An assignment from class:
To: Professor Alicia Ramberg
From: Isabella Thatcher ENG160 Fall
2025
Subject: Assignment: Reflection on
Ethics, AI, and Code of Conduct
Date: September 7, 2025
Purpose: Demonstrate knowledge of class
content thus far and review course policies
and operations. Also, to convey my
plan for being successful in the course.
Ethical Dilemma
I believe that a visual of someone in a
wheelchair would support my designing the recruiting materials. At
the same time, getting the picture of the programmer in her chair,
would be a matter of just asking permission from the programmer
herself.
Using AI for
Image Creation
Using AI to generate images for
workplace documents are OK in my opinion as long as the prompts you
give it generate a clear image that is not misleading. You can say
something like, “AI generated”, to credit the source of the
image. AI may create a photo of something that is already on the
internet, so you have to check to see if it is not copyrighted. You
can check with the Creative Commons Licensing to make sure the image
is original or allowed to be used. Images can also be obtained from
Royalty Free Sources as well.
Charts and graphs can be hard to
understand for the audience with the possibility of distortion or
skewing. So, it is important to include percentages or other
information to make it clear to what the charts and graphs are to
convey. AI can be helpful to create the image by saving you time and
also giving you ideas on how to create the graphics. You must be
careful again, to make sure it is easily understood for your
audience.
Use of AI for
Research
I will use AI as I have been using it,
and that is as a fast resource for research and as a dictionary to
understand terms and concepts. AI is a powerful research and
efficiency too saving you hours, but it's not reliable enough to be
trusted as the sole source of truth.
It is ethical when it supports, not
replaces critical thinking and it is unethical when misrepresentation
or plagiarism occurs. Passing off ideas without fact-checking is
deceptive.
Many AI models don't have access to the
latest data which can mislead research which could definitely be a
concern for research and citing.
Marketing or
Misleading
You have to consider how did they get
the data exactly? In the discussion about the Gerber baby food, how
did they ask the question? Did they feed the information about Gerber
or did they really ask their opinion?
In the image for the hotel room; I
would not think it to be misleading unless I get to the room and
discovered no TV or coffee maker. The bigger picture could be taken
at a different angle or could be another room.
Case Study: The
Cost of Poor Communication
In the case of the rejected current
regulator proposal for the Acme Electric Company; this was poor
organization and design. The test results should have been put in a
more prominent place and the graphs needed to be done clearly for the
audiences understanding.
The communication breakdown happened
when she devoted 87 pages just to the mathematical theory, the
average consumer was lost in the proposal. I did not see a potential
ethical violation in this scenario, unless the way she hastily put
together the proposal was trying to hide something?
Course Policies
and Code of Conduct Reflection
The quizzes in this class have no end
date but they open up the assignments that do.
Discussions have a grace period that
must be completed by to earn credit. The two lowest discussion grades
will be dropped at the end of the semester.
The Dropbox assignments may be late
with instructors' approval and there is a form you can submit to get
that approval called the Corrective Action Form (CAF), to make up the
work. You can do this once per week.
There is no penalty if you submit work
before grace period ends, this is the normal way of doing the
assignments. I say if you do the assignments at the beginning of the
week when you get it, then you will have no problems submitting these
on time.
In this class we will work on dealing
with AI and professional writing in the workplace. We will have to
submit a website portfolio which I am nervous about because I have
never done anything like this before and wonder if after I set up the
website if I have to pay to keep it and if I am going to even use it
after the class? And if I won't be using it after the class, how
would I take it down? It will be up there forever like a dead piece
of real estate.
Attendance is taken by the discussion
questions each week and if we miss two weeks, then we are dropped
from the course.
As soon as you get the assignments you
should start to work on it right away, to give yourself time to
complete them, so you are not trying to cram the loads of information
by the deadline.
Reflection and
Success Plan for Course
I actually enjoy the structure of the
lectures, with the mix of the different videos and reading to break
up how the information is presented. I have been going in order as
you have them laid out because it all is a piece of a puzzle that
builds on top of each other. It gives me a better understanding when
I go in order and it helps me make sure I get all the information.
After all, I am paying for this class and I want to get all the tools
available to be successful.
The way I have been going through the
course has been working well for me. I will continue to dive into the
video lectures immediately and going through each piece and having
the guide printed out and writing it out as I go to cement the
information better.
