week 7
This discussion thread will be the last one for our
class. I am making it a fairly
straightforward one, as I know you want time to
work on your white papers and other items.
This class is called “Introduction to Professional Writing.” The class has covered some aspects of
business writing and some aspects of technical writing. In this discussion thread, we will analyze
both business and technical writing.
For this discussion, you will access the article by Kitty O.
Locker. It is “Will Professional Communication Be the Death of Business
Communication?” The article is in your
e-reserves. It is also referred to at
the top of the week 8 content items.
You don’t have to read through the whole article. If you would like to, you will find a very
interesting historical analysis of the the teaching of technical writing and
the teaching of business writing. In a
nutshell, Locker makes the following 10 points:
1. In the 1900s, business writing focused on persuasion,
while technical writing focused on exposition (see pages 119-122).
2. The term professional writing was used to refer to
writing in the professions, such as medicine, law, and religion (see page 122).
3. Textbooks did not use the term professional to mean
business or technical writing until around 1987 (see page 122).
4. Journal articles started to use the term professional
communication around 1988 (see page 122).
5. The term professional writing then “mushrooms,” in
Locker’s view.
6. English departments did not like to use the word business
writing because it was associated with money and greed (see page 123). This trend fostered the use of the word
professional writing because it avoided the use of the term business (see page
123).
7. The term technical writing has been dominant over the
term business writing for three reasons: 1) research in technical writing is
more extensive than research on business writing, 2) companies hire people for
“technical writer” positions, thus engendering student perceptions that they
can make a living by studying technical writing. Companies do not have “business writer”
positions. 3) The onset of World War II
created the need for technical communication, with complex weaponry and the
need for instructions. “Business
communication has never been a national or business priority in the same way”
(p. 126).
8. In the 1970s, 50 percent of the business writing courses
resided in English departments. In 1993,
16 percent of business writing courses resided in English departments. Sixty percent were in business schools. And now business schools are starting to call
such courses managerial or executive communication (see page 127).
9. David Dobrin wrote an article in1987 giving technical
writing the high road over business writing (see page 128). Locker took exception to his article.
10. Technical writing
is different from business writing in that technical writing emphasizes
exposition (“One assumes a motivated but ignorant and perhaps impatient
audience.”), while business writing emphasizes persuasion (“The communicator’s
problem is not primarily exposition…but motivation.) (page 129).
For this discussion thread, please focus on pages 129-130 of
the article. Locker makes the case that
technical writing is not persuasive writing, but rather expository
writing. In other words, it gives
information. It does not persuade the
reader to take action. However, she
argues, business writing does persuade the reader in some way.
Do you agree with Locker?
Do you feel that technical writing
involves providing information for an audience already motivated to take a certain step, while business writing
is persuading an audience?
There is no right or wrong answer on this. You might say that in some ways Locker is
correct and in some ways she is not. O r you might say she is totally
correct. Or you might say that she is
not correct.
Please write a paragraph of
5-10 sentences in responding to
this thread. You can draw upon your
experience in writing your set of instructions, your experience in writing any
other assignments in this class, and your experience in writing in your
workplace or community, and your experience in writing for your other classes
as you construct your answer.
If you can interact with other classmates on their answers,
that interaction will enrich our discussion.
