Order Description
“…technical communicators, as workers and as citizens, must act in the real world. Presented with inaccurate and incomplete information, assessing unclear and inadequate options, torn between
competing claims and goals, they must make decisions.”
-Mike Markel
Compose a one page memo persuading Denise Rivera, president and founder of Rivera Informatics, that it is in her best interest, and that of her company, to omit some or all of her directed
revisions because they would be unethical, illegal, and/or simply a bad idea. Also, incorporate and cite credible research supporting claims made regarding ethics and/or legality (at least one
source is required.)
What is a Memo?
A memorandum is used to communicate moderately formal correspondence internally within an organization, either to a single member, specific groups, or the whole organization. A memo should normally
cover a single topic, and often is filed as a record. See pages X from Practical Strategies for more guidance about this genre.
The Scenario? (Draws from scenarios presented in Mike Markel’s Ethics in Technical Communication: A Critique and Synthesis, and Lori Allen and Dan Voss’s Ethics in Technical Communication: Shades
of Gray)
Huemul Mining, a Chilean mining corporation with revenues in the billions of dollars, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for constructing an intranet that will link its headquarters with its
three facilities in the United States and Europe. Rivera Informatics, a networking consulting firm in Miami, is considering responding with a proposal. If hired, most of Rivera Informatics’ work
will be performed at the Huemul headquarters in Las Condes, Chile, where the support and clerical staff are all women. The professional, managerial, and executive staff are all male.
You are the technical writer for Rivera Informatics, a small Information technology firm of 12 employees established two years ago by Denise Rivera, a 29-year-old computer scientist with a master’s
degree in computer engineering. She is working on her MBA while getting her company off the ground. Her employees include both males and females at all levels. The chief financial officer and
several of the professional staff are female.
Looking to gather the information you need for composing a proposal, you and Denise attend a briefing by Huemul in Miami. When you arrive, you find that all the representatives from Huemul are
middle-aged Chilean men. Denise is also the only female among the representatives of the other six companies that attend the briefing. When Denise shakes hands with Mr. Soto, the Huemul team
leader, he smile and nods as he did when greeting the other venders.
Still, during the break, Mr. Soto and his team spend more time speaking with the men from the other six vendors, sometimes leaving you and Denise to stand awkwardly by yourselves. When alone,
Denise confides that she got the impression that the Huemul representatives feel uncomfortable in her presence.
On your drive back to the office, Denise discussed the possibility of gender discrimination but decides to bid on the project because she believes your company could write a persuasive proposal.
Rivera Informatics had done several projects of this type successfully in the last year. Though Huemul would be, by far, the most lucrative contract yet.
You compose the proposal and send the first draft to Denise for her feedback. She sends the proposal back to you with the following comments and directed revisions:
? “Everyone’s going to be proposing a six month estimate on this project. Let’s make ours five months to stand out. If we can’t get it done in five, we’ll just explain the delay then.”
? “I like all the detail about our strategies to eliminate security breaches to the intranet. But you also literally state at the end of that section that ‘any system can be compromised’! Get rid
of that.”
? “The boilerplate about the company has information about me founding the company and being president. You also included the resumes of the project team, many of whom are women. I’m wondering if
Huemul may not like the idea of women in positions of power over the project. Can you revise the boilerplate to remove information about me? Also, change the names on the resumes to only initials.
? “I like the idea of using Linda Weinstein as principal investigator on the team, but I’m wondering if Huemul might be uncomfortable with a woman as lead researcher. Maybe you can change Linda’s
name to include only initials too. Though maybe we’d be better off bringing in a male principal investigator on the project to be safe…what do you think?”
You consider each of the directed changes and decide you don’t feel comfortable making them. Either some or all these revisions strike you as unethical. Unfortunately, Rivera Informatics does not
have a code of conduct to provide guidance.
You look at the pile of work on your desk, the mass of emails in your inbox, at the clock reading 4:30pm, and at the empty bottle of Dayquil by your mouse. You take a deep breath, shake your head,
and resolve that careful consideration of the dilemma is required. Once you have clarified the unethical nature of the directed changes, you will compose a memo to Denise making your argument
against them.