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ES 4498 Engineering Ethics, Sustainable Development and the Law

This page points you to resources to help you with your ES 4498 Position Paper and Case Study Assignments.

Slides from the Librarians' presentation (PDF)

Case STUDY TIPS

The best way to find a case is to ask a Professional Engineer!  Talk to your ES4498 professor if you want to confirm that you've found an appropriate case.

If you aren't able to talk to a Professional Engineer, you can use newspapers to identify a case (see links below).  Remember that you cannot choose a case that has already been analyzed from an ethical or legal perspective.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TIPS

You will need to start with related government sites (see links below) to get a good understanding of sustainable development. You may also want to locate some journal articles on the topic and see how you incorporate the idea in your paper.

POSITION PAPER TIPS

You are picking one article of the Code of Ethics - one numbered section.  You may want to focus your paper on one of the lettered subsctions of the article.

Finding Related INFORMATION

For both assignments, you'll need to find some information to support your analysis.

 Background Information

  • Start with the the Code of Ethics of Professional Engineers Ontario (Section 77 of the Professional Engineers Act of Ontario).
  • Government sites on sustainable development - Earth Summit 2012 and RIO+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 
  • Books - can give you theory and analysis of cases.  They also often have lists of more references on their topic that can help you.  Use the library catalogue to search by keyword.  Your textbook can also be a good source of information.
  • Google - can do a general search for your topic but it's important to make sure your websites pass the CRAAP test.  Wikipedia can be a place to get started with your research but you should not be citing Wikipedia in your assignments.

News Articles and Trade Literature

News articles give you details and commentary on newsworthy events, which can help you verify the details or support your point of view.

You can search for news articles using the following fulltext news database:

Professional Publications Articles

Professional publications articles contain case studies and information on practical application of ethics. (e.g., Engineering Dimensions from the Professional Engineers of Ontario, which can be searched within CBCA Business).

You can search for some of them using fulltext news databases and engineering article databases.

Scholarly or Academic Journal Articles and Conference Proceedings

Scholarly or Academic journal articles can give you theory and analysis of cases. Some of these cases may be comparable to your case study, which can help in your analysis.  Conferences proceedings articles give you theory, analysis of cases, example ethical cases, and case studies.

You can search for them using the following engineering article databases:

  • Compendex and Inspec (you can search both at the same time)
  • There is a journal category "sustainable development" in the e-journal portal
    (Environmental Sciences -> Sustainable Development)

Citation Styles

  • For these assignments, use Chicago / Turabian (brief guide, pdf)
  • Taylor reference LB2369.T8 2007
  • Weldon reference Z253.C572 2003
  • Chicago Manual of Style Online(16th edition of the entire style guide)
    • Chapter 14 is where you will find examples of notes & references for specific formats
    • For how to cite personal interviews, phone calls or emails, see "Interviews and Personal Communications," sections 14.218 to 14.223. For example: John Smith (P.Eng., XYZ Company), telephone interview with the author, May 13, 2009.

Citing the Code of Ethics?

The Code of Ethics is found in the Professional Engineers Act of Ontario, so to properly cite the Code, you need to cite the Act:

Professional Engineers Act of Ontario, 1990, R.R.O. Reg. 941, s.77. Government of Ontario.

(Note: While the inclusion of 'Government of Ontario' in this case is neither proper Chicago style nor proper legal citation style, it is required for the purpose of these assignments.)

The notes and bibliography will have the same format, but in the notes, if you are referring to a specific clause, you can add that at the end like this:

Professional Engineers Act of Ontario, 1990, R.R.O. Reg. 941, s.77 (3). Government of Ontario.

R.R.O. stands for Revised Regulations of Ontario, Reg. 941 is the regulation number, and s.77 is the section of the Act. Abbreviations like this are accepted practice when citing laws and government statutes.

Getting More Help

Contact Taylor Library (include email Subject: ES4498) if you have questions!