PRDV002: Professional Writing

How does professional writing differ from other kinds of writing? How we define this writing style helps us focus on expectations. Before we explore professional writing specifically, we need to understand how it fits in the world of communication.

We typically write professional documents to motivate action. For example, we write memos to convince our colleagues to act; design a company website with text, images, and video to showcase why customers should buy our product; and prepare a resume and cover letter to convince an employer to hire us.

There are four general approaches to writing: to persuade, inform, analyze, and express. Notice the deep connections between these four writing strategies. For example, a writer may use expressive writing to move their reader emotionally to persuade them to support a cause. They may combine expository writing techniques with an analytical approach to provide a narrative account of a significant controversy – breaking the elements down to explain the known facts and unstated assumptions of the situation. We seldom use just one mode. Effective writing – in the digital realm and elsewhere – blends and balances them all.

The art of persuasion lies at the heart of rhetoric and is fundamental to communication. We use persuasive strategies to affect another person's attitude or behavior and begin learning how to persuade as children – when we ask our parents to buy us a toy or let us stay up past our bedtime. As adults, our professional and private lives put us in a position to persuade and be persuaded by others.

Here are some professional situations where a persuasive approach is useful.

• You want your reader to buy a product or service.
• You want your reader to believe an idea, proposal, or sales pitch.
• You want your reader to support a politician or political position.
• You want your reader to donate money or support a group or cause.

Explanatory or expository writing seeks to define or explain something – it may be a topic, process, event, or phenomenon. Writers use expository writing to explain what happened, how something works, or how to do something. For example, we use an expository approach when compiling a report on the current business environment or explaining a recent medical breakthrough.

Here are some professional situations when an expository writing approach is helpful.

• You want to establish the facts of the matter for the reader.
• You want to explain a concept, an issue, or an event.
• You want your reader to understand a process or follow a step-by-step procedure.

Analytic writing examines, probes, dissects, and picks things apart. This thinking examines issues, events, ideas, statements, and propositions in-depth and determines whether the content is explicit or assumed. Analytic writing systematically breaks things down into parts and examines the logical connections and cause-effect relationships.

Analytical writers use their reason, experience, history, social norms, and a sense of morals and ethics to examine questionable statements.

Medical experts, journalists, business analysts, political pundits, and book or film critics are high-profile examples of analytical thinkers and writers. However, most of us use these critical thinking strategies in our everyday lives as we question our assumptions and those of others.

Here are some situations when an analytic writing approach may be useful.

• You want your reader to reflect on a subject.
• You want your reader to critique their preconceptions and assumptions.
• You want to make a systematic, logical case for or against something.

The best expressive writing is concrete, colorful, and unique. Since no two people express themselves in the same way, this form of writing brings out an individual writer's perspective and personality.

This writing style is useful to more than just artistic writers. Effective expressive writing draws on readers' feelings, imagination, reason, and knowledge. At first glance, expressive writing seems directly opposed to more objective approaches. However, balancing expressive style with objective analysis is the hallmark of a skillful writer – regardless of field.

Here are some situations when an expressive approach can enhance our writing.

• You want to challenge, excite or stimulate the reader.
• You want to dramatize situations or ideas.
• You want to call on the reader's senses.
• You want to give the reader the sense that they are there.

We turn to expressive strategies to move another person – to imagine and remember sights and sensations or make them see and feel experiences beyond their own.