Purpose

Purpose
As a student you communicate for educational purposes for example writing term papers or taking a written exam etc. In contrast as an employee you will communicate for instrumental purposes. Most of your communications will be designed to help your employer achieve
practical business objectives.

Example
At school, where your aim is to show how much you know, one of your major writing strategies
is to write as much as you can about your subject. At work, your communications should only
include the information your readers need. Extra information would only clog your readers’
path to what they need, resulting in

• decreased efficiency
• increased frustration

Audience:

• At school your interaction is only one person, the instructor. In contrast at work, you will often create communications that will address a wide variety of people with different backgrounds. The audience might include who are different in familiarity with your subject.
  

• The use they will make of your information
• The kinds of professional and personal concerns they will bring to your presentation

Example
Consider the report in which Naila will present her recommendations for improving the hospital
kitchen. Her recommendations might be read by her supervisor Mr. Nadeem, who will want to know what measures he will have to take in order to follow her recommendations. The vice president of finance, Mr. Altaf, will want to verify the cost estimates that Nalia includes. The
director of purchasing, Mr. Chauhan, will need to know about the new equipment he will need
to order. The head of personnel, Miss Sara, will want to learn whether she needs to write any
new job descriptions. And lastly the kitchen staff to assure them that their new work assignment will treat them fairly. So, writing for such a large and diverse audience requires skills that are not needed when writing only to your instructor.

Modules

You will need to identify your two roles at work. As a specialist you will need to generate ideas which will be potentially useful. You will need to share the results of your ideas with co-workers, customers etc as a communicator.
Example: Naila, a newly hired dietitian, must communicate to make the work valuable to her employer, at a large hospital. She has devised a way to reorganize the hospital kitchen that saves money etc. Her insights will benefit the hospital only if they are communicated to someone who has the power to implement them, such as the kitchen director. Writing will be critical to your success. As a college graduate you will need to spend an average of 20 percent of your time at work writing. That comes out to one out of every five-day work week.
A graph plotted for percentage of hours spent versus the number of people who responded for
the survey.
The study was conducted for a total number of 896 students in US Universities
Besides enabling to do your job, Writing can bring you many personal benefits as well
•Recognition in the form of praise • Raises • Promotions In many organizations the communication with the upper management is not feasible.
In such a company, your memos, reports, and other writing may be the only evidence
They have of your good work as either a specialist or a communicator.
Writing is an important responsibility of mangers who have to communicate a wide variety of messages to those above and below him.
Consequently employers look for writings when considering people for advancement.
In a study 94 percent of the graduates from seven departments that send students to
technical writing classes reported that the ability to "write well" is of "some" importance to them.
Furthermore 58 percent said that it is of great or critical importance to them.
In a survey of people listed in the "Engineers of distinction", 89 percent said that the
writing ability is considered when a person is considered for advancement.
Survey of people listed in the "Engineers of distinction", plotting the importance of writing skills
to people versus the number of people who responded. In addition to bringing you recognition,
writing well at work can bring you personal satisfaction. It will enable you to make an important impact. To succeed in any endeavors during your professional career, you will need to influence people's opinions, actions and decisions mostly through writing.

Writing at work differs from writing at school. To write successfully at work you will need to develop new writing skills and even new ways of thinking about writing. That’s because on-
the-job writing differs in some very fundamental ways from writing done at school.

Books & Materials

The Mayfield Handbook for Technical Writing
http://web.mit.edu/odsue/wac_engineering/Mayfield/toc.htm
Module 1: Basics of Effective Technical and Business Communication
Module 2: Forms of Written Communication: Reports; proposals; letters; memos;
applications; resumes; Instructions,
Specification documents
Module 3: Research &Writing
Module 4: Oral Communication

Course Description

The main objective of the course is to equip students with skills that will enable them to communicate clearly and concisely in diverse business situations. The students will learn the importance of planning and organizing effective written messages. The course will emphasize on determining objectives and on developing a logical argument before presenting the message in an appropriate format. The course is divided into two sections:
1. Written communication
2. Oral communication
Written communication will cover planning, structure, and stylistic issues specifically, students will learn to write memos and letters; proposals; short and long reports; and procedure and policy documents. Moreover, the students will learn to simplify complex information through editing and revising for enhancing their ability to create powerful documents to sell their ideas. The oral communication section will cover planning and execution of effective presentations; group behavior; and planning and conducting effective meetings.