Professional and Technical Writing/Rhetoric
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[edit] Rhetorical Nature of Technical and Professional Writing
In the workplace, employees write for practical purposes. The goal is to effectively convey information to the audience that needs it. Workplace writing differs from writing done in an educational or social context. In the workplace, all writing is considered a legal document, and writing will usually be retained for several years. These writings can be brought up in the future if legal complications arise.
[edit] Reader-Centric Writing
Workplace writing should always focus on the reader. What does the reader need to know? Writing should effectively convey the precise information that the reader is seeking. If the writing is an attempt to persuade the reader, then the writer must consider what will persuade the reader most. For example, a work team may be writing a proposal to install new production machinery in a factory. Different readers in the company will want different information from this proposal. A well-written document will consider every potential reader and give the information that each reader is seeking.
[edit] Effective Workplace Writing
Workplace writing must be usable and persuasive to all potential readers. For a document to be efficient, it must be easily understood by the audience. A document that is hard to understand is not usable and is not effective writing. Highly-usable writing should help readers quickly locate information, easily understand the information, and use the information to complete their task.
Persuasive writing will convince readers that the information is accurate and should be followed. All workplace writing will need to convince the reader that the information is credible. The reader may be considering several different proposals, and the chosen proposal is likely to be the one that is most persuasive. If writing is not persuasive, then it will not be followed, and the entire writing effort will have been wasted.
[edit] How Writers and Readers Interact
Writers and readers interact in unique ways. In all cases, writing is a one-way flow of information; therefore, writers should consider and include all of their readers' needs. Every reader may be different, and an effective writer must anticipate what will be most useful to the audience. In addition, the world is extremely diverse on all account. Some readers may be more relaxed and harder to offend than others. For this reason, writers need to learn to be conscientious in their writing to ensure they won't discourage one of their readers. If a reader is offended, odds are if a decision is to be made it won't be in the writers favor. By being an effective writer, one can eliminate unnecessary pieces of information to ensure straight to the point documents.
Different readers construct different meanings from the same words. The meaning may be shaped by a user's previous experience, culture, or even a user's state of mind. The statement, "He gave her cat food," could have several different meanings. Each reader will construct the meaning based on the context of the writing and the reader's previous experiences.
Readers react moment by moment when reading a document. Important information will usually have more impact if it is placed at the beginning of a document. This is because there is a better chance that it will be read. Many readers will not finish a document, so an inverted pyramid writing style is more effective. In addition, the average business professional says that they do not spend more than 30 seconds reading a resume, and no more than 5 minutes on a business proposal. In today's society time is money, and people can't afford to waste it. This means the most important information is at the beginning of the document and least important is at the end. Furthermore, a writer attempting humor in a long technical document may confuse the reader. However, if the same humor were used in a writing about a personal anecdote, the reader might be more easily amused. This would make the writing much more effective for the reader by keeping them interested. Readers have different reactions to writing, and these reactions depend on everything from the writing context to the reader's cultural upbringing.
