The Keys of Ethical Writing in Engineering

Ethical writing in engineering is built on three things. First is original or properly cited work. Second is that the work is factually correct. Third is that the writing is complete. These all spring from the golden rule of engineering ethics. The idea that you are responsible to protect the people you build for. The National Society of Professional Engineers, the foremost engineering ethics authority, states that engineers have the responsibility to, “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” Engineers are regularly stripped of their certifications when they fail to observe this key rule of ethics. The safety of humanity is something that professionals, organizations, and customers alike agree to take seriously.

Though most engineers would rather tinker all day, the rigid structure they work in demands that write to report discoveries to companies and peers and to record progress and test results. Plagiarism, as in every other discipline, is frowned upon for all the reasons to be expected. More important and more often broken are the tenants of correctness and completeness. Engineers are regularly pressured for “the results” of the project. But sometimes they just aren’t what was expected. Just like Diederick Stapel’s ill-fated work, outside pressures can transform the engineering process into, “a quest for aesthetics, for beauty – instead of the truth.” But with real lives on the line, it is more important to be honest in your findings. Unfortunately, companies can be more interested in the profit than the product so the responsibility falls to the engineer to make sure all his/her data is truthful and factual and that in their reporting they include potential shortcomings. The outcomes of the engineer’s work is a very real thing, so their writing has to be held to a strong ethical standard. Technical writing is the tool with which professionals debate the direction of engineering, so the writing at its core has to be the engineer’s own, true, and complete.