Guiding Questions: Navigating Principles in Practice

Will I be drawing on real-life experiences and living people? If my project is a work of fiction, is it sufficiently “fictionalized” to not offend, insult, or hurt friends, family members, or individuals who are part of a kind of community to which I belong? If my project seems likely to wound a person or people who I care about, am I comfortable with this and prepared to be accountable for the effects my work will have on them? If not, what changes can I make to protect the privacy and emotional/psychological well-being of those potentially affected?

Again, will I be drawing on real-life events and experiences? If my project is a work of non-fiction, do I intend to rely on conversations or interviews with living people? If so, and if I’m a registered student at a post-secondary institution, have I looked into the institution’s policies and procedures related to “ethics approval”? Am I acquainted with the formal steps I need to take in order to receive institutional permission to work with “human subjects”? (Have I consulted with professors who can point me in the right directions?)

Does my project, regardless of genre, involve writing about people who belong to communities and/or cultures other than my own? Do I occupy a position of privilege in relation to these people/cultures? Are these people/cultures marginalized within enduring colonial power structures? Am I considering a plan that will involve cultural appropriation? If so, am I aware of the repercussions? Should I proceed/am I prepared to contend with these repercussions?

Am I planning a project that relies on facts (historical, geographical, scientific)? If so, am I prepared to double- and triple-check the accuracy of these facts? (This is not a concern if my chosen genre allows me to toy with factual information, e.g., fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction.)

Am I planning a project that relies on facts (historical, geographical, scientific) which are disputed? If so, have I considered including footnotes or endnotes, as well as a list of references, to explain and “back up” my version of the “facts”? Am I also willing (you should be — there’s no harm in this!) to provide a “foreword” or “afterword” that lays out my rationale for adopting my particular perspective on “facts” that are contested?

Do I intend to I make use of an existing text — i.e., the work of another author — by quoting, briefly, from that text, or by substantially rewriting/re-envisioning it? If so, might I consider inserting footnotes or endnotes, as well as a list of references, to acknowledge my sources? (Erring on the side of caution is never a bad idea.) Might I consider, again, a “foreword” or “afterword” which makes plain the fact that I’m intertextualizing?