“STYLE IS THE ULTIMATE MORALITY OF MIND.”

- A LFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The Ethics of Style

WRITE TO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE OTHERS WRITE TO

YOU.

First Rule of Ethical Writing

Writing Choices and Ethics

Each choice we make in our writing has an ethical dimension. For example:

When we use passive voice to camouflage the doer of the action, we give readers an incomplete picture.

When we emphasize some points and bury others, we manipulate what readers will remember.

When we use argumentative devices to convince readers, we often change their stance on an issue.

It is often difficult to judge whether writing is unethical. Use the following rule of thumb.

WE WRITE ETHICALLY WHEN WE WOULD TRADE PLACES

WITH OUR INTENDED READERS AND EXPERIENCE THE

CONSEQUENCES THEY DO AFTER THEY READ OUR

WRITING.

First Principle of Ethical Writing

Forging a Reliable Ethos

Ethos is the character that readers infer from your writing.

If readers get the impression that the writing is tricky or fallacious, for example, they will assume your ethos is deceitful.

Creating a reliable ethos is important to build a reader’s trust and your reputation as a writer.

Never be afraid to go the extra step to help your readers understand—it’s in your best interest.

Forging a Reliable Ethos (cont.)

Use premises that are true and relevant.

Make sure your conclusion follows from your premises.

Acknowledge the opposition.

Avoid making claims that you can’t support.

Avoid sweeping generalizations.

Forging a Reliable Ethos (cont.)

A fallacy is an error in logic that weakens your writing. Educated audiences will pick up on these, so never use them intentionally. Common fallacies include:

Ad hominem

Ad populum

Straw man

False dichotomy

Slippery slope

Post hoc/false cause

Intended Misdirection

Intended misdirection occurs when writers knowingly use language not to further their readers’ interests but to disguise their own.

Intended Misdirection (cont.)

When Sears was accused of overcharging for car repairs, it responded by saying:

“With over two million automotive customers serviced last year in California alone, mistakes may have occurred. However, Sears wants you to know we would never intentionally violate the trust customers have shown in our company for 105 years.”

Intended Misdirection (cont.)

Sears chose to say that mistakes “may have occurred” as opposed to “may have been made” because the latter would prompt the question “by whom?”

The language suggests that errors just “occurred,” with Sears completely out of the picture.

But notice how, in the second sentence, Sears is the responsible agent because the company wants to emphasize its good intentions.

Tweeting Time

Do you think Sears was unethical in its defense?

Why or why not?

PR Speak and Misdirection

Sometimes, a writer’s job depends on protecting an employer’s reputation.

It’s okay to soften bad news, but it is not okay to deceive readers using unethical indirectness.

Remember: When we write in ways that we would not want others to write to us, we abrade the trust that sustains a civil society.

In the following example, language lulls readers into ignoring a life-threatening situation.

Unethical Vehicle Recall Letter

“A defect which involves the possible failure of a frame support plate may exist in your vehicle. This plate... connects a portion of the front suspension to the vehicle frame, and its failure could affect vehicle directional control, particularly during heavy brake application. In addition, your vehicle may require adjustment service to the hood secondary catch system. The secondary catch may be misaligned so that the hood may not be adequately restrained to prevent hood fly-up in the event the primary latch is inadvertently left unengaged. Sudden hood fly-up beyond the secondary catch while driving could impair driver visibility. In certain circumstances, occurrence of either of the above conditions could result in vehicle crash without prior warning.”

Unethical Vehicle Recall Letter (cont.)

More than half the car owners who got this recall letter did not take their cars back to the dealer because they were not sufficiently alarmed.

The writers intended to deflect the car owners’ fear and anger, and in doing so fulfilled a legal obligation but evaded an ethical one.

Surely, the writers would not trade places with the readers in this circumstance.

What Makes the Recall Letter Unethical?

The main character in the letter is never the reader, but rather his or her car and its parts.

The reader is absent except in “your vehicle” and “driver.”

Many verbs are nominalized (“failure,” “heavy brake application,” “driver visibility”).

Many verbs are made passive, especially when they describe alarming situations (“not be restrained,” “is left unengaged,” “be misaligned”).

Tweeting Time

Rewrite at least one sentence or clause from the recall letter to make it ethical in its treatment of the potential danger. You are genuinely concerned by the safety of the drivers and want them to return the car without hesitation. Pretend your boss doesn’t mind if the reader is alarmed. To achieve this, you should:

- Make the reader more present in the sentence.- Change any passive verbs to active ones. - Fix any nominalizations.

Clarity

An ideological value, not a natural virtue.

Clarity: A Writer’s Responsibility

Writers have a duty to write as clearly as possible.

Readers usually stop reading when they feel that the writer has deliberately made the prose more difficult than it needs to be.

Socially responsible writers make their ideas no simpler than they deserve, but no more difficult than they have to be.

Unintended Obscurity

Few of us violate the First Rule of Ethical Writing deliberately.

All writers tend to think that their writing is clear.

If readers struggle to understand, the writer often assumes it has to do with the readers’ skills.

This is a bad assumption to make, because you underestimate the readers’ real needs and thus risk losing their attention.

44 words 11 words

“A major condition affecting adult reliance on early communicative patterns is the extent to which the communication has been planned prior to its delivery. Adult speech behaviour takes on many of the characteristics of child language, where the communication is spontaneous and relatively unpredictable.”

“When we speak spontaneously, we rely on patterns of child language.”

Unintended Obscurity (cont.)

Tweeting Time

Joseph M.Williams, the author of Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, often equates unethical writing with muddy or deceitful prose. Can you think of other ways writing can be unethical besides those mentioned here?

How Do We Define Good Writing?

“Good” can mean both “ethically sound” and “pragmatically successful.”

Is writing good if it is ethical but fails to achieve its end?

Is writing good if it fulfills its goal regardless of its integrity?

Turn to the first principle of ethical writing and ask yourself if you would change places with your intended audience.

Thank you!