In Writing involves making ethical choices, Author John Duffy emphasizes how important making ethical decisions as a writer is for a good connection between the reader and writer to be built. He explains that making relationships, similar to real life is very important in writing too; In order to do this it’s pivotal to display a good attitude while writing. If the attitude displayed is one that shows less care for what is being written then chances are, the audience won’t have much engagement for what they’re reading and be less intrigued. Duffy stresses this point all throughout the article and how writers must instead address readers that implies a good attitude and credibility.
Three ethical responsibilities we have as writers:
- include recent and reliable data
- display a respectful and polite attitude towards the audience
- don’t use plagiarism or steal content from other writers
These three ethical responsibilities are all important to have as writers for different reasons. Displaying a good attitude towards the audience when writing will help you connect with the reader more and build engagement on the other side. When it comes to plagiarism is simple; you wouldn’t want to watch a video that is stolen from a different YouTuber and copy and pasted onto someone else’s channel right? Well the same applies for writing. If a reader is reading an article and notices its plagiarized or stolen material then they’re likely to automatically disengage and lose credibility, along with respect from you. Including older information can be good for an article that focuses on the history of something but for the most part including recent information in the article is the best thing to do. This insures that everything you say as the writer is from sources that are the most up to date and credible.
Three ethical responsibilities we have as readers:
- include constructive criticism and have a respectful attitude when giving feedback to the writer
- exclude all feelings you have of the author and rather review it based on logic
- avoid prejudging
As a reader, prejudging and biases go hand and hand as two things we should avoid. If you know an author and know they have beliefs that you don’t agree with, it’s important to shut that out when reading their work as it can change how you may view their writing. Prejudging is quite similar; We may be reading something and a moment happens that triggers us and makes us want to tune out the rest of what we’re reading, but doing this can stop us from missing what can possibly be a great read. Including constructive criticism is the most important thing we can do as a reader because it allows the writer to see the faults in what they write and improve.
– Alec Thomas
