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?). 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). With different fields, comes different styles
and forms of writing in business. There
is a lot to learn about writing because this is how everyone communicates in
the business world. This essay will
explain what academic writing is and what is and what non-acedemic writing is
and how it is used through-out business. I have interviewed three 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. Many of his
papers are academic papers that are written to his professor. 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 paper was helping him
prepare for his future in the business world.
Instead of writing to his teacher, when he gets a job, he will be
writing papers to his boss and to his clients about business ideas and services
for customers. Thomas will probably have
to be writing a couple of academic papers to others when he gets his real
business job and now he has the knowledge to be able to write these papers.
I also interviewed 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.
Mr. Patel’s forms of writing includes emails, advertisements, and proposals. On
a daily bases its all non-academic writing like sending quick emails to
customers and employees. However, it
wasn’t always like that for him. In
order to create a business he had to create a business plan and policies for
his new business. They're used by
investment-seeking entrepreneurs to convey their vision to potential investors.
They may also be used by firms that are trying to attract key employees,
prospect for new business, deal with suppliers or simply to understand how to
manage their companies better (An introduction to business plans).
I interviewed a
woman named Robin Harley, 57, who is the manager of the accounting office at
Tafel Motors a Mercedes car dealership. 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. This kind of writing is non-academic
writing. Being a manager, she has to
send many emails that provide information that needs to be announced to her
employees. She also has to send emails
to places like the bank and to customers.
All of these writings are non-academic.
Communication
skills come from day-to-day conversations with your peers that you may find in
classes. Communicating is very important
in the field of business. Most
communication anymore is writing to each other in emails or letters. 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.
Some of these papers will be considered to be an academic paper. An academic paper is an unpublished article
written in the context of university or college research. The quality of such
documents varies considerably, and must be judged according to the reputation
and reception of known factors such as the author, the institution, and the
paper itself (academic paper). What is
considered to be an academic paper would be a research paper or a novel. In business, an academic example would be a
business plan. In a business plan, there
will be things like a mission statement and discussing products and services. A good example of a business plan would be Microsoft
Office 2002 – Business Planner Templates.
Non-academic writing is pieces like journals, instructions, or
websites. In business, examples of
common used non-academic writing are pieces like emails.
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). You also have ti
understand and identify different genres.
You have to pin point your audience and match your writing to the
appropriate audience. Understand the
purpose of your writing and stay on track with your purpose and make a
stance. Create a design for your writing
and make it organized.
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. In my findings through-out
this essay, I have realized that business workers don’t use very many academic
writing on a daily bases. The majority
of their writing is emails or dealing with numbers. 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.
"Academic Paper." -
Definition. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
Microsoft Office 2002 – Business
Planner Templates. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
"An Introduction to Business
Plans." Entrepreneur. N.p., 19 Mar. 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
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