The Future of Business Writing

When I was examining the Writer’s Web Writing in the Disciplines page before beginning my final project, I took at look at the Business WID page with great expectations. Because all business majors are required to take Business Communications before the end of their sophomore year, I expected the Business WID page to be an extensive collection of tips for writing reports, memos, proposals, and business plans. I was surprised, however, that the only subject area within business represented on the WID page was economics. While most concentrations and majors in the Robins School of Business do not require an overwhelming amount of writing, there are certain kinds of business writing that all business majors will have to complete at some point in their career, regardless of their specialization.

As a business major, I believe that it is extremely important for my classmates to have a good understanding of what business writing entails. For many, a knowledge how to write clearly and how to get ideas across effectively could be the difference between getting an interview, or being overlooked by an employer. If one is lucky enough to get a job, the level of writing that is expected of you will not decrease. In the business world, the words that you put in an email, a memo, or a formal report could affect yourself, your department, or your company to a great extent.

I think that having this knowledge of the amount of writing emphasized in the business world is the reason that I was so surprised at the lack of detail on the Business Writing in the Disciplines page on our Writer’s Web. Business Administration and Accounting are the two most popular majors on campus, which just further increases the need for greater writing emphasis on Writer’s Web, as well as in the Business School.

For my website, I decided to focus on the piece of writing that had given me the most trouble when I took Business Communications last semester: the business proposal. To me, I could not quite understand the balance between factual information and persuasion that had to be included in the document. However, while conducting my research and an interview with Dr. Jeff Pollack of the management department, I began to understand why such a balance is necessary in such an important document.

I began with my interview with Dr. Pollack. Dr. Pollack and I became close this year in my Living and Learning class, in which he was one of the two professors. Our class, which was focused on the subject of Social Entrepreneurship, opened my eyes to the non-profit facet of the business world, which, unfortunately, is not always emphasized in the Robins School of Business. Dr. Pollack requires his management students to write business proposals as their final project, which means that he is relatively experienced with this form of business writing. His answers to my questions were extremely helpful in guiding my research into different kinds of literature regarding business proposals and the kind of writing that is required to write an effective one. 

I used the library databases and came across many articles that, basically, agreed with my contention that writing needs to have a greater emphasis put on it in undergraduate business schools. Bill Rainey reported surprising statistics in his article “Proposal Writing – A Neglected Area of Instruction”. He surveyed the CEOs of fifty manufacturing firms in an attempt to determine the importance of executives to write technical proposals. Rainey found that “the number of executives officers reporting ‘great’ or ‘crucial’ exceeded 50 per cent” (32). Rainey also surveyed 116 undergraduate business professors to determine their views on the importance of writing in undergraduate business. Surprisingly, only 32.7% of the professors surveyed believed that “a course in writing business and technical proposals…is important enough for business majors to be offered as a distinct course” (32). The clear disconnect between the needs of executives in the business world and those instructing the business leaders of tomorrow is enough to cause a concern among any undergraduate currently enrolled in a business program.

I made the decision to tailor my Business Proposal WID page first on the literature specific to the kind of writing I was focusing on and then refer to our readings from class. I originally though that making connections between a page on writing business proposals and the different readings that we had done in class would be difficult, but I was surprised at how many similarities there actually were between the two disciplines. For example, Eubanks and Schaeffer’s argument surrounding the problem of academic jargon is completely applicable to business writing. The authors’ assertion that specialized vocabulary used often and incorrectly can make a piece of writing appear insincere is an important point that all business majors should take note of. If one utilized a word that “sounded” right without knowing the correct meaning in a piece of business writing, not only could one lose their job, but their reputation could be irrevocably tarnished.

During finals week, I met with Dr. Essid to discuss my final project. We began discussing the topic of writing in the Robins School of Business here at UR. He said something that particularly stuck in my mind and has inspired me as a future Writing Consultant. More or less, Dr. Essid said this (please excuse my paraphrasing!):

“We have a good business school, there are better ones out there. I do not believe that the business schools at state schools focus on writing. I wonder if we could set ourselves apart as a business school by placing a greater emphasis on writing.”

I agree with him to the greatest extent possible. I am happy to be a part of the Robins School of Business and am always proud to see where we are ranked when Business Week releases their list of top business schools. I would love for us to differentiate ourselves by putting a greater emphasis on business writing. I want all of my peers to graduate with a job in hand, and I sincerely believe that a larger writing program in the business school will help us to get there. 

High Reward

Learning about working with English Language Learner students has been a particularly interesting part of English 383, in my opinion. Because I come from a multicultural background, I am always interested in research that has been done about people from my mother and father's cultures. Reading articles about how to best assist those writers who may be struggling with the English language has been some of the best readings that I have done in this class and I cannot wait to put these theories into practice.

Mosher's "Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers" was an article that I particularly enjoyed. His WATCH method for assisting ELL writers will be so beneficial for me when I am working with international students in the future. I am so happy that Mosher emphasizes that "helping the writer is [our] primary purpose". I think that, over the course the semester, we may have gotten caught up in theories and readings and lost sight of the reason that we are Writing Consultants. We all have the ability to write well. In my opinion, when one has a particular strength or skill, it is part of their responsibility to share that ability with others. I know that I have always loved helping others with their writing and I hope that I will not lose sight of that when I begin working in the Writing Center.

Our responsibility to our peers is exponentially increased when we are faced with a situation involved a writer whose native language is not English. Forget nuance and flow; many of these writers must focus on sentence-level errors or organization as a whole. When an ELL student walks through the doors of the Writing Center, we as Consultants must share our skill with them and help them to the best of our ability. I am so happy that Mosher emphasized this aspect of consulting in his article...I think we may have needed a little reminder.

Another aspect of Mosher's article that I enjoyed was how he broke issues into "Cultural Variants". We as Americans often do not acknowledge that people in other cultures do things differently than we do. As the world becomes smaller with the help of technology, it is increasingly important that we acknowledge these differences in culture and that we are respectful to those who hail from different places than we do. I know that, as a business major, the likelihood of me working with people from different countries is very high. When I am reading a report or proposal written by someone with different cultural variants than my own, I am sure that I will return to Mosher's article to remind myself of these differences.

I welcome the challenge of working with ELL students as a Writing Consultants. It may be one of the more difficult tasks that I will face during my time in the Writing Center, but I am sure it will be the most rewarding.

Final Project Prospectus

For my final project, I plan on exploring the "best practices" for writing business proposals. The Business WID page seems to concentrate only on writing for economics and general business communication. As a business student, I believe that having a more in-depth resource available to my peers at the Robins School of Business would encourage more students to come to the Writing Center.

I would like to focus on business proposals because I believe that they are important to all business students, regardless of major or concentration. I will interview Dr. Jeff Pollack, who is a management professor in the business school who concentrates in entrepreneurship. In his entrepreneurship classes, Dr. Pollack requires all of his students to write and present a business plan for a company that is entirely their own. I plan on discussing best practices with Dr. Pollack and find out what he thinks that students should know when writing business proposals.

Additionally, I plan on using the Journal of Business Communication to see if there has been any outside research describing the most effective way to write a business proposal. I will turn to additional business communication journals, if need be.

Finally, I will do my best to incorporate some of our readings from class into my project. As always, "Focus on Focus" will be an excellent resource for me. In business proposals, it is essential that all of the information provided is detailed and clear and that there are no errors. "Focus on Focus" will assist me in giving that information to the readers of the webpage. Additionally, I will utilize some of the readings from our final week of class, which revolve around new media for assignments. I think that in the business world, it is especially important that we are prepared to use new technologies to present our ideas. Perhaps I will be able to suggest ways that business proposals could be turned into multimedia projects.

Fear Factor

As I lay in bed with a fever towards the end of last week, I had a lot of time to reflect on the year so far. Reflection is an important part of life, I think, because you can evaluate both where you've been and where you're going. I think that as I continue, not only as a Writing Consultant, but in my life and career, reflecting on the recent past will have a huge impact on where I am going.

I looked back at my first blog post, where we had been instructed to comment on our biggest fears as we began the Writing Consultant program. I had been afraid of having the power to influence my peers' grades and wrote extensively about my personal past and why I thought that this fear was so great. I think that I am still worried about the amount of influence I could have on my peers, but the fear has faded to apprehension as the semester as gone on. Now, I would say that my biggest fear about my future as a Writing Consultant is not being able to figure out which areas of writing my peers require the most assistance.

At this point in the semester, I have read numerous theories about writing tutoring and writing centers, and seen those theories put into practice by observing experienced consultants and practicing commentary in class. I now have a vague idea about how my consultations would begin. I would begin by asking the writer what their biggest concerns are in the paper and make a note of it. I would keep my eye out for those specific areas and do my best to address their concerns. Hopefully at the same time, I would be able to find what I believe to be the most pressing issues of the paper. This aspect of the consultation is the most frightening for me. I know that there will be a wide range of writing styles, skill levels and practices coming through the doors of the Writing Center and I am afraid that I will not be able to spot errors on all points of that spectrum.

I know that these fears will subside as I become more comfortable in my role as a consultant. I am hopeful that I will be able to become a chameleon, in the sense that I will be able to adjust to any type of writing that comes to the fourth floor of Weinstein Hall. Unfortunately, when one cannot predict what kind of experiences they will have, the only way to deal with such fear is to be prepared for anything. I know that I will be prepared for anything, and I hope that the work that I have put into English 383 will help me to face my biggest fears.