I have used the term “genre” — even in the titles of a few blog posts — a number of times. But I realized a couple of days ago that I have never explicitly defined the concept here. My bad! Most people are familiar with the word’s use in the context of music. If you use…
One of the most important things any teacher or manager can do to help amateurs become pro writers is to discuss sample messages with them. The key here is discussing the sample message in sufficient, relevant detail and connecting those details to future messages the writer will create.** Here are the guidelines I’ve provided before to those introducing…
Anyone who avoids full responsibility after making a mistake counts as an amateur in my book. This past week, my students discussed the purpose and effectiveness of a letter from a publications manager to a group of volunteer editors. The consensus was that it effectively informed readers about the reasons for performance issues in the manager’s area, as well as plans to address them in the…
In getting ready for my leadership communication class tonight, I have been thinking about power. After all, leadership implies power. Most management researchers differentiate among different bases of social power: Legitimate power (position, reciprocity, equity, & dependence) Reward power (personal & impersonal) Coercive power (personal & impersonal) Informational power (direct & indirect) Expert power (positive…
I have been totally consumed with my day job the past few days. The semester starts at Bama next week. Cause I don’t want ya to think I forgot ya, I’m sending you to a nice piece by Stan Carey, who blogs at Sentence First. He talks about word choice and defines “inkhorn” and “sesquipedalianism” for…
A couple of days ago, Gabe Doyle wrote an enlightening explanation of the psychology behind word choice. A writer has two options when deciding whether to use a word s/he has recognized as “questionable”: To satisfice by deciding the benefits of using it outweigh the costs To optimize by deciding to search for a better word…
A while back, I included a personal example of audience analysis. Thanks to Tom Orr for suggesting that I follow up by showing y’all the letter. I decided it might be helpful to share even more of the process — like how we developed the content for the first draft. So here goes. Purpose & Audience:…
Julia Williams, President of the Professional Communication Society (and one of my favorite colleagues) has negotiated a deal to offer a free eLearning course on leadership communication to IEEE members. Details are available in Julia’s Monthly eNotice. IEEE offers 3 CEUs (or professional development hours) for successful completion of the course. I created the content for…
Here (finally) is the tutorial on analyzing a workplace audience. I’ve been distracted for a few days, playing nurse for my 17- year-old son after oral surgery. Whew! More later . . . Related articles Pros don’t settle for platitudes about audience (proswrite.com)
Know your audience! The most common platitude about workplace writing. Well . . . duh . . . who could argue with that? It certainly doesn’t describe what pros have learned. What amateurs need is GUIDANCE for getting to know the right things about their readers. My guidance, based on a chapter new to the third edition of Revising Professional Writing, focuses…