Perceptions of Memo Quality: A Case Study of Engineering Practitioners, Professors, and Students

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2005

Perceptions of Memo Quality: A Case Study of Engineering Practitioners, Professors, and Students

Nicole Amare University of South Alabama ; Charlotte Brammer Samford University

Abstract

One goal of college technical writing courses is to prepare students for real-world writing situations. Business writing textbooks function similarly, using guidelines, sample assignments, and model documents to help students develop rhetorical strategies to use in the workplace. Students attend class, or read and perform exercises in a textbook, with the faith that these skills will apply to workplace writing. In an attempt to better understand the similarities and differences between industry and academe's expectations of one genre of workplace writing, the memo, we compared the perceptions of memo quality by engineering faculty, students, and practitioners. All three groups responded to three sample memos taken from textbooks used by engineering professors in their undergraduate classrooms. The results indicate that students' and engineers' opinions of memo quality were more closely related to one another than to professors' comments, focusing on content, while professors were the most critical of style issues.

Journal: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published: 2005-04-01
DOI: 10.2190/ml5n-eyg1-t3f7-rer6
Open Access: Closed
Topics: qualitative research multimodality technical communication professional writing voice and style

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

Amare et al. (2009)

Examining Editor-Author Ethics: Real-World Scenarios from Interviews with Three…

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Amare (2006)

To Slideware or Not to Slideware: Students' Experiences with <i>Powerpoint</i> …

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (2)

Smith (2003)

What is "Good"Technical Communication? A Comparison of the Standards of Writing…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Schillaci (1996)

Training Engineers to Write: Old Assumptions and New Directions

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Also cites 9 works outside this index ↓

10.1109/47.678552

↗
10.1109/47.486046

↗
de Jong M. and Schellens P. J., Formative Evaluation in Document Design: Validity of the Plus-Minus Method fo…

↗
10.1109/47.44536

↗
10.1177/108056999906200308

↗
10.1109/47.843648

↗
10.1109/TPC.2002.1003696

↗
Brammer (2002)

10.37514/JBW-J.2002.21.1.03

Journal of Basic Writing ↗
10.1177/108056990106400303

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 9 View in citation network →