Following a number of independent concerns raised about the nature of pseudonyms used in Honor Council abstracts, Council hosted a community discussion about this issue at the beginning of the Spring 2011 semester. The following guidelines came out of this discussion, and were consented to by Honor Council.
- Clarity: The most important thing is that an abstract convey the necessary information about the situation and the proceeding to the community. As such, pseudonyms should not obscure the meaning of the abstract, and abstract writers should be careful not to make theme-oriented substitutions to the point that the abstract becomes difficult to understand.
- Include a key at the beginning of the abstract that lists character names and role in the case (e.g. Tinkerbell = confronted student).
- Make sure to clearly express the real relationships between the parties involved (e.g. student-professor, student-student, student-administrator, etc.).
- Preserve information that was important to the particular case (Which may but does not have to include class year status, course level, etc.).
- Make sure the abstract is understandable to people who are not familiar with the theme.
- Choice of Pseudonyms: Think carefully about the pseudonym you choose.
- Be mindful of potential preconceptions about characters.
- Avoid pseudonyms that set up a hero-villain or otherwise loaded relationship.
- Avoid pseudonym themes that are controversial.
- A disclaimer should appear on the Abstracts page of the Honor Council Website expressing that associations between the actual people in the case and the characters in the pseudonym theme are not intended.
Consented to by Honor Council on February 20, 2011