Within Western culture, there are few workplaces with ONLY men or ONLY women. In theory, our workplaces are gender neutral. Our language, however, sometimes perpetuates a world in which women are subservient to men. Sexist language is commonly characterized using six issues: pseudo-generic pronoun, he (e.g., When an employee asks for a raise, he should be brief.) pseudo-generic noun,…
Because pro writers recognize their limitations, they adopt practices designed to overcome them. One of those practices is testing a draft before delivering the final document. That’s why I highlighted the practice within my post: What is plain language? (Part Four: Putting It All Together in a Process). There are lots of document quality testing methods. While the source…
Although I don’t have much time today, I promised the doctoral students I met with at LSU last Friday that I would share an interesting phrasebank from the folks at the University of Manchester for those learning to write like a researcher in English. Here are some examples for use in the Introduction section of…
Today’s post begins a series on the different sections that make up a research article (RA). I’m tackling the Introduction section first. The Introduction provides a “frame” for the research. It sets the boundaries for interpretation. (See this post for a discussion of the overall structure of the RA.) Based on my 25 or so years of experience writing and teaching others…
I’m working on a post about research articles, but it’s not ready for the world yet. So I wanted to share a terrific piece on vision statements from Gavin over at Make A POWERful Point. He contrasts this vision statement attributed to Albertsons: Guided by relentless focus on our five imperatives, we will constantly strive to implement the…
I’ve been struggling to understand why teaching undergraduate students to write for the workplace is so difficult since around 1988. Quite a while back, I recognized that students have to clear a psychological hurdle to succeed. I just couldn’t figure out what to call that hurdle. Until now. In a 1999 article in the Journal…
It’s a mistake to think your readers aren’t forming perceptions of you based on your written messages . . . My favorite in this amusing image about text messages is the first one. It’s no coincidence that readers label someone who doesn’t get to the point until the end the “professor.” Students don’t learn to put the bottom line first until…
This post is devoted to the genre of research articles. (If you need a brief introduction to what I mean by genre, read Pros have contextualized knowledge.) The ultimate proving ground for researchers outside the humanities, where books and essays may still be king, is publication of articles in peer-reviewed journals or conference collections. I’m teaching a course on…
To celebrate my birthday with Pros Write readers, I thought I’d share some of the OTHER interesting things that have happened on March 28. On this date in 1960, when I was born, Time magazine’s cover was devoted to Jacques Cousteau. And a scotch factory in Glasgow exploded, burying 20 fire fighters. It gets worse if you look…
It’s a conundrum. Do amateurs struggle to write successfully in the workplace because they have too much or too little knowledge? The answer is “yes.” Here’s what I mean. Amateurs suffer from too much knowledge about their message. In the workplace, it’s commonplace for writers to have more information than their readers. I mean . . . That’s…