Academic and business writing is the same course that gives students great opportunities to master different writing styles and apply their knowledge of writing to different settings. To become effective at generating original ideas, students need to analyze how writers generate, critique, and publish ideas. By becoming more aware of the working habits and attitudes of other writers, students should interfere with their ability to develop ideas.
Academic writing helps students to develop excellent writing skills and master the basic rules of professional writing. The path from the desire to write, to the original idea, and then to publication is often fraught with chaos, feelings of self-doubt, error, and frustration (Behrens and Rosen 43). This is why it’s often said that it’s easier to critique than to invent. Few academicians can write a perfect first draft. Most of us require some time to wander around our offices, sharpen pencils, clean our homes, or browse through current periodicals. More precisely, most of us need some prewriting time–time to read more deeply about a subject, time for planning a research design, time for discussing ideas with colleagues. Academic writing teaches students how to organize ideas and express them.
in contrast to academic writing business writing involve more terms and special use of language means to express ideas and thoughts. It is more formal in its nature-oriented on a particular target audience. All communications should be polite and constructive, but this is especially important when there is no non-verbal communication, as in letters and memoranda (whether they are sent by post, fax, or e-mail) and in conversations on the telephone (Behrens and Rosen 51).
Similar to academic writing, your treatment of the subject should be comprehensive, including everything readers need to know. Every composition should have an obvious beginning, middle, and end. Every statement should be complete. Every argument should be followed through to its logical conclusion. Writing should be free from errors of omission (Blake and Bly 32). Both academic writing and business writing demand equal attention to things of comparable importance and a sense of proportion.
Unless expected to present only the case for or the case against, a student-writer should normally show an awareness of all sides of a question. Academic writing teaches students to be concise and uses no more words than are needed to express meaning pleasurably and unambiguously. it is important to include no more detail than is appropriate. In business writing, as in speaking, clarity is the expression of clear thinking (Blake and Bly 134).
To make your meaning clear you must use words you expect your readers to know and understand, in carefully constructed, unambiguous sentences – with nothing left to the readers’ imagination. While simple subjects may require little prewriting, most academic works require extensive prewriting (Stunk and White 22). If a student fails to give some careful thought to rhetorical context, schedule, and goals at the onset of a scholarly project, he/she may find two years down the line that the audience for the project is too small to warrant publication, or that others have already done what a student has set out to do, or that the methodology is severely flawed. Of course, there are tremendous advantages to writing to discover ideas and form.
The joy of academic writing is often found in the excitement experienced when new ideas shatter plans (Griffin 87). Many business communications are concerned with ensuring efficiency, quality, and cost-effectiveness – with a view to making a profit so that those who devote time to the business (employees and owners) or invest money (owners or shareholders) can be paid (Griffin 31).
Academic writing is crucial for this course because any communications that are inaccurate, inappropriate, unclear, verbose, inconsistent, incomplete, or imprecise are likely to be ignored, or may confuse, or may result in inappropriate actions, wrong decisions, accidents, costly mistakes, and wasted effort. Accuracy in writing depends on choice and use of words, to ensure a person conveys the intended message. in business writing, special attention is devoted to the form and content of writing while academic writing concentrates on accuracy (Piotrowski 39). No amount of care in analyzing data, or presenting the results of the analysis, can compensate for lack of care in earlier stages of the work. academic writing helps a student:
- consider what the reader needs to know and why the information is needed,
- convey just this amount of information, with enough supporting detail,
- choose words familiar to the reader,
- use them in well constructed, unambiguous sentences (Piotrowski 72).
In sum, academic and business writing are integral parts of the course supporting and supplementing each other. It follows that anything a writer can do to improve his/her use of words should help a writer to achieve goals. Such communications include not only letters and memoranda, and reports of various kinds, but also manuals, plans, specifications, guidelines, procedures – including instructions and drawings – and records of activities performed and results achieved.
Works Cited
- Behrens, L., Rosen, L. J. Sequence for Academic Writing. Longman; 3 edition, 2006.
- Blake, G., Bly, R. W. The Elements of Business Writing: A Guide to Writing Clear, Concise Letters, Memos, Reports, Proposals, and Other Business Documents. Longman; 1st edition, 1992.
- Griffin, J. The Complete Handbook of Model Business Letters. Prentice Hall Press, 1997.
- Piotrowski, M. V. Effective Business Writing :(A Guide For Those who Write On the Job) 2nd Edition Revised And Updated. Collins; 2 Rev Upd edition, 1996.
- Stunk, W. & White, E. B. The Elements of Style, 4th edn, Boston, Allyn & Bacon, 1999.