Business vs Academic Writing

7/30/2019 Business vs Academic Writing

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The Writing Center: Business vs. Academic Writing

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BUSINESS AND ACADEMIC WRITING

Nottalking about big words or complicated, flowery sentences . . . This is not tosay that, in academia, the writing one produces should be verbose, passive,

intricate, or improvident. Good academic AND good business writing are bothclear, concise, and expressive.

Two aspects Id like to cover-- for both, borrowing from Howard Beckers Writingfor Social Scientists: Audience and the Literature, with a some information aboutDocumenting Sources as part of the discussion of literature.

AUDIENCE

Business Academic

Co-workers, supervisors, subordinates Professors, classmates, (ideally)journal readers

reports, procedures, proposals: explain thought pieces:how something went, how to do understanding of lit,something, propose a project. or your own ideas built

on lit.

imparting info is end result imparting info is also endresult, but must place in

context

shared values assumed dont assume shared valuestight shared language, even jargon looser, less shared language

-- most fields avoid jargon

business memo, report, etc. where academic writing LONGER??,short is best because otherwise no more INVOLVED -- not long forone will read -- so often leave out own sake (or shouldn't be!!) butcontext, thought process, etc. in includes context (lit), certainfavor of result of conclusion -- reader thought processes, etc., as well

will ususally already know context result or conclusion -- more toand process -- more functional, can express thoughts than possiblitybe wrong (in procedure, etc.). of right or wrong.


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WRITING AN EXTENSION OF THINKINGPutting Thoughts on PaperIm making this black and white when in fact the differences can be rather gray --but in thinking about audience I want to emphasize that want to consider several

things . . .

What you are trying to communicate?

Who are you trying to communicate it to?

Audience is as much a part of what you write as the information, and youracademic writing can be improved by considering the differences betweenbusiness audiences and academic audiences

LITERATURE

Along with audience, you can strengthen your academic writing by providing agrounding and context by Engaging the Literature.

EXAMPLE (going back to audience, engaging the literature is one way of tellingyour audience -- your professor -- that you understand the concepts being taughtand can apply them to your business life as well.)

Lit serves as a source of fundamental ideas, of past hypotheses and hunches, atouchstone or grounding for an intellectual community, even a way of showing

what camps you belong to in intellectual/theoretical debates.

When engaging the literature and building on it with your own ideas, you mustDocument your sources. This is important for two reasons:

So reader can find where you got info from

Give credit where credit is due -- let the reader know whose shoulders yourebuilding on


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Shortly after Id been promoted to training officer, the Board of Directors of thebank I worked for fired the president and hired a new president. Several weeks

later, he laid off most of upper management, even though some of them hadbeen with the bank since it opened 25 years earlier. At the same time, thepresident announced that one-third of the remaining employees would be alsolaid off. I kept my job, but things werent the same. Since there wasnt muchtraining to do, I was shuffled around to whatever position needed filling:receptionist, word processing specialist, teller. I quit shortly after the lay-offs.

The machine metaphor, as described in Morgans Images of Organizations,

provides insight into an experience I had as training officer of a small, local bank.Because of poor growth and lack of profits, the Board of Directors chose toreplace the president. Seeking to turn the organization into a well-oiled machine,the new executive officer laid off most of upper management, some of whom hadbeen with the bank since it opened 25 year earlier. The new president changedthe banks previous family atmosphere of loyalty and responsibility to long-termemployees. Instead, he saw these employees as replaceable parts, and soreplaced them with new employees whom he expected to be more efficient andeffective. Terminating one-third of all bank employees eliminated unnecessarycomponents throughout the machine. Because I had skills that made me aninterchangeable part of the banks machine, I was not laid off. I spent monthsbeing transferred from receptionist to word processing specialist to teller, onlyoccasionally performing training functions. Being treated as a machine partinstead of a person was uncomfortable for me, and I realized that there was littleroom for personal growth. When the bank operated as a family, my personaland career goals were important to my supervisor. Once the bank became amachine, my personal expectations were unimportant to the efficiency of theorganization. I resigned, and went in search of an organization that was lessrigid and more people-oriented.

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Business vs Academic Writing