There are numerous differences between workplace writing and college level essays. When writing a workplace memo, the main objective is to create an effective document designed to communicate and share relevant information to organizational members in a simplified and effective language that is detailed enough to inform and address the different needs and issues for the intended audience. When writing a college essay, the goal is to prove to the audience, usually the professor, a mastered understanding of the assigned topic of the essay. This can be done by using research to validate ideas, elaborate on the ideas presented in the essay and demonstrate a complete understanding of the subject. Workplace writing has a unique purpose, and …show more content…
However, even in workplace writing, correct grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and tone must be used accurately. Humor and slang should never be used in workplace writing because the audience may misinterpret or not comprehend the author’s meaning creating unintentional offense
Readers of business writings often skim the written memos. It is imperative that the author gets the point of the writing across without using elaborate wording and unnecessary verbiage. Typically, readers look for the main point of the memo and tend to skip over the meaningless nonsense. Therefore, it is necessary for the author to keep the memo short, sweet and to the point while maintaining the objective of the memo. In academic writing, the main purpose of the essay is to demonstrate to the audience a thorough understanding of the topic discussed and substantiate the thesis using academic evidence. Sometimes. both primary and secondary sources are needed to acquire the information crucial for the essay. More time is needed to develop these complex concepts and supporting data. An academic essay follows a structure that consists of an introduction with a thesis, a body that supports that thesis, and a conclusion. The author may use intricate sentences and lengthy paragraphs to develop the sophistication of their ideas.
Academic writing uses formal language that is not
In brief, chapter 4 of The Longman Writer by Judith Nadell and John Lang taught the reader how to support the thesis using evidence. As an addition to chapter 3 “Identifying a Thesis”, chapter 4 emphasizes the importance of supporting the central idea by using enough evidence to convince the reader. Forms of evidence include “examples, facts, details, statistics, personal observation” (41) or anything that furthers the reader’s understanding. The evidence used should achieve three task, which are to justify how you (as the writer) feel, interest the reader, and paint a clear picture. By the same token, all evidence should follow certain characteristics, being: relevant, specific, an adequate amount of support, dramatic enough to alter reader’s feelings to your own, accurate, representative (or relatable), and genuine documentation (articles, encyclopedias, etc.) (45). For the most part, Chapter 4 conduces effective writing with evidence.
Personally, from the class of English 1101, I have learned on how to use the writing processes effectively, where the first step is to have a pre-write, which focuses on brainstorming ideas form either the group or from individuals’ brain for the required topic. The second phase of the process is the thesis statement, which is the primary idea of the entire essay. I discovered that the thesis statement should be persuasive and truthful. The third step is on developing drafts, where it showed me on how to focus on content, organization, and style. Again, I noted that I must ask myself who is my audience, and what do they want or need to hear.
Reflecting on this course over this semester, there have been many lessons learned that will be valuable, as we enter the business world. Our first lesson was to learn to work together, as a team, to prepare a short memo, long memo, letter, and email for use in the business world. This is a lesson that will experience many times as we do our daily work. Punctuation and grammar are so important to present to the client and other organizations that we are professionals. It could mean the loss of a sale or acquiring new business. It’s like dressing for work; looking professional or unprofessional.
Writing an essay may seem like a huge obstacle to overcome, but with a plan of attack and a little organization, it can be easily completed. All it takes is seven easy steps.
Every essay must have a statement which conveys the author’s fundamental idea. Authors express their main paper’s main idea within a couple of sentences, otherwise known as a thesis statement (Kennedy et al. 32). For example, if an author’s main idea in an essay was to persuade the readers to carpool, than his or her thesis statement must clearly formulate the primary idea to the readers. Thesis statements ease the process of writing an essay by connecting all of the writer’s ideas, while also allowing the reader to better recognize and appreciate the text (Kennedy et al. 33). For instance, if a student omits a thesis statement on an English paper his or her professor would likely be confused with the main purpose of the text, thus being unable
Essay writing is one of the basic skills needed to have when attending school. No matter how a student tries to reduce the amount of writing needed for an essay, they will have to master the method for your assignment. The writer could use an essay to either inform, persuade, or entertain the audience but if their essay is boring and dry the writer will not get the audience’s attention. The content should have a specific objective to reach a particular audience. When writing a good essay, everyone has a different opinion on the technics needed for the essay to be entertaining.
Within English 219, we have already learned a vital set of writing skills, that will allow for the improvement of essays, and summaries that must be written for future assessments. Some of these skills that would be relevant for achieving general writing improvement could be ideas such as thesis development, structuring and planning, or more specific examples when actually fleshing out the essay such as elements of grammar and style. Thesis development which is crucial so that ideas can be fully explained and related back to a point which can be interpreted as an overarching theme for the entire paper, and allows the reader to interpret the topic of not only the essay but of each paragraph. Taking a step back we looked in class at the subject
Writing an essay in college is a big challenge for most students, including myself. It involves strong critical thinking and a meticulous process. After narrowing down and selecting a topic, we then need to establish the main point and how we want to deliver our opinions, ideas, or visions to our audience. We want to create a piece of writing that delivers a clear message, with strong and relevant details, to support the main point. We need to think and plan thoroughly, write, review, and rewrite before we get the end result. This is why drafting, reviewing, revising, and editing are vital parts of writing.
Scholarly and workplace writing is important in the workplace environment. There are some important key ideas that I learned that writing in the workplace requires more understanding and comprehension in order to convey thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively. Also, I learned that in order to effectively write in the workplace, it is important to critically read the content to build a basic background about the writing content. The purpose of writing in the workplace is to define tasks and actions in order to make things happen.
Robert Behn, writes that you should “avoid the obtuse background section,” and instead place only interesting facts to keep the attention of those reading your memo. Behn, stresses that a memo must contain facts but for the most part be entertaining to keep the reader’s attention throughout the memo. However, in the memo outline by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, which highlights the importance of providing a brief overview of the history and context of the problem you are addressing to inform your audience. The Gerald R. Ford School emphasizes background information to make your audience aware of the problem being address, while Behn prefers entertainment with minimum facts. In Behn’s instruction on how to create a memo, he stresses that holding the audience’s attention is the most important thing a memo must do. While, the Gerald R. Ford School stresses context and history over
1. Compose a theoretically sound and conceptually rich essay that demonstrates knowledge of fundamental subject areas of a student’s academic discipline and specialization.
Business writing instruction doesn't only influence writing skills. It will help me to formulate my thoughts more analytically, succinctly, and clearly as well as, simultaneously, enhancing my oral communication
Throughout high school, I have been practicing numerous types of writing. Persuasive, research, expository, emails, the list is extensive. However, I have a very limited experience with workplace writing. Through a volunteer opportunity, I am currently exploring educational writing geared towards elementary and middle school students who have an interest in aviation. This opportunity requires me to create lesson plans, informative papers, and concise instructions for the students, as well as my supervisors. While there have been many influences on my writing, I believe the most beneficial experience I have had was enrolling in an advanced placement course. This course pushed me to write in a timely manner, exercise multiple essay and sentence
I once had to write a letter to employees in my company as I worked as an assistant to someone in a high position explaining to them why a certain room that used to be a break room was now off limits to them. What had happened is that there were employees who were abusing their privileges in the break room. Some had stolen soda from a refrigerator as well as some beer that was put in there for special meetings that my boss had with individuals coming to the company. People were aware that while they were allowed to use the break room to eat lunch or drink a coffee on their break, they were not, however, allowed to go into the refrigerator. There were two or three warnings that were given and then I got the word from my boss to write a letter to all employees telling them why they were no longer allowed to use the room. In this letter, I essentially had to persuade people of the fact that there was harm done. I had heard around the office that many individuals were up in arms about the fact that my boss was so upset about the missing beverages. They believed that the company was stable enough (i.e. wealthy enough) to offer their employees free beverages and they didn't understand what the big deal was about. My orders were to write a letter explaining that the privileges were being revoked, why the were being revoked, as well as explain how it was morally wrong to steal from a company. In essence, I had to persuade the other employees of their wrongdoing.
“Written reports on the other hand give executives, managers, and supervisor’s detailed information as to their overall progress on projected tasks within different departments; and overall company goals” (Nelson & Quick, 2017, pg. 131). In addition, however, there is other types of written communications, such as memo’s and letter’s which give more adequate information when communicating officially, these being larger in span and theme compared to memo’s. “Thus, making the shortest kind of written communication to be that of form, which may be used to collect information inside or outside the organization” (Nelson & Quick, 2017, pg. 131).