WRITING FOR THE WORKPLACE

DISCUSSION: YOUR CAREER PLANS  Do you think that your future career or job will require you to do much writing?  Has college introduced you to some of the writing you will be doing in the future?  Think about the blog post your wrote at the beginning of class. Did a past job require you to write? Did you like to do it?

DO ALL JOBS INCLUDE WRITING? Almost all jobs include SOME type of writing. Each field includes a different type of writing including entirely different rhetorical situations. Particularly because we live in the digital age, even jobs that did not used to include extensive writing now do because of things like , blogging, and social media. In workplace writing, professionalism is always a must.

CAREERS/JOBS: TYPES OF WRITING INCLUDED  Police Officers: Reports  Marketing: Copy, reports, sales, s, proposals, ads, and much more!  Teaching: Lesson plans, s, parent communications, letters, proposals, and much more!  Business: Reports, s, social media, proposals, presentations, letters, records, purchase orders, and much more!  Social Work: ENDLESS! TOO MUCH TO LIST! Some of the writing includes reports, analysis, proposals, and presentations. *Technical/labor intensive employees such as auto mechanics, road workers, service providers, medical staff, and others now find themselves preparing detailed reports and regular communication with clients, customers, and employers.

HOW IS REPORTING INFORMATION DIFFERENT FROM OTHER TYPES OF WRITING? HOW IS IT THE SAME?  Open your book to page 87 The below Groups will answer questions about Michela Cullington’s essay titled “Does Texting Affect Writing?” Select a speaker and writer for each of your groups so that you can present and record your responses.  Group 1: Explain how the author opens her report, defines key terms, and presents her thesis.  Group 2: What steps does she take in analyzing the causes and effects of her topic?  Group 3: How does she synthesize various sources of information?  Group 4: What types of firsthand research does she do? How does this strengthen her report?  Group 5: How does she utilize comparison and contrast strategies? What is valuable about her discussion of findings?  Group 6: Why is it good or bad that she provided pertinent personal experiences? Explain how she summarizes her topic. What does she do to finalize her report?

A REPORT INCLUDES…  A tightly focused topic  Accurate, well-researched information  Various writing strategies (organization)  Clear definitions  Appropriate design  Consideration of the rhetorical situation Bullock, Goggen, and Weinberg