1st Draft

Rachel Meredith

Business Is Your Future

Business relates to the buying and selling of goods, services and information –important exchanges in almost any area of life.  As the world becomes more dependent on globalized trade and investment, though, the demand for well-trained business people grows stronger (Why study Business?).  Business is the best way to become successful and happy at the same time. With the proper schooling and the right mind set, you can become whoever you want to be.  Happy and successful is what everyone wants in life.  With business, you can do almost anything you ever wanted to do.  If it’s owning your own business, running or managing a 5 star hotel, business operation manager (GM), or if you work hard enough, get paid to have other people do your jobs for you.  There are many different ways you can go with business.  It’s a field of study where you could never go wrong with it.  Business and related subjects (such as the ‘FAME’ group – finance, accounting, management and economics) are among the most popular fields of study at universities worldwide, particularly at graduate level. You might have some vague ideas about why this is the case – business graduates are in high demand worldwide, business touches on pretty much every aspect of modern human society, careers with a business degree are diverse and often highly paid – and these assumptions are likely to be largely true (Top Universities).  I have interviewed four different people that are either in business school, in the business field, or own their own business.  With these interviews, I will show what it takes to become and business person, how to become one, and what type of writing business people have to deal with on the job.

The first person I interviewed was a young man named Thomas Elmallakh, 22, who is currently in business school at the University of Louisville, studying economics.  I asked him how he learning to write in his field of study and he said, “I took Business Writing, an English class, and learned the ins and outs of things like formal and informal emails, letters, memos, and how to compose a resume.”  He has also written many papers about business that has helped him learn more about his line of work.  He showed me an example of one of his papers that was written for a business economics class of his that showed me his new understanding of writing because of the assignments that he has in class.  In his 15 page paper, he states, “Using assignments requiring professional writing from many different viewpoints and a final proposal that fundamentally revolved around teamwork, this class has truly opened the door to me the world of professionalism and professional writing.”  This proves to me that because of school and his assignments, he has learned about himself and bettered himself to become successful in the business world.  School teaches many techniques that is hard to find anywhere else.

Another good quality about business is that it can be taught.  It’s always nice to have leadership qualities or communication qualities, however, those can be taught as well.  There are some skills that you will need in order to be extraordinarily successful is to have critical and creative thinking skills, research and analysis skills, communication skills, and personal development.  With schooling, there will be a collection of studying that will be necessary for classes and through the studying, class discussions, and reading you will develop critical and creative thinking.  Communication skills come from day-to-day conversations with your peers that you may find in your classes.  Communicating is very important in the field of business.  In the English classes, there are an abundant amount of papers that have to be written. With these papers, you have to research be creative to encounter all of the information from your research into your paper in an organized fashion.  School and everyday life helps better all of these skills that you will need in order to become successful in the business field.

There are all kinds of writing in the field of business.  It depends on who you’re writing to and why you’re writing what it is you are writing.  The wide range of writing styles are often used to please the purpose of your writing.  Communication plays an important role in being successful in business because there is always a person that has a connection that you will need that you don’t have.  Also, there will be information that you need to let others know about and you will need to understand how to comprehend what others are saying when they have information for you.  The main feature of business writing that ties all forms (memos, emails, letters, documents, etc.) together is the style. No matter what kinds of documents you are writing, you have to aim to be concise, to be clear, and to convey information in an effective way. Make sure that when you write, you can ensure that the writing style is simplified, streamlined, and organized (Your Dictionary).

                I also interviewed two other people who are not in school and didn’t go to school.  These two people had natural business abilities and were able to work with the connections they had and build their way up to the top.  A man named Angut Patel, 31, who owns his own car dealership lot and shop.  I asked him how he began his interest in the business world and he said, “My family owned several businesses growing up. The time that they spent on the business which was minimal versus the income it generated which was high made my very interested in owning my own business.”  From there he took off with his ideas and the help of his family to become a very successful business owner.  I then asked him why he was interested in building his own business and he responded with, “My passion for cars made me very interested in owning my own car dealership. The main interest was being able to own a profitable business that can become self-sustaining so I could spent time with my family and traveling.”  With making your own business, you can create policies and your way about doing things to where you are happy and can still have a life.

I interviewed a woman named Robin Harley, 57, who is the manager of the accounting office at Tafel Motors a Mercedes car dealership.  She too did not have any schooling but needed a job and took what was available.  She has been working in this office for 34 years and has built her way up from a pay roll clerk to the account manager.  She may have had to go to school but the job provided classes and training for her to be the best she can at her job.  After many years of experience, she is happy where she, has learned a lot, and is very successful.  I asked her what kind of writing she does and what style she presents it in and she told me, “Accounting, spreadsheets (excel), and emails.  Although her style of writing is a little different than a normal writing assignment that you are used to, it is her way of communicating.  An accounted deals with numbers all day long and that’s how they send information to each other. 

The last person I interviewed is still currently in school at the University of Louisville.  His name is Mathew Emly, 22, and he is majoring in accounting.  Majority of his work has to do with math and a lot of word problems.  I took a look at some of his homework and there were things like matching up a sentence with a spreadsheet, making spreadsheet, comparing numbers, and finding how to receive/find certain numbers.  To me it looked like rocket science, however, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.  With his schooling and his knowledge, he will be able to find very important jobs that will make him very successful.  He also has been schooled into learning how to write the appropriate email and business letter.  His communication with other peers is professional and outstanding. 

Kyle Wiens says, “Writing is a tricky balancing act, juggling dozens of nebulous constraints. Writers have to think about audience, and about style, and about tone — factors that are hard to anchor down. In business, writing is inextricably tied to company identity: writers have to think about what a company stands for, where it’s going, and how that company should be presented to the public. Difficult considerations.  I’ve found that topics that are the most uncomfortable are usually the ones that need the most discussion. Writing is one of them. It’s a conversation that is crucial to have — with everyone (Harvard Business Review).”  Writing is communicating and business is revolved around communicating.  Business is the path to follow if your dreams are to be happy and successful.  With all of the options that you have to choose from, you will do and accomplish anything you have ever wanted by studying business.  With the interviews that I have provided, I hope you can see that there many different forms of writing and they are very important for the job.

Works Cited

 

The University of Auckland.  Why study business?  Web.  03 Feb. 2015.

"Types of Business Communication Writing." YourDictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.

"Why Study Business?" Top Universities. N.p., 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.

"Your Company Is Only as Good as Your Writing." Harvard Business Review. N.p., 30 July 2013. Web. 03

                Feb. 2015.