Ethical choices are crucial to the writing process. John Duffy, in his article “Writing Involves Making Ethical Choices“, discusses said ethical choices that come from the relationship between readers and writers. Writers may not need to be judged as ethical and unethical in the sense of morality, uprightness, honesty, etc, and may not necessarily need to reflect on ethical concerns as they write. It is a personal choice that they are able to make. Duffy also explains exactly why writing involves ethical choices. These ethical choices that are more exclusive to writing have to do with the fact that when a writer creates a text they are addressing others. When we write for another person, we propose a relationship with them as people and as our readers, as we are addressing them. As writers, we must ask ourselves questions involving ethics in order to reach our audiences effectively. Seeing writing this way and understanding that it is an activity involving ethical choices that comes from the relationship between writer and readers allows both expansion and complication of our understandings of what it means to write.
As readers, we must take on these three ethical responsibilities:
- Connect with what the writer is saying
- Be open-minded and try to understand more complex ideas
- Understand the meaning the writer is trying to convey
As writers, we must take on these three ethical responsibilities:
- Address our audience
- Properly write and communicate our ideas to our audience
- Understand what we as writers wish to communicate to our audience
Throughout Duffy’s writing, he mentions many questions that writers may ask themselves. These are questions such as, “What shall I say?” and “What kind of writer do I wish to be?”. Whether the writer asks themselves this question or not, they are still a part of communicating with others. Writers must consider ethics in order to properly create a relationship with and communicate with their audience, with readers sharing the other end of those responsibilities and being able to understand what the writer is communicating to them.
“[But] writing is equally an activity that involves ethical choices that arise from the relationship of writer and reader.”
This is something that Duffy said in his writing. While the writer has their own responsibilities, the reader has to follow suit. The reader needs to be able to connect equally with the writer and be open and understanding of what the writer is trying to convey to them.
