WEB DEVELOPMENT BLOG

November 13, 2006

A writer's obligations: ethics, law and pragmatism, Part 3: Pragmatism

The Ford lecture site asks the reader
to register and prpvides additional
information to help the reader to
decide whether or not to attend.

While I'll probably post additional entries on ethics, today we'll discuss what I expect will be the simplest chapter in this series, pragmatism. When I think of applying pragmatism to our Web development strategies, I think of taking a practical approach that examines our options in regard to their intended consequences. In particular I want to ensure that our choices support our goals. I discussed goals earlier in the Planning Your Web site tutorial, but today we'll examine them in the light of our obligations to our audience and to ourselves.

Your goal requires your readers to make decisions

Whether your goal is to recruit students to your program, explain the laws of thermodynamics, or draw an audience to a lecture, you need to give your readers the information they need to make an informed decision. Such content should include:

• Basic descriptive information that lets readers know they are in the right place—or perhaps the wrong place if they are looking for information on Dynamism rather than thermodynamics.
• Unique information that serves to differentiate your site from others. For example if you are recruiting students to the cartooning program, you should make sure they know that your program teaches students to become cartoonists while some other programs may only teach critical analysis and history. The information you provide will help prospective students decide if this is a program that will match their interests or if they should look for something different.
• Features and benefits that showcase what your event will offer as well as why this will be of interest. One feature of your event may be the Nobel prize-winning speaker. The benefit of his speaking will be the practical expertise he brings to the subject matter. Another feature could be the sandwiches served at the follow-up reception. Your audience benefits by not having to take extra time to find lunch before returning to class or office. I'll write more about features and benefits in another entry.
• Guidance on how to act upon their decision. If you are explaining thermodynamics, then once they've determined they wish to learn more, all they need to do is read your content. But if you are recruiting students, you need to ask them to apply and show them where and how. If your goal is for readers to make a choice and then act upon it—such as by attending an event, then ask them to do so. A passive approach makes them aware of a choice while a direct approach leads them to make a choice.

Don't give your readers more than they need

I started writing this series because a reader had asked whether I thought he should update his blog to include a dissenting opinion that he knew to be inaccurate. If that information does not support his goals, and poses no legal or ethical obligation then I think it is safe to leave it out.

In the ethics entry I mentioned a literacy program and asked if there was a moral obligation to reveal the existence of a new study that comes out against the program. In that example the blogger knew that the new study was flawed. Given that the study both conflicts with the blogger's goals and conveys inaccurate information, I think it would be most practical to leave it unmentioned. Including it would only distract and confuse readers. If at some point a reader wrote to ask about the study, then the blogger could explain why it was omitted.

As another example, if my goal is to have people attend a lecture on human evolution, then I am not obligated to mention the political debate surrounding evolution and intelligent design. If my goal is to explain the political debate and its impact upon the teaching of science in our schools, then I will need to discuss evolutionary theory, intelligent design, creation theory and perhaps even the flying spaghetti monster. How I treat these topics also depends on my goals. If I feel the topic is better served in the religion classroom than the science classroom, I will approach the discussion differently than if I were championing the inclusion of intelligent design in the 10th grade biology curriculum. If my goals are clear to the reader, and my content supports those goals, then the reader will have the information he or she needs to make an informed decision.

In both of these examples, choices were made to exclude information that was either irrelevant or confusing. When deciding whether to include something or not, I recommend considering how such information will affect your reader's ability to make an informed decision. Readers who make the wrong choice based on insufficient information will be just as unhappy as readers who are confused by too many choices.

Stumble It!

Posted by: Heidi Cool November 13, 2006 02:02 PM | Category: Content , Heidi's Entries , Tips and Tricks , Writing

Posted by: hac4 (Heidi Cool) November 13, 2006 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback

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