1. “Ethics in Technical Communication” Written By: Lori Allen and Dan Voss Presented By: Brian Hairfield

2. Unethical Distortion of Data Using… StatisticsGraphicsPhotographs

3. Lying With Statistics SurveysPercentagesAverages

4. In Order to be Valid, Surveys… Must represent a sufficiently large population Must be worded clearly and fairly

5. Percentages are meaningful when… Presented along side the base to which they apply 6% seemingly sounds better than 3%, but 3% of $100,000 is much better than 6% of $10,000

6. Applicable Averages Mean: sum of individual values divided by total number of values – used with even distributions Median: midpoint among values – used in cases of extremes Mode: most often occurring value – used when majority of values are the same, except for an outlier

7. Lying With Graphics Pie Charts, Line Graphs, and Organization Charts can all be used in the distortion of data Pie Charts lie when a slice misrepresents its percentage Line Graphs lie with distortion of the axes Organization Charts lie using visual assumptions

8. Examples of Lying with Graphics Blue = 50% ; Red = 20% Yellow = 30% P.478 of text for an organization chart example

9. Examples of Lying with Graphics (cont’d) Notice the Values on the Y-axis

10. Lying with Photographs In the past doctoring of photos was obvious New technology makes it easy and virtually undetectable The only validation of the authenticity of a photo will be the word of the company presenting it

11. Example of Lying With Photographs

14. Unethical Because? Misrepresentation of data in technical writing is just as unethical as lying with words The false representation could cause consumers to buy a product thinking it is capable of certain results, when realistically it is not Any Questions?