ENC 3250 Professional Writing: Midterm Reflection
- 1. ENC 3250 PROFESSIONAL WRITING: MIDTERM REFLECTION. Angela Alexis Farinacci
- 2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • Something I have never thought about in writing is acknowledging a request that was sent to me. • Page 107 of Chapter 4 of our text states: “When a colleague or client sends you something or makes a request, you should acknowledge what was sent, respond to the request, or explain that you cannot respond to the request immediately in a short, polite note.” (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 107) • Personally I like to correspondences that I receive in a timely manner, but I have never thought about actually acknowledging the requests. • As a soccer referee, when we receive assignments for games, when we respond to the email of assignments we are to acknowledge our game day, time, and field location so our assignor knows we have looked at the full assignment. • I am learning more about this through the writing assignments we have written, such as Writings Assignments 1 and 2. • I’ve never looked at writing and responding to everyday correspondences in this way, but in the work-field, I believe this is important and something that I plan on working on doing routinely to practice and get ready for the work-force.
- 3. DIFFERENT FORMS OF WRITING • I have learned many things this semester, including the fact that there are multiple forms of business writing and a different way to tackle each one. Some of the forms of writing we have learned about so far in the text are: • Complaint Letters (pg. 110 in the text) • Correspondences • Inquiries and Responses (pg. 122 in the text) • Memos (pg. 131 in the text) http://www.mywordtemplates.org/wp-content/ uploads/2013/01/MOU-Template. png
- 4. RESPONSE WRITING (PG. 124) • I have learned a lot about response writing in Professional Writing: • When you receive the inquiry you need to be sure you have all the information and authority to respond. • Respond as promptly as possible. • If you receive an inquiry and feel as though you cannot answer that inquiry, find out who can and promptly forward them that inquiry so they have time to respond in a timely manner. • Notify the person who sent you the inquiry that you forward the inquiry. • (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 124) • We did a response writing for writing assignment 2 as we responded to the One Campus One Book Committee’s inquiry for a research analysis of possible books for the incoming freshman class to read.
- 5. SUBJECT LINES (PGS. 129-130) • Subject Lines are not something you see in every day writing, and again, are something you have to get used to including in business and professional writing. • It should follow the salutation. • “Insert one blank line above and one blank line below the subject line. (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 129) • It serves as an aid in focusing the topic and filing the letter. • I have learned about writing these on both of the writing assignments as well as the analysis assignments we have completed throughout this semester. • We do not necessarily have subject lines in Public Relations, but we do have headers, which are similar. So writing subject lines will help prepare me for writing headers on news releases.
- 6. BEING CONCISE • As someone who has been through Composition I and Composition II, I have a habit of wanting to make sure I include all the necessary detail in my writing. • The one thing that I am constantly having to focus and work on in my professional writing is being CONCISE and TO THE POINT. • I have learned a lot about this, specifically: • Business writing is not always about detail. • It is important to get to the point. • Don’t add a bunch of jargon. Get to your point and stick to the facts and the point of your correspondence. • I have enjoyed learning about conciseness as this is going to be a big part of my career in Public Relations. Writing Press Releases is an every-day task in my field and while they are different from most forms of writing as far as format goes, the key to a good Press Release is being concise and presenting the facts. • While Feature News Releases should include some opinion and “fluff,” your every day press release is about getting to the point and to the facts of the release and the news you are presenting.
- 7. CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS WRITING • I am enjoying learning about business writing. Some of the characteristics of business writing that I have learned about and never really thought about before this class are: • Coherence • Conciseness • Causes of wordiness • Parallel Structure (Chapter 10 of the text) http://terristurner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Content-Checklist.jpg
- 8. COHERENCE (PGS. 296-297) • “Writing is coherent when relationship among ideas are clear to readers.” (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 296) • In order to write coherently, some things to think about are: • Logical sequence of related ideas • Clear transitions between ideas • Thoughtful Transition between sentences and paragraphs (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 297) http://www.theenglishedition.com/wordp ress/wp-content/ uploads/2013/08/checklist-sm.
- 9. CONCISENESS (PGS. 297-298) • As I mentioned earlier, learning to write with conciseness is a big hurdle I’m jumping over in business writing coming from Composition I and II. • Concise writing is: • Free of unnecessary words, phrases, clauses, and sentences without sacrificing clarity or appropriate detail. (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 297) • It is not a synonym for Brevity. • While concise sentences do not always guarantee to be effective, wordy sentences sacrifice readability. (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 298) http://businessofteaching.files.wordpress.com/2 012/10/being-concise.jpg
- 10. CAUSES OF WORDINESS (PG. 298-299) • Balance is important. When conciseness gets overdone, the writing can become choppy and ambiguous. • Modifiers can cause wordiness • Expletives can cause wordiness • I like what the text states on page 299: “Wordiness is understandable when you are writing a draft, but it should not survive revision.” (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 299) • Drafts are when you are putting your thoughts on paper, your revised final draft should be clean and ready to present. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fiQ3tbMFiBw/T- 0IgEvPpZI/AAAAAAAAACw/zyC9BCb1zas/s1600/13_2+game+ wordiness+space_invaders+teaser.jpg
- 11. PARALLEL STRUCTURE (PGS. 308-309) • Parallel Structure is another characteristic of Business Writing I have not thought much about. It is not something you would think about in everyday writing. Yes we think about format and structure, but parallelism is not something I would have thought about as far as structure goes. • It requires that sentences be alike in function and grammatically as well. • It achieves an “economy” of words, it clarifies their meaning, and expresses the equality of their ideas. It basically puts emphasis. • It can be achieved through words, phrases, or clauses (Alred, Brusaw, Oliu, pg. 309) http://www.lavc.edu/writingcenter/images/parllel_i mage.gif
- 12. WORKS CITED • Alred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. The business writer's companion. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. Print. • "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://www.theenglishedition.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/checklist-sm.png>. • "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://terristurner.com/wp-content/ uploads/2012/01/Content-Checklist.jpg>. • "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://www.mywordtemplates.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/MOU-Template.png>. • "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://businessofteaching.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/being-concise.jpg>. • "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/- fiQ3tbMFiBw/T- 0IgEvPpZI/AAAAAAAAACw/zyC9BCb1zas/s1600/13_2+game+wordiness+space_invaders+teaser.j pg>. • "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://www.lavc.edu/writingcenter/images/parllel_image.gif>.