Dec. 24: The Ethics of Authorship

In today's writing Fred White discusses ethics as they apply to writing. He presents three key ways that ethics apply to writing; (1) what you write should be your own words and if they are not give credit to the person who uttered, or wrote them, (2) you should ensure that you write is factual unless of course you are writing fiction, and (3) if you are writing an autobiography "convey personal experiences as they actually happened without distortion." If you are going to exaggerate then we should call it "a novel, not a memoir".
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION:
Here Mr. White stated that the reader of a nonfiction has the right to expect the work to be truthful and accurate. However, he does allow for the fact that whenever a lived experience is turned into words there will be some distortion. But taking that into consideration authors should do all they can to "ensure theat the experiences they present are authentic. . . verifiable".
TRY THIS
After you finish a draft of your next essay, article, biography, or autobographical project, check it for accuracy, using the following checklist:

• Are the dates and names of places and person accurate?
• Are incidents accurately described? Can they be verified by others?
• Are facts and explanations accurate?
• Is the sequence of events accurate?

Not much of this today. I agree with everything Mr. White says. Quoting sources is something that drummed into our heads in college. I don't know of any one who has ever written college term papers who had not heard from their instructor or professor the consequences of not quoting sources, or taking credit for someone else's work. Also I am in a profession that sets very high standards for ethics and I hope I will also maintain the high standards I have to date.