1. Professional Communication: Rhetorical Situation, Structure, and Design
Professional written communication requires skill and expertise. From text messages to formal reports, how you represent yourself with the written word counts. Writing in an online environment requires tact, skill, and an awareness that what you write may be there forever. From memos to letters, from business proposals to press releases, your written business communication represents you and your company: your goal is to make it effective and professional.
A key distinction between academic writing and professional writing is that the latter is very highly contextual. The subject matter itself is only one factor in deciding on what and how to write. Equally important is the context in which you are writing, the circumstances surrounding any writing situation. This includes the rhetorical situation, that is, how difficult it is to persuade your audience to accept your proposal, recommendation, or assertion in a given context. What and how you write will depend on such questions as the following:
- How familiar is your audience with the question or problem you’re addressing?
- What level of expertise does your audience have?
- What are your audience’s professional interests? How negative or adverse are those interests? That is, how likely is the audience to accept your position?
- Does the document have multiple audiences, with different or even conflicting interests?
- Will your document be read in a competitive context? That is, will it be read along with other documents competing for the same response, such as a job application letter, or a proposal for a government contract where other companies are competing for the same contract?
Answers to these questions will determine your structure, style, format, and even what topics you choose. Academic writing typically has a single, predictable audience (the professor, other students, the public). Professional audiences may be much more varied, complex, and challenging. Failures in professional documents most often arise from failures to take this into account.
