Advice to future students

Dear English 304 Blossoms,

Congratulations on finding an opening for a business writing course. Rest assured that you have chosen a wonderful teacher and that the information and knowledge you will attain is very applicable.

If I could give you any advice for this class, it would be to stay on top of things. You will find you have a number of small assignments that may be easy to forget about. I would recommend working on these assignments soon after you receive them. They won't take long. Get to know people in your class, and the group project will be much more enjoyable. As far as the actual business writing goes, just make sure to keep things brief and clear. If you do these things, you will do well in the class.

Ethics research

My ethics research group covered the topic of eugenic sterilization. We focused particularly on the 1927 Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell. In the case, the state of Virginia was seeking to perform asalpingectomy on Carrie Buck, who had mental disabilities. It was an attempt to eradicate mental retardation in future generations. In the official Supreme Court document of the case, Judge Holmes delivers an opinion in which he refers to those with mental disabilities as feeble minded, defective persons, and imbeciles. He hardly refers to them as actual humans.

It is interesting and disheartening to read his entire opinion. He again skirts around the fact these people are humans and justifies their sterilization by arguing they would eventually starve due to their incompetence if they continued to exist. This opinion was upheld by the court.

Ethics article

The LRN ethics covered research that suggests many American workers are distracted by ethics-breaking at their jobs, leading to less productivity. My big issue with the article is that it was vague about ethics-breaking. It suggest 75% of American workers were distracted by ethical lapses, but it did not really define how severe of an ethical lapse that may be or even give a generic example. If the researchers see an issue such as one employee stealing a few paper clips from another as an ethical lapse, then the 75% sounds low. If they define it as something more severe such as an employer embezzling company funds, then the 75% figure is a little more alarming. The methodology of the researchers came across as well grounded, but I always wonder whether or not those willing to take surveys over the phone are really representative of the average American. Most normal people I know hate responding to callers wishing to take over-the-phone surveys. If I was being bothered by someone acting unethically at work, I might first approach him or her personally about the matter, depending on the severity. If it was a more serious matter or repetitious, then I would approach superiors. I would not want to take a 'not my problem' attitude.