How To Succeed In A College Business Writing Class
By: Steve Patterson
Submitted: 2010-11-03 16:36:46 | Word Count: 751
When it comes to career preparation, business writing may be one of the most useful courses college students can take. Business writing courses are created to teach students specifically how to write the cover letters, memos, proposals, instructions, professional emails, and other kinds of documents that are written every day by people in the business world.
This is one class where there's little to no busy work, and students are cheating themselves in the foot if they fail to take the course seriously! Writing is one the top of the list of job skills that every college graduate needs. It's also a course that's usually quite a bit of work, and students should definitely not come to course expecting an easy A.
Here are some important tips to help students succeed in a business writing class.
Follow Instructions Carefully
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This may sound like an obvious piece of advice, but it's one that many students don't follow – to their detriment.
Keep in mind in the business world, writing tasks are very specific. A boss will ask an employee to write a report about a very specific topic and to include very specific details. Or someone will send an important email with very specific questions, and will expect answers that directly and precisely answer those questions. In these cases, failure to follow instructions means someone at work doesn't get what they need, and that makes the employee look bad.
Unclear on the instructions? Ask the instructor for clarification. A boss will be fine with questions about an assignment, and so will an instructor. An important tip, though, is to read the instructions significantly before the deadline is due. Students who don't do this will miss out on the chance to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
Learning to Write Rough Drafts and Incorporate Writing Feedback
In a business writing class, expect to write drafts and get them back with extensive feedback from the instructor. Then expect to spend a significant time rewriting the draft per the feedback.
Yes, this can be time consuming and difficult. But no, this is not busy work. In fact, a writing instructor who doesn't give much feedback and who doesn't assign many drafts is just plain lazy. To learn how to write well enough to be successful in business, lots of practice is needed.
Be sure to take feedback seriously and incorporate it into final drafts, and be sure to ask questions of the instructor if the feedback is not clear. Learning how to incorporate feedback is a collaborative skill that students are likely to use in the workplace, so take this activity seriously.
An important note on turning in final drafts: make sure the actual writing is polished! Avoid these common writing mistakes that students make, and be sure to proofread carefully! A boss will not appreciate a report filled with spelling and grammatical errors. Neither will the instructor.
Audience Analysis
When writing something in the business world, it's important to analyze the audience. In other words, it's important to understand who the intended reader of a document is going to be.
For example, imagine an IT professional needs to write a set of instructions for how to use a new piece of software. If she is asked to write these instructions exclusively for other IT professionals in the office, she won't need to worry too much about explaining technical jargon in her instructions. However, if her task is to write instructions for people in the office who don't necessarily know much about technology, she will have to write in an entirely different manner.
Here are just a few audience analysis questions business writers should ask when they write a business document:
How much does the audience know about the topic?
What are the demographics of the audience (such as gender, age, ethnicity, geographic location, income level, or anything else that may matter in the case of a particular document)?
What are the common values of the audience?
What are the common interests of the audience?
What might members of this audience find to be humorous?
What might offend members of this audience?
Business writing courses may be some of the work intensive courses students ever take, and at time this can seem like a real drag. However, students really do need to take back and realize the benefits of working hard in this course and taking the assignments seriously. Follow instructions, incorporate feedback into drafts, and take the time to analyze the audience. All of these skills will have direct application in the real world.
