Toward Competent Writing in the Workplace

Richard H. Haswell Washington State University

Abstract

Findings from a comparison of undergraduate and on-the-job writers recommend some changes in traditional methods of teaching technical writing in college. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and “competent” writers in business and industry were given the same composing task. The writing of the employees showed telling and sometimes unexpected differences in a wide variety of areas, in length, vocabulary, organization, specificity, coherence, sentence formation, and surface error. Implied is increased attention to several general writing skills: compression of meaning, fluency of expression, efficiency in techniques of coherence, expandability of organization and syntax, and rhetorical maneuverability and adaptability.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
1988-04-01
DOI
10.2190/gjdl-t8y0-wh12-fwuw
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly

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