Do as I say not as I do. . .

This semester's English class has not been one of my more difficult courses but there are a few hints I can leave to the next group of ENGL 304 students. First of all, blogs are easy to forget and to turn one in a day or two late (like this one) will not devastate your grade; however if all of your blogs or late it will add up in the long run and negatively affect a grade that may be teetering between letters.

The other helpful hint I can give (even though I know many people will not take this advice) is to finish your group presentation BEFORE spring break. I mean have the document written and the power point completed before heading to the beaches. I guess I should modify this advice and say before Thanksgiving break. After these holidays, this assignment is so easy that it is hard to pay attention to when you have final papers and test looming around the corner.

Bottom line is that you should try to finish all assignments as soon as possible despite their due dates. If you do this the class will be a breeze.

Ethics Research; The Titanic

Research on the Titanic tragedy has been a lot harder than one would think. This is mainly because there is so much public documentation on the event and the ship prior to the wreck. Newspaper articles and books written about the Titanic can be found in abundance on the Internet; however, company memos and personal correspondence within the White Star Line are nearly impossible to find. I'm sure that detailed research has been done on the correspondences with in With Star Line however this research was not easily found and you would probably have to read a detailed book to understand the investigation that followed this tragedy.

In my research with my partner we found one White Star Line memo that spoke about the removal of valuables from the bodies that were recovered. While the memo referred to people as bodies and not some disassociating term, it did dehumanize the situation by setting up a limit to how much could be recovered from the bodies by one person and the penalties if the limit was exceeded. This shocked me and makes me wonder what happened to the bodies of those who lost there lives on the Titanic. It is very possible that everyone was not identified and that there is an unmarked grave somewhere. This is very interesting to me because it is an aspect of the tragedy that I have not seen in movies or read about in books and I would be very interested to learn more about this subject and why it is so often overlooked.

Ethical Environments

“New study from LRN finds U.S. workplaces at risk for reduced worker productivity and scandal” The finds of this study basically say that if unethical behavior is tolerated at the work place it is less controllable and more distracting to workers. This article really made me think of the classroom setting and how much these finding may also relate to our place of study.

When you think about it, students tend to get very distracted by a teacher’s methods and policies. Many students actively search out so called “easy teachers”; this is evident because of the website entitled “rate your professor”, a website where students can say whatever they wish about any teacher. I noticed the other day a graduate student arguing with a professor about a late assignment. The student’s argument was that she should just be docked points for the late work because that’s what most teachers do for late work. The teacher argued that this was not her policy and the assignment would not be accepted at all after the turn in date. The whole situation made me reflect on how as students we may have become accustom to leniency from professors. I don’t know if I think that it is unethical to accept late work; but it is interesting how many of us would expect work to be accepted with a penalty. Is it unethical for a teacher to not take attendance, allow for a formula sheet during a test, or allow students to make up missed work? I don’t think I would label these as “unethical situations”, but I do know that rules have been bent so often that we students have come to expect them to always be bent even though a teacher has every right to follow these rules to the letter. I wonder how this all will affect us in the workplace, will we expect and accept rules being bent? Will we notice when these bent rules are actually large lapses in ethical practice?

Paper vs Pixels

Paper and pixels as a medium do share some very basic common elements; they both attempt to convey information and provoke a response. However, the fast pace of the World Wide Web makes it difficult to share information and ideas if they are presented in the way they would have been presented on paper. It is important to remember that most people who surf the web are looking for an easy way to find the information that they need and they can be highly agitated by any fluff found in a paragraph.

When writing on the Web it is essential to use headings and plenty of spaces between paragraphs. These two techniques make the document easier to read and navigate. Links and attachments are also ways to include additional or further information in a clear and concise way. Pixels are definitely the way to get your ideas out quickly to a lot of people.

Paper, on the other hand, still has strength that make it the better medium choice. Subconsciously, most people consider paper to be the more formal of the two mediums; invitations, proposals, and announcements are received as being more sincere and meaningful when presented on paper. When using paper you can easily add a personal touch that makes the receiver feel that they are important to you. This is possible when using pixels but it definitely take a little more effort.

Both paper and pixels can be used effectively if they are presented in a way that is appropriate to the medium.