Professional writing
Professional (or institutional) writing is becoming an important ingredient of many, or even most FL courses. Your students will need this sort of writing to engage in work-related activities in a FL (eg writing a CV, a letter of recommendation, a job application or offer of services). The skills of professional writing are transferable both in terms of language and situation, so that what your students learn in the classroom may be directly applied to situations outside it. Professional writing may be seen as a 'situated act' (Hyland, 2002). That is, it is influenced both by personal attitudes and social experience, and develops in response to the 'local situation' writers find themselves in.
As Grabe and Kaplan (1996) observe in studying FL writing strategies, writing 'on the job' varies considerably, but the audience is always a central consideration in all kinds of professional writing - that is, whether the writing is intended to be read by a colleague, a superior, a customer or an official external to the company. They also note that in the workplace, internal written communication - that is, writing between employees in the same company - is the most common kind of writing. Broadly speaking, they find that the five main types of writing purpose are:
- to distribute information;
- to give instructions or orders;
- to respond to memos, letters or e-mails;
- to complete forms;
- to propose new alternatives and options.
In order to cope with these demands, Grabe and Kaplan (1996) recommend the practice of addressing a variety of audiences in the classroom, and working on a variety of writing tasks and types. They see flexibility and adaptability as key features of a writing curriculum, since these ensure the greatest transferability when undertaking tasks in the future. Tribble (1996), more concerned with the professional development of FL tutors, comments on the importance of introducing students to a large variety of texts, in order to 'build an explicit account of language use in specific contexts'. Consider the following writing tasks, which are designed to exploit the needs of business situations:
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Sample task 1 A group of FL students is asked to read a series of job adverts, along the lines of the following: OASIS LODGE Some work is done on comprehension, especially abbreviations and the conventions of job adverts. FOLLOW-UP: Students then write a covering letter and CV for the job of their choice. More advanced students might also discuss the concept of the minimum wage and pay levels in different countries, perhaps writing a follow-up piece on this. |
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Sample task 2 Prior to writing the minutes of a meeting, students are asked to work on typical 'business collocations'. For example, in each of the following groups, students are asked to match a word and letter with a word and number, so that they form a commonly used business expression. For convenience, the example below is given in English. a) reach FOLLOW-UP: Students now write a report or minutes and try to incorporate as many business collocations as they can. |
1)
a question
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Sample task 3 The following are verbatim records of what was actually said at a meeting. Students are asked to rewrite these as the record would show in the (narrative) minutes: (Mr Smith): As you can see from these press cuttings, we've received a lot of publicity for our evening MBA courses. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ (Ms Graham): Miss Jones, will you please arrange for quotations on the redecoration of the reception area and report back next time. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ (Mrs Evans): We will have to increase our efforts to market our products, as sales are slipping. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ |
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Sample task 4 Students are asked to consider this report on the proposed introduction of a flexitime system and to comment on its wording. They have to suggest improvements to the report, taking into consideration language, style, organization and content. To: all staff
FOLLOW-UP: Students are now asked to re-write the memo as an e-mail or to produce a replacement written memo, based on the improvements discussed. |
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Sample task 5 Writing a good agenda is a difficult task. You need to think about aspects such as the order of the items and the length of time that can be allocated to each discussion. Consider the situation below: You chair the Human Resources Policy Committee which is held at 10.00 on the last Monday of each month in the Boardroom. Note the following: during the meeting, you need to correct an error in minute 2.1 (the name should read Marsha Gold not Sharon Yip). There are two special items: a proposal for a new promotions policy and for a job enrichment scheme. In the present promotions policy, jobs are advertised on notice boards and in Aurora news. This could be an obstacle to progress. The new policy is to advertise in local/national press, because new people, new ideas and wider experience are needed. Suggestions are needed for the job enrichment scheme - ie increasing job satisfaction. FOLLOW-UP: Students should now write a suitable agenda for the meeting, including standard items. They should ensure that details about location and timing are precise. |
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