CHARACTERISTICS OF JOB RELATED WRITINGA BRIEF OVERVIEW

6 BASIC FUNCTIONS• Provide practical information

• Give facts rather than impressions

• Supply visuals to clarify and condense information

• Give accurate measurements

• State responsibilities precisely

• Persuade and offer recommendations

Comes after answering who, why, what, how.

PROVIDING PRACTICAL INFORMATION• “Here’s what you need to know.”

• Gives only the need-to-know information. Leave everything else out.

• Action oriented

• Instruct your reader to do something• Knowledge oriented

• Explain what your reader needs to understand

GIVING FACTS, NOT IMPRESSIONS• What can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled

• Uses concrete language and specific details

• Emphasis on facts rather than writer’s feelings or guesses

VISUALS• On the job writing makes frequent use of visuals

• Helps readers better understand a concept

• Makes detailed relationships clear to the reader

We will talk about visuals later in the semester!

GIVE ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS• Numbers are clear and convincing

• Most supervisors want to see progress in numbers THEN have an explanation given

• Be sensitive to the unit of measurements used by clients or partners

• Most countries use the Metric Scale of measurements• Use numerals

• ‘1’ instead of ‘one’

STATE RESPONSIBILITIES• Make it absolutely clear what you expect of the audience

• Don’t assume the reader knows how to do something

• Misunderstandings waste time and cost money!

PERSUASION AND RECOMMENDATIONS• Persuading Readers

• Promote company image• Convince readers about something• Support your claims with evidence

• Offering Recommendations

• Make sure to offer plausible recommendations. • If you do not have a recommendation, you can leave this part

out.