What is Communication?

• The act or process of communicating; fact of being

communicated. The imparting or interchange of thoughts,
opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.
• the act of giving, receiving, and sharing information -- in other
words, talking or writing, and listening or reading.
What is Ethics?

• moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the

conducting of an activity.
• Deals with values relating to human conduct, with
respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions
and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends
of such actions.
 
What is Communication Ethics?

The principle governing communication, the right

and wrong aspects of it, the moral- immoral
dimensions relevant to Interpersonal
communication are called the ethics of
Interpersonal communication.
COMMUNICATION ETHICS

• Maintaining the correct balance between the speaking and

listening
• The legitimacy of fear and emotional appeal
• Degree of criticism and praise
 PRINCIPLES
OF
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION 
1. Be Truthful And Honest

Being honest means communicating what is known to be true (only 100

percent the facts) to a listener, with no intent to deceive or present only
parts of the truth. It also means being as objective as possible, that is, not
tailoring the story based on what the speaker wants the listener to believe.
Letting the listener take the data that is objectively presented and believe
what they choose to believe is a core goal of ethical communication.
Ethical communication should be based on accurate information and facts
– in a word, do not lie.
2. Active Listening
Hearing someone and listening to them are two
different things. In order for ethical communication to
be effective, it is necessary for the recipient to pro-
actively listen to the speaker, and to not just hear what
they want to hear, or to hear only parts of the
conversation. This also means asking questions when
any point is not completely understood, for the sake of
clarification.
3. Speak Non-Judgmentally

Ethically and concisely communicating means speaking in a

non-judgmental manner with every recipient, negating
unnecessary conflict, which typically creates a breakdown in
communication and causes misunderstandings. Unnecessary
conflict is never good for any business, and such conflicts
usually result from unethical communications, with
judgmental, accusatory, and overly-critical comments often
being the catalyst for such breakdowns in communication.
4. Speak From Your Own Experience

Bringing your personal experience into a dialogue with

business listeners is important, providing backup for your
arguments with something more tangible. Such a
communication method (experiential communication)
paints a complete picture for your audience and helps to
prove your points so that the listeners have a better
understanding of what is being said.
5. Consider the Receiver’s Preferred Communication Channel

You risk losing an audience if you use a communication channel that is

not preferred by your intended receiver. To effectively communicate
with your listeners, use the most preferred communication channel,
whether that be face-to-face, email, conference call, phone call,
messenger app, etc. Also, when presenting data to a business
audience, be aware of the preferred method of presentation for that
business, whether it be graphs, slides, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
Additionally, since body language is very important, it is often preferred
to meet business clients face-to-face.
6. Strive To Understand

While it is important to be proactive in listening, it is important for listeners

to also strive to fully understand what is being said before responding.
While asking for clarification or confirmation of a point is fine, many times
questions that listeners pose have already been answered. Listeners
should think about what has been said before constructing a reply. Reading
“in between the lines” is also an important skill that allows for
understanding what isn’t said, but was implicitly said or implied.
7. Avoid A Negative Tone

Ethically communicating assumes the speaker will avoid

rudeness, be polite and professional, and have tact. The
ethical communicator knows that it’s not only important what
you say, but how you say it. Tone is one of the most critical
facets of communication. A listener may miss the meaning
altogether if the tone is wrong, which can lead to
unnecessary confrontations that decrease business
productivity.
8. Do Not Interrupt Others

Allowing others to speak is important for the creation of a

civil, effective working environment. Interrupting others
results in misunderstandings and unnecessary conflicts
and a breakdown in workplace communications, which only
hinders corporate progress and creates problems.
Interrupting others not only shows a lack of respect, but
does not allow the listener to fully grasp what is being said,
which often results in incorrect assumptions being made.
9. Respect Privacy And Confidentiality

Most businesses should include a clause in their code of

ethics defining what is appropriate when it comes to
honoring client and employee confidentiality and privacy.
This can have a wide range of implications, including
minimizing workplace gossip, and mitigating toxic
conversations about the private lives of clients and/or
personnel.
10. Accept Responsibility

As noted before, a core tenant within any ethical

communication framework is taking responsibility for the
actions that result from one’s words, whether it be good
or bad. This includes both short term and long term
consequences of one’s communications. Owning one’s
words reinforces the importance of being conscientious
about ethical communication.
Why Ethical Communication
is important as a Future
Educator?
Being able to communicate is vital to being
an effective educator. Communication not
only conveys information, but it encourages
effort, modifies attitudes, and stimulates
thinking. Without it, stereotypes develop,
messages become distorted, and learning is
stifled.
As a teacher, we always interact with students and parents. We share information , opinions and
feelings with them regarding their son or daughters. We must be truthful, accurate and respect their
privacy.
We communicate with other colleagues, not only verbally, but by how we act.
As a professional, effective communication skills can build a positive school
and work environment. As educational leaders, we know we are effective
communicators if those with whom we work have a positive attitude toward
each other, their students and their school.
As a teacher, it is important for us to help students to understand the severity of
plagiarism and responsible, honest language use.
RELEVANT LAWS IN
ETHICAL
COMMUNICATION
Plagiarism, if it corresponds to a copyright infringement under
the Intellectual Property Code, is a cybercrime under the new
law

The Intellectual Property Code is a special law. Under the IPC,

the act of plagiarism -- when it amounts to copyright
infringement -- carries a penalty of 3-6 years imprisonment and
a fine of P50,000-P150,000. Under the Cybercrime Prevention
Act, however, the penalty is a degree higher. 
THE 1987 CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE
PHILIPPINES – ARTICLE III

Section 4. No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of

expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.
REPUBLIC ACT No. 6713 Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards
for Public Officials and Employees.“

Section 5. Duties of Public Officials and Employees.

(a) Act promptly on letters and requests. - All public officials and
employees shall, within fifteen (15) working days from receipt
thereof, respond to letters, telegrams or other means of
communications sent by the public. The reply must contain the
action taken on the request.
Technical Writing Do’s and Don’ts
Technical writing means writing something down that
everybody within your target audience should be able to
understand – regardless of his or her training or
background knowledge. But why is that so important?
And what are the best practices when it comes to
technical writing?

Whether you are a technical writer or not, there are

some rules of thumb to keep in mind when you are
involved in technical documentation.
First of all, know your audience well and
refer to a prescribed standard of style. Pre-
write the content to understand the flow
and gaps of knowledge at your end.
Display a good readability in your content.
Make use of active verbs to convey the
clear sets of steps or processes. Use
possessive form of words.
Make use of clear, unambiguous
words whose meaning you are sure
of. Avoid use of unnecessary
prepositional phrases. Reduce the
number of adjectives and adverbs
altogether.
If you are discussing different subjects
in your text, setup a smooth transition
between any two topics. Find the
connecting thread in between the two
chapters and maintain a flow for better
comprehension.
If using tables, list or figures, be sure
of the validity of the given data.
Present the data in a table or a list in a
parallel structure. Provide captions to
address the information within a table
or figure with its corresponding text.
Give a thorough review to the entire
content and re-write the portion you
think, can be presented better. Look
for mistakes, typos, breaks in logic,
ambiguity – anything that detracts
from a clear report that is easy to
read.
Do not use abbreviations unless
specified to do so. Do not apply
contractions or any gender specific
pronouns. Don’t use intensifier to
convey strength of an action or a
property of a subject.
Don’t use filler words such as
redundant pairs, modifiers or
similar categories. Do not use long
noun strings in order to modify the
last noun of a sentence.
Do not apply ‘Metadiscourse’ and avoid
your personality spilling into the content.
Do not address the reader directly unless
you are creating a user manual of some
kind. Do not repeat the obvious
conclusion of an action.
Metadiscourse includes phrases such as
"frankly," "after all," "on the other hand," "to
our surprise," and so on. Below are some
examples of metadiscourse in writing,
denoting: the writer's intentions: "to sum
up," "candidly," "I believe" the writer's
confidence: "may," "perhaps," "certainly,"
"must"
Do not assume anything about the
process or product in hand. Do not
make your report humorous. What
is amusing to you may be offensive
or inexplicable to your reader.
Do not rush to send the content
for further processing without
glossing over the content for
accuracy and coherency.