In her long journalistic career covering everything from local news to the White House, POLITICO editor Anita Kumar has experienced and managed her fair share of ethical dilemmas. In this new course from Poynter, part of the ACES Intermediate Certificate in Editing, Kumar and other communications professionals outline the important ethical decisions that editors are most likely to face and make.

Should journalists accept gifts? Should travel writers accept free lodging? Should you write a book about a company your brother works for?

In this one-hour, self-directed course, part of the ACES Intermediate Certificate in Editing, you’ll get an elevated look at the thinking and processes that go into best practices around ethical decisions for published work. 

You’ll consider the tools already at your disposal internally, learn how to converse with writers and colleagues to establish rapport and an informal advice committee when you need it, plus get two hefty checklists to use regularly: questions to ask when faced with an ethical conundrum or issues of transparency.

Get great at understanding and doing ethics in this course.

General information

This is a self-directed course; you may work through it at your own pace. It should take about 1-2 hours to finish.

This course consists of a series of videos, text lessons, and pop-up activities that test your knowledge. Activities within the course have right and wrong answers, but these activities are for practice only and will not impact your completion of the course.

To complete each course, you must pass a test at the end that consists of 10 questions. You will have 20 minutes to complete each course test once they have begun. You must answer at least eight of the 10 questions correctly to gain a score of 80% or higher to pass the course and get credit toward the certificate.

You are allowed three attempts to pass the evaluation at the end of each course. 

If you are still unable to pass the evaluation with an 80% or better after three attempts, please contact our customer service department at info@poynter.org.

This course is part of the Poynter/ACES Intermediate Certificate in Editing, though it can be taken on its own, independently of the certificate. The certificate consists of seven courses, seven end-of-course tests and an overall final assessment covering material from all seven courses.

To earn the Intermediate Certificate, you must pass a final assessment at the end of all seven courses. 

The certificate’s final assessment consists of 30 questions drawn from material throughout all seven courses. You will have one hour to complete this final certificate assessment and three chances to pass with an 80% or better.

If you are still unable to pass the final assessment with an 80% or better after three attempts, please contact our customer service department at info@poynter.org.

We recommend that before starting the Intermediate Certificate, you first complete the Poynter/ACEs Introductory Editing Certificate, though it is not a prerequisite.

Questions?

If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org.