Money and Marketing!

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.