Journal entry 5

It is hard for me separate academic writing from nonacademic writing. Instead, the divide is more rooted in formal writing versus informal writing. Nonacademic writing, I assume can be broken down in formal and informal. However, I am quite ignorant of which is which.

Within the workplace, social and organizational contexts should influence writing, as I believe that is the identifying factor based on the position an individual holds in the organization. I wouldn’t expect a paralegal in a law firm, without his/her supervisor’s consent, to write a letter to a major client detailing elements of the client’s case. I, however, expect the paralegal to write memos to be distributed within the office.

I guess no organization has ever been built without writing as the glue holding all parts of the organization together. Writing makes decisions, plans, aspirations, demands more real. It is hard to imagine any organization that doesn’t have writing as a central communicative tool in the running of its business. And similar to the decision making/management within Microware, Inc, most, if not all companies require collaborative efforts to keep the production ball rolling. Also, similar to group projects, the work is divided up based on expertise or preference, and then polished through consensus. The sharing and critiquing of ideas can only give positive results to any collaborative work.

In the article, writing for publication, most of the tips that the author gives are rudimentary, and similar to other content-specific journal articles. However, addressing the specific needs within technical communication gives a prospective writer a good place to start researching information for an article.

I guess this article is geared towards creating a definition for technical communications. If the areas suggested are sufficiently researched and written on, it will provide more credibility to the field of technical communications.