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Course & Subject Guides

First Year Engineering - Pittsburgh Campus Writing

This guide helps students in the First Year Engineering program at the Pittsburgh Campus with their writing assignments.

Writing Assignment Overview

For Writing Assignment 4, you will be required to find and use a Code of Ethics written specifically for engineers in your field of interest.

Drawing on research from that specific Code of Ethics, as well as from sources from Module 4 Required Reading: Engineering Ethics, you are expected to tell a story about a professional situation involving an ethical dilemma that Future-You might encounter in the workplace, at least 10 years into the future. You will need to include:

  1. a scenario involving an ethical dilemma and the key players (one of which is Future-You),
  2. a reflective section in which Present-You reflects on the dilemma,
    • with descriptions of at least three sources that influenced your scenario creation.

Engineering Codes of Ethics

Your assignment requires you to make use of appropriate codes of ethics published by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and by various professional societies and organizations.

You can find these by directly searching for a specific professional society in your search engine of choice, or by looking at a list of engineering associations such as this one from the IQS Directory. For some of these sites you may find a link to their code of ethics prominently displayed on their homepage (e.g., Biomedical Engineering Society). For others, you may need to enter "code of ethics" into their search box (e.g., American Society of Civil Engineers). 

Library Databases for Engineering Ethics Information

You can find additional resources on "engineering ethics" from searching numerous sources available through the Pitt University Library System. 

Develop a list of search terms and keywords:

  • engineering and ethics
  • engineering and "professional ethics"
  • "ethical decisions" and engineers
  • (engineering field of interest) and ethics

Remember, revision is part of the research process. As you conduct your research, you may identify additional search terms and keywords that you didn't originally consider. Don't be afraid to try new search terms, browse journals, or use citations in an article to find new materials for your research. Contact the Science and Engineering Library for any additional help!

Engineering Ethics eBooks @ Pitt

Below is a selection of relevant ebook titles from Pitt's catalog. You can access them any time, day or night!

Search PittCat for "engineering ethics" or one of the search terms you developed in the previous section. Then limit your results to Books and Available Online to find more titles like these.