Ethics

Huff's article about statistics points out a very important fact about statistics, "You can prove anything you want to by letting your sample bias itself" (362). Statistics can be biased in a number of ways. When I was on the Intercollegiate Debate Team we used a lot of statistics to prove our case. Many times we could call out the other team because of their use of statistics. Sometimes reading the very next line would show that the statistics were meant the opposite way they were being used. Ethics calls for fair use of the numbers in relation to the subject.

In Dan Jones' article on he says, "It seems as though almost everyone is concerned about ethics in one way or another" (371). To me this is the Golden Rule--do unto others as you would have them do to you--no one wants to be tricked or swindle. Everyone wants to be treated fairly and honestly. The Golden Rule could be altered to say--be ethical to others as you would want them to be ethical to you.

Social constructions fascinate me; the thought that ideas and beliefs are built and guided by a society is an interesting study. In Carolyn D. Rude's article Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing, she states, "They [ethics] derive from cultural values of right and wrong" (374). Society dictates what is ethical and what is not. We guide our writing and editing based upon what society tells us is okay. Plagarism is wrong because society has told us it is--it's wrong to take credit for someone else's work and study. But society has even directed us to the correct usage of materials on the web. Even this fair new source of work and study has a socially constructed set of rights and wrongs.