Introduction

Thank you for agreeing to participate in the engineering ethics transcription exercise.

Participation entails reading engineering ethics dilemmas, and transcribing each dilemma using a restricted, predefined representation language. For each dilemma you will need to:

  1. Transcribe the text of the scenario into a set of chronological facts.
  2. Identify the actors (e.g. engineers, clients) and objects (e.g., technical reports, products) involved in each scenario.
  3. Identify the questioned facts, the actor or actors whose ethical behavior is questioned, and the conclusion of the dilemma.
  4. Note the codes and cases cited by the board that led to their conclusion, and identify why and for what purpose each was cited.
It will take approximately two hours to transcribe each case. You are free to do the work in as many sessions as you need, and at any time. You are also free to consult with others (although not other participants in the exercise) or to refer to any written materials. Contact the exercise coordinator with any questions you may have.

The following documents are a tutorial that will cover all of the skills you will need to transcribe the cases. Please follow the tutorial all of the way through before attempting to transcribe any cases on your own. The exercise is complicated, but by understanding each of the tasks involved, and attempting each in turn, you will have no trouble.

In addition to completing this tutorial, you should study further examples of transcription work, and maybe try a few practice transcripts. A collection of example transcripts is available through the Reference Shelf area of this web site.

Before you can begin transcribing, you will need to download the MS Word 6.0 template that is already set up for transcription. This template facilitates much of the transcript formatting, and will save you the trouble of creating the transcript format from scratch.  Your transcript ultimately must be submitted as an MS Word 6.0 file, but, if you wish, you may work with a newer version of Word while developing the transcript.

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