Notes from 55th International STC Conference
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 1-4, 2008
A Delicate Balance: Using Value Analysis to Identify and Resolve Ethical Conflicts in Technical Communication
Dan Voss and Rachel Eichen
Voss is a Communications manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, Florida. He is an STC Fellow and immediate past manager of STC’s AccessAbility SIG. He co-authored the Society’s Ethical Guidelines with Shirley Hancock-Andersen and also co-authored a textbook, The Ethics of Technical Communication: Shades of Gray (John Wiley, 1997), with Lori Allen.
Eichen is a documentation specialist at SunGard HTE, Inc. She is a recent graduate of the technical communication program at the University of Central Florida, where she served as president and vice president of the Future Technical Communicators (FTC) club, a student-run organization at UCF for technical communication majors. She is also actively involved with the Orlando chapter of STC.
Session Description: This mini-workshop began with an overview on value analysis, along with three ethical models: hierarchical, concentric-ring, and the STC Ethical Guidelines. Teams applied the six-step value analysis process to scenarios involving ethical conflicts in technical communication to determine the most appropriate course of action, then shared results.
Note: Since we were the presenters for this session, I obviously did not take notes. However, here is a link to the presentation. For copies of the workshop instructions and scenarios, contact Dan Voss.
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