March 25, 2009
Me? Ethical?
THOUGHT I’D SHARE THIS WITH YOU GUYS…
I would say that one of my major life achievements is to live an ethical life free of conflict or negativity. In my attempts to live my life conflict-free I find myself in a boring cycle of repetition where consistency define my existence and so in an attempt to ‘spice up’ my life – disaster!
Picture this scenario, I wake up every morning at, say, 7 p.m. then do the necessaries and end up in class 10 minutes before the lecturer. Every day I follow this pattern until one day I wake up at 8 and a feeling of disappointment hits me and reminds me of how much I have failed…. Then picture this second scenario, today I wake up at 7, go to class 5 minutes before the lecturer. Tomorrow, I wake up at 8.30 and who knows what time I will get to class. Of course my life lies in the latter where many are the times I make the lecturer cross due to my tardiness. So I guess I fail in living an ethical life at least in the mornings.
So how I begin my mornings could be unethical, but at least I pride myself in doing my work, both academic and personal, following set ethical guidelines. This may include being faithful to do assignments, do them on time, and hand in quality work earned from my own sweat! Well, thinking about it, I do hand in my assignments and apart from the few errors here and there I would say I got the quality and hard work part covered. However, do I keep faithful to time constraints? Well, at least I try…a question here…is trying to be ethical being ethical? Does the saying, ‘it’s the thought that counts’, apply in this case?
I have a feeling I am being a bit too harsh on myself. Being a writer, there are things that I am ethically bound from doing and so I try and avoid them like the plague. Libel, plagiarism, deceit, propaganda…all these big words and yet my attempts to live an ethical life are drenched by the fact that I always lose when it comes to racing with time. Time, good old Grandfather Clock so old yet I never win, I guess life is the unethical party and I am the victim. Look at it this way, I cannot win in some situations. I have to do what I have to do when I have to do and since life, or time in particular, seems to mind caring how I handle my doings, it becomes unethical since the bar set is usually unrealistic and unfair. Unlucky me however, since the world is full of judgmental ethica-holics who live in that boring cycle I mentioned earlier.
Am I ethical? Maybe, maybe not…all I know is as long as I do not step on some toes…too hard, then I am good to go. So since you’ve read this you tell me am I ethical or am I not?
February 18, 2009
Class Notes
Characteristics of a good opinion
• It should consider the audience i.e. relevant to the audience intended.
• It should show coherence and clarity.
• It should be captivating or interesting.
• It should be written in a conversational tone.
• Grammar, spelling and punctuation should be correct.
• The piece should have a sense of direction.
• It should be complete.
• It should be easy to read.
• It should show a considerable amount of background knowledge on an issue.
Role of opinion writing
• Make the reader think about an issue.
• Acts as the voice of the people i.e. show the people’s thoughts on an issue.
• Forces people to confront reality.
• Acts as the yardstick of what the writer thinks.
Vile tuna feel 