Home
Tag(s): ;     
   Add to My Group

June 17, 2009
Media-News
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 6/17/09:

Is Revising an Article's Contents, Then Pretending the Change was in the Original Ethical?

By Rob Kall (about the author)

opednews.com     Permalink

submit to twitter
submit to reddit
submit to digg


Tell A Friend

Must Read 4   Valuable 4   Interesting 3   View Ratings | Rate It

Poll

Is Revising an Article's Contents, Then Pretending the Change was in the Original Ethical?

    

Writing ethics. In the new online world of writing, writers can, after they've submitted their article, go back and change it. If they do, and they then pretend it was unchanged, in comments, is that unethical, dishonest and deserving banning, meaning loss of continued privileges to submit articles and comments. 

 

Here's the scenario:

Someone posts an article.

A reader criticizes the article for leaving out key information or any supporting links to support claims. 

The writer goes back to the article, adds what the reader criticized was missing, then responds to the comments criticism saying, "You didn't look at the links I had there." When in fact, there were no links in the original version. 

It seems the right thing to do is to make the changes, then THANK the commenter for the useful criticism in an addendum to the article. 

It seems a dishonest, or disingenuous thing to do is to suggest that the commenter missed the links that weren't there and not make the changes.

We're not talking about spelling corrections here, which I don't think need to be supplemented with an addendum. 

 So, the question: Is it unethical dishonest or both to make changes without letting the reader know, then acting as though the changed content was always there?

There's no problem with this.
It's unethical but not dishonest
This is unethical and dishonest
It's dishonest and the writer should be banned for unethical behavior.
Not sure

        77 votes    View Results and Comments



            Invite Your Friend(s) to Vote: Tell A Friend         View All Polls

 

Share This Poll

You can publish this poll on your blog or website. To embed a poll, just copy the code from this "Embed" box. Once you've copied the code, just paste it into your website or blog to embed it.

Embed: Customize
<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/poll_api.php?pid=400&layout=default"></script>

 

Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, (more...)
 

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author Contact Editor View Authors' Articles

 

Book Recommendations for "Ethics Writing"
The Essential Spinoza: Ethics And Related Writings
by Benedictus de Spinoza

$17.95
Lowest New Price $11.00

Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Hackett Pub Co

Rhetorical Ethics and Internetworked Writing (New Directions in Computers and Composition Studies)
by James Porter

$39.95
Lowest New Price $27.50

Number of pages: 203
Publisher: Ablex Publishing

The Ethics of Life Writing

$21.00
Lowest New Price $15.92

Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Russell on Ethics: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell
by Bertrand Russell

$40.95
Lowest New Price $24.90

Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Routledge

View All Book Recommendations

 

 

Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews

Powered by Populum