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Abstract

Learning six key processes will enable students to adapt their writing to any on-the-job challenge they meet. These processes include: invention, adaptation for audience, clarification of purpose, organization, control of voice or persona, and polishing. This list is based on an informal survey of 125 writers in business, industry, and government. Methods for teaching the processes are derived from texts and articles in rhetoric, composition, technical writing, and business writing. Although the classroom application of these processes is illustrated in an analysis of one writing assignment, the memo, the processes can be taught in assignments ranging from job application materials to negative letters to proposals to formal reports. They can serve as the foundation of any course in business writing.

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References

In six writing workshops I conducted at Bell Telephone, General Motors, IBM, and the United States Great Lakes Basin Commission, 1978-1980, I distributed questionnaires to all workshop participants. The answers to question 4 are categorized at the beginning of this article.

For example, see Stine, Donna and Donald Skarzenski , "Priorities for the Business Communication Classroom: A Survey of Business and Academe," The Journal of Business Communication 16:3 (Spring, 1979),15-30.

Young, Richard E. , Alton L. Becker , and Kenneth L. Pike , Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970, pp. 119-135.

Lauer, Janice , Gene Montague, Andrea Lunsford, and Janet Emig, Four Worlds of Writing, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, 296-327.

Flower, Linda , "Writer-based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing," College English 91 (May 1979), 19-37.

Mathes, J.S. and Dwight Stevenson , Designing Technical Reports: Writing for Audiences in Organizations, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976, 24-42.

Ewing, David W. , Writing for Results in Business, Government, and the Professions, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974, 99-132.

Halpern, Jeanne W. , "Differences between Speaking and Writing and Their Implications for Teaching," College Composition and Communication, forthcoming.

Gibson, Walker , Tough, Sweet and Stuffy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.

10.

Storms, Gilbert , "Encouraging Revision among Business Writing Students," paper presented at ABCA Midwest Regional Meeting, Valparaiso, Indiana, April 12, 1980.

What Should We Be Teaching Students in Business Writing?

Abstract

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