ethics

And now a word (or two or three) about ethics
Dorothy A. Winsor shows how miscommunication contributed to the challenger accident.
She says that various people in the organization knew about the possibility of a failure, and knew how to prevent it, yet the information did not get shared with the people who needed to know
It is important to make sure you are aware of the face that for successful communication your message has to not only be sent, but understood.
The importance of the mistakes made with the challenge disaster were often down played by involved parties when talking to superiors, and made to seem very important when people talked to their subordinates.
Many, such as those at Marshall’s were willing to admit that it was a serious problem as long as the blame was placed on MTI and not on them.
When the problem had to be attributed to Marshall however they were much more optimistic about the situation
They continued to play down the problems with the o rings to top officials and the launch of the shuttle went through even though there was evidence of problems in previous flights
The communication between departments was ultimately responsible for the problems that occurred and the placement of blame after the fact

Darrell Huff
How to lie with statistics
The use of statistics in writing can also be misleading.
If using a vague statistic it is possible to make it sound like there is more evidence for a certain point that is trying to be made than there actually is
How is this ethical?
It is easy to change the perception of graphs by how much of the graph that you actually show, if you only show a section with positive information, it is not a lie, it just is not the whole truth.
Averages can be used to skew figures and perceptions as well, one exceptionally high number makes an average seem higher than it really should be, but it is a legal average, just not an ethical one
Using pictures in graphs can mislead the date by using larger or smaller images than the data actually indicates.
Carolyn D. Rude
Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing
Copyrights belong to the author who created the work unless the author wrote the work to meet responsibilities of employment
Fair use allows some copying for educational purposes as long as it does not take so much information that that the author could lose book sales.
Editors can be named in product liability lawsuits, though the usual practice is to name the company

Basics of a Cover Letter

Steven Graber
The Basics of a Cover Letter
Format: Your format looks can mean the difference between consideration and dismissal
The Parts of a letter:
Return Address: should appear at the top margin this is to make sure that the company can always know who the package belongs to
Date: Should appear right below the return address
Inside address: give the addressee’s full name, person’s title, the company’s name
Salutation: Should be typed two lines under the companies address
Length: Remember, a long letter is not going to be read, keep it short
Enclosure: used primarily in formal or official correspondence
Paper Size: use standard paper size; this makes it harder to seem awkward
Paper color and quality: use a plain color paper of a high quality
Typing and printing: use the same type that you used on your resume and remember that serif fonts are easier to read
Personalize each letter: make sure you address your documents to the correct person
Mapping it out: make sure that its clear why you have an interest in the companies
What writing style is appropriate: use a polite and formal writing style that shows self confidence and respect for your employer
Tone: use reserved confidence, make sure to emphasize concrete examples and use powerful language while avoiding catchphrases
Make sure to avoid unrelated career goals, comparisons and clichés, wasted space, form letters, inappropriate stationery, amusing anecdotes, erroneous company information, desperation, personal photos, confessed shortcomings, misrepresentation, demanding statements, missing resume, personal information, watch your choice of pronouns, avoid tone trouble, gimmicks, typographical errors, messy corrections, and make sure not to omit your signature.

Nazi Ethics

Dombrowski makes a point to say that he is not trying in any way to justify the actions of the Nazi regime.
The “science” that was claimed in Nazi technical documents violated ethical standards and was not really science but rather racial abuse and mass killing
The publication that we are looking at has already been well analyzed by Steven Katz
Recently many arguments have risen against the use of scientific data obtained in unethical ways
The New England Journal of Medicine takes the stance that they will not publish reports of unethical research, regardless of their scientific merit.
Nazi doctors would identify, certify disabilities, and supervise the execution of children by means such as starvation
The nazi regime would reinterpret establish terminology in such a way that suited their own ends. They took the term “Euthanasia” which had meaning as a mercy killing of someone of sound mind that was terminally ill and in excruciating pain and wanted their life to end. The Nazis however redefined this to mean the putting to death of someone in a humane way that was perceived as no longer being worthy of life
It is important to watch for objectivizaton in science and to remember the ethical implications of treating people as objects rather than as people
It is possible to write things in technical language in such a way that makes it harder to see the ethical dilemmas that are raised from such things. This is seen very much so in the way that the document that is described as being cited often by Steven Katz is written.
The document here shows what appear to be technical specs for a vehicle. However further information shows us that the vehicle in question is used for the mass murdering of the Jewish people. This sheds new light on the ethical implications of the document and makes it seem a lot less acceptable that it did initially.
Viktor Brack writes a report that shows how to effectively eliminate the ability of the Jewish people to reproduce and how to accomplish this without them even being aware that such a thing is happening. The ethical implication here is harsh and shows that the Nazi regime would not only do this to people, but that they were trying to do it in such a way that would not even let them know, therefore making them seem less than human.
The ethical errors of the Nazis did not stop with the use of the technical documents but rather they extended all the way to visual media as well. They had charts and diagrams that showed how to identify and measure racial features in ways that were designed to appear scientific but were in reality far from it.
Does the use of these technical Nazi documents during the course of this chapter coincide with the ethical implications of using Nazi research that is being debated?

Harty 207-275

Walter E Oliu, Charles T. Brusaw, and Gerald J. Alred

To make the most effective use of visuals and to integrate them smoothly with the text of your document, consider your graphics requirements even before you begin to write. Explain in the text why you’ve included such illustrations. Make sure that you gather the information from reliable sources. Include only information necessary to the discussion in the text and eliminate unnecessary labels, arrows, boxes, and lines. Make sure that you take time to define all acronyms that you use in the text. Specify the units of measurement. Make sure that you position any explanatory text or labels horizontally for ease of reading. Give each illustration a concise caption so that your reader knows what its purpose is. Assign a figure or table number for documents with 5 or more illustrations, and list the illustrations by title. Refer to each illustration by these numbers in the text. Place visuals close to the text that refers to them. Allow enough white space to make the page seem less cluttered.
Tables should include (when appropriate):
1) Table number
2) Table title
3) Boxhead
4) Stub
5) Body
6) Rules
7) Source line
8) Footnotes
9) Continuing tables
Make sure to cite the source of any information that you borrow for a table or graph. Make sure to use horizontal lettering whenever possible for ease of reading.
When making picture graphs be sure to use symbols that are self-explanatory.

David W. Ewing
When reviewing reports, letters, and memoranda that get the intended results, we find a fascinating diversity of approaches
Rules every persuader should know:
1) Consider whether your views will make problems for the reader
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 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 with 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 affect on the reader
Philip C. Kolin
Guidelines for writing a successful proposal
1) Approach writing a proposals 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

The primary purpose of an internal proposal, is to offer a realistic and constructive plan to help your company run its business more effectively
The organization of an internal proposal
1) The introduction
2) Background of the problem
3) The solution or plan
4) The conclusion
A sales proposal is the most common type of external proposal; its purpose is to sell your company’s products or services for a set fee.
Your audience will usually be one or more business executives who have the power to approve or e reject a proposal
Readers often ask the following questions:
1) Does the writer’s firm understand our problem?
2) Can the writer’s firm deliver what it promises?
3) Can the job be completed on time?
4) What assurances does the writer offer that the job will be done exactly as proposed?
A sales proposal can have the following parts:
1) Introduction
2) Description of the proposed product or service
3) Timetable
4) Cost
5) Qualification of your company
6) Conclusion

Richard Johnson-Sheehan
Style is a rather murky concept
Classical rhetoricians like Cicero and Augustine discussed style in three levels
1) Plain style
2) Middle style
3) Grand style
In a proposal the play style tends to be used when the writers need to instruct the readers about a situation or process
The subject should be what the sentence is about
Make the “doer” the subject
State the action in the verb
Put the subject early in the sentence
Eliminate nominalizations
Avoid excessive prepositional phrases
Eliminate redundancy
Make sentences “breathing length”
Paragraphs tend to include for kinds of sentences:
1) Transition : makes a smooth bridge from the previous paragraph to the current one
2) Topic: the claim or statement that the rest of the paragraph is going to prove
3) Support: uses reasoning to make arguments for the readers
4) Point: restate the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph

Reports and other longer documents
The term report is all encompassing way of referring to documents that can have many different functions.
Technical writings usually take on characteristics that are either formal or informal in nature.
The setup of a formal memo generally consist of an abstract, a table of contents, a glossary, an introduction, a detailed discussion of the topic, a conclusion, and recommendations, plus attachments.
Informal documents don’t tend to be as restrained and follow as many guidelines as their more formal counterparts.
Writers should be careful to plan their reports with care from the beginning so that it sticks to its intended purpose.
Reports require writers to pay attention to their audience and write in a way that will be understandable to them.
Proposals are in ways special reports that persuade a person to do something.
Mathes and Stevenson focus on the importance of audience analysis.
Robert Dodge wrote a report that showed the reading habits of busy managers, he concluded that they rarely read the body of the report, but tend to favor the introduction and the conclusion.

Every communication study involves 3 components, a writer, a message, and an audience.
According to Stevenson and Mathes it is important remember the following when you’re inexperienced:
1) It is false to assume that the person addressed is the audience
2) It is false to assume that the audience is a group of specialist in the field
3) It is false to assume that the report has a finite period of use
4) It is false to assume that the author and the audience always will be available for reference
5) It is false to assume that the audience is familiar with the assignment
6) It is false to assume that the audience has been involved in daily discussions of the material
7) It is false to assume that the audience awaits the report
8) It is false to assume that the audience has time to read the report
It is important to understand as a writer that your audience poses a problem
Once you realize this you have to understand your audience in order to know how to solve the problem
Three types of audiences exist:
1) Horizontal: exist on each level
2) Vertical: exist between levels
3) External: exist when any unit interacts with a separate organization
Writers view is always relative because he is in “the system”
Egocentric Organization Charts identifies specific individuals rather than complex organizational units, it also categorizes people in terms of their proximity to the writer.
Trace the communication routes of the reports that you write.
The final step in the method is to assign priorities to your audiences.
Primary: people who make decisions or act on the basis of the information a report contains
Secondary: people who are affected by the decisions and actions
Immediate: people who route the report or transmit the information it contains
The immediate audiences for a report are those persons who route the report or transmit the information it contains.
At times the immediate audience is also part of the primary audience.
The Matrix for Audience Analysis is a convenient device for characterizing and classifying your readers once you have identified them.
The question of “What does management want in reports?” is a basic question in the business world that is often ignored.
Management wants to know
1) What’s the report about and who wrote it?
2) What does it contribute?
3) What are the conclusion and recommendations?
4) What are their importance and significance?
5) What’s the implication to the company?
6) What actions are suggested?
If a summary is to convey information effectively it should have three types of facts:
1) What the report is about.
2) The significance and implications of the work.
3) The action called for.
Most managers will not read the body of the text; they tend to favor introductions and conclusions that get the point across faster.
Thos that do actually read the body of the report said they did so because:
1) Especially interested in the subject.
2) Deeply involved in the project.
3) Urgency of the problem requires it.
4) Skeptical of the conclusion that were drawn.
Report studies show that managers tend to be interested in five broad areas.
1) Technical problems
2) New projects and products
3) Experiments and test
4) Materials and processes
5) Field troubles
Management has a number of responsibilities in the writing process, they are:
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
An abstract is an extremely important document; it can either make or break your case that you’re pleading to management.
Despite this level of importance these documents are often thrown together in a very short amount of time due to their short nature.
They serve two main functions:
1) It provides the specialist in the field with enough information about the report to permit him to decide whether he should read it.
2) It provides the administrator or executive with knowledge about what has been done in the study or project.
In all forms of communication it is importance to never ignore your audience.
A simple method of making sure you remember your audience is to ask Who? Why? And How?
Nothing turns a reader off faster than writing to impress, do not talk down to them.
Reports should be aimed at a specific audience and not designed to talk to a large group of people.
Make sure that you are consistent with things such as measurements and that you don’t switch units frequently.
Many people in more advanced education fields have developed a need to over qualify their reports, make sure that you stay away from this.
Make sure to allow yourself enough time to rewrite and perfect your work.

The Bridge Student Ministries
Officer Manual and Website Proposal
Jerry Nation












Executive Summary
This is an executive summary to show why The Bridge Student Ministries is in need of more organization and ways of keeping things consistent from year to year. One of the most prevalent problems faced by student organizations is inconsistent leadership over changing semesters. As one group of students moves on from their college life and begins their career a new group of students must assume the leadership roles for the organization. In some cases they have had enough time to adapt and learn the ways of the organization so that it can continue to function, but in many instances it becomes important for them to have a knowledge base on how to deal with situations that may not arise on a regular basis that they may not have had cause to observe before. If such a situation arises then they would have no way of knowing how to deal with this. My proposal therefore is to create a manual that will demonstrate to officers how the affairs of the club will be run and maintained.
The Bridge Student Ministries is a new organization so none of this material has been collected or documented to date. There are a few loosely followed policies that demonstrate how to do certain aspects of the group’s business, but these have not been documented and as of this point in time would largely be lost if the current leadership were to leave without passing on this knowledge.
The manual will take on a number of different parts:
1) Organization constitution
2) Mission statement
3) Description of officer roles
4) Code of conduct for officers and group members
5) Financial management
6) Meeting structure
With these areas clearly outlined it will ensure that the essence of what the organization is remains true throughout the course of its existence. It will also lead to an ease of transition from one group of leadership to the next. The possibility of an entirely new leadership in one year is small, but possible, more than likely there will be at least one underclassman that remains in a leadership position after the upperclassmen leave. However since elections will be held for the officer positions it will ultimately come down to chance and if there is not anyone left that has led the club in the past, then this manual will be indispensable.









Proposal for Manual
The organization already has a drafted constitution that has floated around from one current member to the next. One of the first steps in assembling a helpful manual will be to locate this constitution and include it in the final manual. After the constitution is in place it will be important for the purposes of this document to list what the mission statement for the organization is. To my knowledge this has not yet been drawn up and will need to be made by either myself or another member of the organization so that it may be included.
Once this first section of the manual is complete I will then add a section that describes in detail what each of the four officer roles will be:
President: Overall in charge, will be responsible for keeping officers on task and for making sure that meetings flow well. This will include but not be limited to setting up speakers for the weekly meetings and making sure that there is an area where the group can meet on campus.
Vice President: Will be in charge of getting the word out about the organization and making sure that there is a growing level of attendance at the meetings on campus.
Treasurer: There will be membership dues and donations for eventual mission trips that need to be managed and made sure that they are secure; this person will be in charge of this area of the organization. This will be accomplished also through the use of an organization bank account at Bank of America.
Secretary: This person must be at every meeting and will be responsible for taking down the meeting minutes and keeping the other paper work of the organization organized.
All of these positions will more than likely have more responsibilities that will be added throughout the course of this project as I find out more and more of what the organizations pastoral advisor is looking for from each of these positions. While he may want to leave these positions loosely defined so that the group has more room to change, I feel that the preference will be for a more structured and fixed in stone organization that runs without as much interjection on his behalf.
The manual will include a section that shows how not only the officers, but the general members should conduct themselves when having dealings with the organization. As a ministry outlook, it is important that he group keep a certain appearance for the public.
Finally the manual will include some form of basic structure for how meetings will be setup. This will not be a guide to show exactly how it must be done every week, but rather will be there to help new members and officers have a jumping off point to help the meeting flow better.