Believe it or not, recent movies like Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action actually involve important questions about technical communication, and particularly about disclosure - who says what to whom, and when. In recent news, the fall of Enron Corporation is inextricably tied to disclosure - who said what to whom and when.

In the movies as in life, hiding or downplaying critical information had tragic consequences for the people involved. Enron employees acted on memos and recommendations from "above" in making decisions about the future, and many lost a lot of money as a result.

Much of what helped move the movie cases toward justice was more communication - critical strategies for bringing information to light and communicating the key facts to the right people in the right way.

Goals
After completing this module, you should be able to:

• Identify the key areas of your profession's code of ethics that relate, directly or indirectly, to communication.
• Identify the code of ethics from the Society for Technical Communication.
• Analyze the stakeholders involved in a particular communication.
• Apply ethical guidelines to your own writing, beginning with your course project.

Professional Codes of Ethics-->