NOTES TO ANDERSON, CHAPTERS 1 & 2 PROFESSIONAL WRITING

NOTES TO ANDERSON, CHAPTERS 1 & 2

PROFESSIONAL WRITING

CHARACTERISTICS OF WORKPLACE WRITING

• Serves practical purposes• Often must satisfy many different readers in a single

communication• Often needs to address international and multicultural

audiences• Uses distinctive types of communications (i.e. genres of

writing)• Often employs graphics and visual design to increase

effectiveness• Often requires collaboration• Often created in a globally networked environment• Shaped by social and political factors• Shaped by organizational conventions and culture• Must meet deadlines• Sensitive to legal and ethical issues

WRITING IS AN ACTION

• Writing is an attempt to exert power to achieve some ends. • It attempts to persuade. • It attempts to convince others to think differently

and/or act in a particular way.• Therefore . . .

THINK CONSTANTLY ABOUT THE READER

• What do they want from you? And why?• How do you want to help or influence them?• How will they react to what you say and/or how

you say it?• In short, how will your readers respond?

WHAT MAKES A COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVE?

• Usability• Persuasiveness

USABILITY

• Does the communication help the reader accomplish what he or she wishes to accomplish? • A communication is highly usable if it enables

them to• Locate quickly the information they need in order to

accomplish their goal• Understand the needed information easily and accurately• Use the information to complete their task with minimum

effort

PERSUASIVENESS

• Does the communication effectively influence the readers’ attitudes and actions? • Using communication to change your readers’

attitudes• Reverse an attitude you want your readers to abandon• Reinforce an attitude you want them to hold even more

firmly• Shape their attitude on a subject about which they

currently have no opinion

HOW?

• To create usable and persuasive communications, we (writers) need to know• Purpose• Audience• Situation• Conventions

For now we’ll focus on purpose and audience

PURPOSE

• What is our purpose in writing? • What are we trying to accomplish with this communication? • How will we know whether we are successful?

AUDIENCE

• Who is our audience for this communication? • What do they know? • What do they not know? • What are their purposes in consulting this communication?

• To think constantly about the reader requires us to consider more carefully how readers read.

HOW READERS READ

• Dynamically• Readers construct meaning• Readers’ responses are shaped by the situation• Readers react moment by moment

READERS CONSTRUCT MEANING

• Readers construct meaning using whatever clues and context they can.• Here’s a simple example:• It’s a dog.


• Here’s a more complex example:• “The labor theory of value is a major pillar of traditional

Marxian economics, which is evident in Marx’s masterpiece, Capital (1867). The theory’s basic claim is simple: the value of a commodity can be objectively measured by the average number of labor hours required to produce that commodity.”


• And another example:• “Pulse oximetry and supplemental oxygen may be

warranted in patients who have comorbidities associated with poor pulmonary reserve. A tracheostomy-related mortality rate as high as 3.4% has been reported for pediatric patients. Creation of a false passage as well as pneumothorax have contributed to this statistic. For this reason, and because pediatric patients are sometimes unable to verbalize their discomfort, consideration should be given to monitoring vitals during the first tracheostomy tube change.”

READERS’ RESPONSES ARE SHAPED BY THE SITUATION

• The context of the reading (and the use of the text) is key• The readers’ purpose for reading• The readers’ perception of the writer’s purpose• The readers’ personal stake in the subject discussed• The readers’ past relationship with the writer

• The range of situational factors is unlimited. The main point is that to predict how your readers might respond, the writer must understand thoroughly the situation in which readers will read the text.

READERS REACT MOMENT BY MOMENT

• Readers respond to a text moment by moment. Here’s an example from the book.

• Imagined Scenario (pages 16-18)• You manage a factory’s personnel department. A few days

ago, you discussed a problem with Donald Pryzblo, who manages the data processing department. Recently, the company’s computer began issuing some payroll checks for the wrong amount. Your department and Pryzblo’s work together to prepare each week’s payroll in a somewhat antiquated way. First, your clerks collect a time sheet for each employee, review the information, and transfer it to time tickets, which they forward to Pryzblo’s department. His clerks enter the information into a computer program that calculates each employee’s pay and prints the checks. The whole procedure is summarized in the following diagram.


Factory Time sheets

→ Your

Department (Personnel)

Time tickets

→

Pryzblo’s Department

(data processing)

Database

→ Payroll

Software

Payroll checks

→

• In your discussion with Pryzblo, you proposed a solution he did not like. Because you two are at the same level in the company, neither of you can tell the other what to do. When you turn on your computer this morning, you find an e-mail message from Pryzblo.


Take out a piece of paper. Read the following very slowly, so slowly that you can focus on the way you react, moment by moment, to each statement. As you read, record your immediate reactions (in your role as manager of the personnel department).


To: Your name, manager, Personnel Department From: Donald Pryzblo, Manager, Data Processing DepartmentSubject: INCORRECT PAYROLL CHECKS

I have been reviewing the “errors” in the computer files.

Contrary to what you insinuated in our meeting, the majority of these errors were made by your clerks. I do not feel that my people should be blamed for this. They are correctly copying the faulty time tickets that your clerks are preparing.

You and I discussed requiring my computer operators to perform the very time-consuming task of comparing their entries against the time sheets from which your clerks are miscopying.

My people do not have the time to correct the errors made by your people, and I will not hire additional help for such work.

I recommend that you tell your clerks to review their work carefully before giving it to the data processors.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

• Use a reader-centered approach to writing• As you make each writing decision, consider your

readers’ characteristics, goals, expectations, situations, and other factors that will shape their response to what you say.

• Concentrate on crafting a communication that will be persuasive and usable.

• Focus specifically on the ways your readers will respond, moment by moment, while they are reading your communication.

RÉSUMÉ AND APPLICATION LETTER: GETTING STARTED

The following steps apply equally to the résumé and job application letter.•Define your résumé’s objectives•Plan your overall writing strategies•Draft your résumé•Design your résumé’s appearance•Revise your draft

DEFINE YOUR RÉSUMÉ’S OBJECTIVES

• Identify employers you’d like to work for• Define your résumé’s persuasive objectives• Define your résumé’s usability objectives


• Define your résumé’s persuasive objectives• Persuade potential employers that you possess the

qualifications they are looking for. In general those qualifications fall into the following three categories• Technical expertise• Supporting abilities• Favorable personal qualities

• Therefore, you need to learn as much as you can about the daily work of people in the position you would like to hold


• Define your résumé’s usability objectives• The key factor in usability in this case is the ease and

speed with which readers can find the information they want about you.

• Three stage process• Initial screening (read very quickly by non-specialists)• Detailed examination of the most promising (read carefully

by specialists)• Preparation for in-depth interviewing (read carefully by

specialists)

• To be successful, a résumé must meet the needs of all these readers

PLAN YOUR OVERALL WRITING STRATEGIES

• Think creatively about your qualifications• Decide how long the résumé should be• Choose the type of résumé you will prepare• Experiential résumé• Organized around your experiences using headings such as

“Education,” “Employment,” “Activities,” and so forth• Usually the best choice for students and people new to an

industry or profession • Skills résumé• Organized around your abilities and accomplishments, using

headings such as “Technical Abilities,” “Management Experience,” and “Communication Skills”

• Usually the best choice for people with specific professional experience that might be lost in an experiential résumé

DRAFT YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• General guidelines on writing style• Write concisely• Wordy: Worked for several years in a lab preparing samples for

student lab work.• Concise: Prepared samples for student labs

• Be specific• General: Proficient using various computer programs• Specific: Expert using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Access, and

Excel; proficient using Adobe Photoshop• Watch your verb tense• Past tense for completed activities

• Designed Access database applications used to track student support services

• Present tense for ongoing activities• Design web sites that utilize CSS, Java, PHP, and Flash

• Avoid the use of “I” except in your professional objective

DRAFT YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• Ensure that your name and contact info is easy to find• Include a professional objective• Provides a focus for your résumé• Take a reader-centered approach—what will you give to

your future employer?• Here’s how to do it• Identify the results sought by the department or unit in which

you wish to work.• State that your objective is to help achieve those results

DRAFT YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• Education—what should you highlight?• Advanced courses directly relevant to the job you want

(give titles, not course numbers)• Courses outside your major that broaden the range of

abilities you would bring to an employer• Internships, co-op assignments, or other on-the-job

academic experiences• Special projects, such as a thesis or design project in an

advanced course• Academic honors and scholarships• Study abroad• Training programs in which you participated

DRAFT YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• Work experience—what should you highlight?• Your accomplishments• Describe projects you worked on, problems you addressed,

goals you pursued, products you designed, and reports you helped write.

• Where possible, be specific about the results.

• Knowledge gained• Be resourceful in highlighting what you learned in your

previous work experience that might contribute to your future employer.

• Responsibilities given• If you supervised others, state how many. If you controlled a

budget, state how large it was. Employers will be impressed that others have entrusted you with significant responsibility.

DRAFT YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• Activities• At a minimum, listing your participation in group

activities communicates your sociality.• You can also use it to show that you have acquired non-

work experience that might be useful to your future employer.

• Special Abilities• Let employers know about exceptional achievements and

abilities of any sort, using headings such as “Foreign Languages,” “Certifications,” and so on.

DRAFT YOUR RÉSUMÉ

• References• Not always required, but usually a good idea• Usually 3 to 5 references• Select a mix of people• Faculty in major courses• Former employers• Advisers of campus groups• Supervisors in organizations where you volunteer

• Avoid listing family and friends• Provide titles, business addresses, phone numbers and email

addresses• Obtain permission from your referees before listing them as

references• (Ideally) Give a copy of your resume to your referees so that

they can quickly review your qualifications when they receive an inquiry from an employer

DESIGN YOUR RÉSUMÉ’S APPEARANCE

• Design for • Rapid reading• Emphasis of your most impressive qualifications• Attractiveness

• Some Basics• Use short, informative headings• Use different typefaces to communicate differences • Use lists (bullets, numbered) as appropriate• Use white space to separate sections• Use ample margins (minimum 1 inch all around)• Bold type and/or larger font size for headings and key

information• Try to find a visual balance between “boring” and

“overwrought”

WRITING YOUR JOB APPLICATION LETTER

The strategies are very similar to those employed in writing a résumé•Define your letter’s objectives•Plan your letter•Draft your letter•Revise your draft

DEFINE YOUR LETTER’S OBJECTIVES

• Usability—How will readers use this letter?• What do readers look for?• Why do you want to work for me instead of someone

else?• How will you contribute to my organization’s success?• Will you work well with my other employees and the

persons with whom we do business?

DEFINE YOUR LETTER’S OBJECTIVES

• Persuasiveness—what are my goals?• To respond to the employer’s questions in ways that

make the employer want to hire me• To convey a favorable sense of my enthusiasm,

creativity, commitment, and other attributes that employers value but can’t always be communicated easily in a résumé

PLAN YOUR LETTER

• For more on planning, drafting, and revising your job application letter, see pages 50-57 in Anderson, Technical Communication.

Documents

NOTES TO ANDERSON, CHAPTERS 1 & 2 PROFESSIONAL WRITING