Tell It Like It Is

One of the biggest problems I had in grad school was the ethics involved in writing research papers.

Now, I’m not talking about plagiarism or anything like that. This was much more subtle.

We were expected, when writing papers, to have a thesis and support it. That’s pretty standard, I think, for most types of non-fiction writing. Build your argument, provide evidence, that sort of thing. But, there was something we weren’t allowed to do: point out potential weaknesses in our arguments. You leave that to others in the field who will, no doubt, offer up critical thought on your work. Only after they raise objections do you address potential problems with your thesis.

In other words, you can’t tell it like it really is.

To me, this seemed irresponsible. Why? For several reasons:

Others can completely miss a weakness that you’ve readily identified. Your argument, then, stands not on its own merit but on the lack of insight on the part of your critics.
Failure to point out potential problems with your argument prevents others from finding solutions to that problem. You eliminate your cheering section and defenders.
This approach only provides a singular view of the topic. The paper exists in a vacuum, speaking only to itself and, in many ways, only being heard by like-minded folks.
Leaving out important information in this context is, in my mind, akin to deception.

In some ways, copywriting is a lot like writing graduate research papers. When you’re writing copy, you write about the positive points of a product or service - its features or benefits. You don’t write about potential problems with the product or about how another product might function in a similar way. You restrict the flow of information and leave it to the consumer to discover the counter-arguments or problems on their own. If you don’t, your copy doesn’t convert.

Is this good or bad? Do the ethics of academic research apply to the ethics of copywriting? Should academic research take the same approach as copywriting? Is it possible to tell it like it really is when writing copy and still make sales?

photo credit: Symic