Writing In The Workplace

Writing at work is made easier with this all-inclusive guide. Offering a practical approach to writing in print and electronic formats, these pages explore organizational images and cultures, a writing strategy; researching; revising; incorporating graphics; letters and memos; design; employment communication; reports, proposals and instructions; and oral communication.

Employers consider communication one of the most critical skills for workers today. Writing for the Workplace: Business Communication for Professionals is an easy- to-follow guide that provides strategies for effective professional communication. Written to address the needs of both students entering the workforce and business professionals looking to improve their written communication, the book offers guides to compose typical workplace documents, from effective e-mails and convincing reports to winning presentations and engaging resumes. This concise book offers busy readers concrete strategies to improve their workplace writing.

An anthology containing 19 previously unpublished contributions, some reporting on workplace writing studies completed since the mid-1980s, and others introducing new arguments about research to date and future research directions. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Workplace Writing: Beyond the Text draws together a wealth of research into different aspects of writing in workplace settings, creating a comprehensive picture of workplace writing and covering factors and activities that go far beyond the text. In a full analysis of the challenges facing the student writer transitioning from the academy to the workplace, this book: covers topics ranging from intertextuality and collaborative writing practices to considerations of power and politeness, and the impact of organisational culture and processes of socialisation brings together the multiple, often interlinked factors that surround and impact on the process of workplace writing and the texts produced in professional settings takes a close look at the pedagogical implications of the various issues relating to workplace writing serves as a resource for teachers who want to go beyond potentially simplistic accounts of writing in the workplace and to provide students with a richer picture of what happens there Workplace Writing will be essential reading for any students, pre- and in-service teachers and researchers with an interest in professional and business discourse and language teaching for specific purposes.

In Writing Workplace Cultures: An Archaeology of Professional Writing, Jim Henry analyzes eighty-three workplace writing ethnographies composed over seven years in a variety of organizations. He views the findings as so many shards in an archaeology on professional writing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. These ethnographies were composed by either practicing or aspiring writers participating in a Master’s program in professional writing and editing. Henry solicited the writers' participation in "informed intersubjective research" focused on issues and questions of their own determination. Most writers studied their own workplace, composing "auto-ethnographies" that problematize these workplaces' local cultures even as they depict writing practices within them. Henry establishes links between current professional writing practices and composition instruction as both were shaped by national economic development and local postsecondary reorganization throughout the twentieth century. He insists that if we accept basic principles of social constructionism, the text demonstrates ways in which writers "write" workplace cultures to produce goods and services whose effects go far beyond the immediate needs of its clients.

This practical resource provides guidance for writing professionals to sustainably tackle the organizational writing challenges of any professional environment. Rooted in applied experience, Building a Workplace Writing Center guides readers through the process of developing a writing center, from assessing the needs of an organization and pitching the idea of a writing center, to developing a service model and measuring progress. Chapters explore what a writing center can offer, such as one-on-one writing consultations, tailored group workshops, and standardized writing guidance and resources. Although establishing a writing center requires time and a shift in culture up front, it is a rewarding process that produces measurably improved writing, less frustration with the writing and revision processes, and more confident, independent writers. This guide is an invaluable resource for professionals across industries and academia considering how to establish an embedded, sustainable, and cost-effective workplace writing center. It will be of particular interest to business and human resource managers considering how best to improve writing skills within their organizations.

Effective writing is a key to professional success.

Worlds Apart: Acting and Writing in Academic and Workplace Contexts offers a unique examination of writing as it is applied and used in academic and workplace settings. Based on a 7-year multi-site comparative study of writing in different university courses and matched workplaces, this volume presents new perspectives on how writing functions within the activities of various disciplines: law and public administration courses and government institutions; management courses and financial institutions; social-work courses and social-work agencies; and architecture courses and architecture practice. Using detailed ethnography, the authors make comparisons between the two types of settings through an understanding of how writing is operative within the particularities of these settings. Although the research was initially established to further understanding of the relationships between writing in academic and workplace settings, it has evolved to examining writing as it is embedded in both types of settings--where social relationships, available tools, and historical, cultural, temporal, and physical location are all implicated in complex ways in the decisions people make as writers. Readers of this volume will discover that the uniqueness of each setting makes salient different aspects of writers and writing, resulting in complex, and potentially unsettling implications for writing theory and the teaching of writing.