Writing Ethically

By writing the Great Works papers as well as the Experience Writing assignments I have gained a far greater understanding of what the Ethics of Writing entail, and how best to uphold them. There are a couple of fundamental principles that found these ethics that can be applied to instances of writing. They are founded on an accurate empathetic representation, an emphasis on the individual nature of writing, and evaluation of possible implications.

The text is based on ideas that the author holds as well as experiences, and really, anything that influences the writer. The responsibility of the author to the reader is to effectively convey a message. This is very much like the triangle that we see on our Reading and Writing book. However, the message should be catered to the reader in such a way that some amount of solidarity can result from the ideological representation. One of the difficult things that the author has to deal with is the idiosyncratic nature of interpretation; this can be overcome through an effective use of literary devices. I’m sure that we all have experienced this before, one example that immediately comes to mind is when I was in middle school and we read some works by Edgar Allen Poe. His descriptions and tone quickly created an empathetic solidarity that reflected why the text was written, and very carefully the structures that supported it. I do not think that meaning has to be extremely concise, sometimes ambiguity is a redeeming feature in a work.

An emphasis on the individual nature of writing bridges many gaps in the Ethics that I perceive in writing, but I think that most effectively, if functions in a paradox of connecting the individual to the collective group. Emphasizing the individual nature of writing elucidates the internal link to creativity or sometimes greatness in writing, but it unites writers and groups of people in a contract that they will not become egocentric and prideful, and exploit the writings of someone else for their own gain. Ultimately it is pride and self-interest that drive issues like plagiarism. Readers will see that they really enjoy the ideas that are expressed and think that they would have mass appeal, so they bastardize them and reuse them without emphasis on the individual nature of writing and the ideas that are expressed. I realize that this can happen on accident many times, I’m sure that many of us might accidently do it, but we have a binding to try with our strongest intent to represent the ideas accurately with credit due where it needs to be.

The author and the reader also have a duty to evaluate the implications of the text in an accurate and fair portrayal. Sometimes the projection of the author’s ideas is widespread, they have a duty to represent them in a manner that fits with their personal morality, and the reader should make sure that they do not carry the author’s ideas to heights that they should not be taken. One of the immediate examples of this that comes to mind is the exploitation of Nietzsche’s works by the Nazis. As readers we should make sure we don’t exploit the text in a fashion that it obviously was not intended to be used.