Important Writing and Communication Skills and the Effective Writing Teams
Part A: Written and Oral Communication Skills
Locate a website for an organization that hires graduates in your major. Besides technical skills, what writing and communication skills does this organization seek in a job candidate? Write a one-page essay on what they say directly on this subject. Include reasons why each skill is important, and any additional written/spoken skills that you believe would give a candidate a competitive advantage.
Part B: Effective Writing Teams
a. What types of projects require collaboration?
b. What are four primary attributes of an effective writing team? Provide an example for each.
Part C: Internet Source Distortion/Misrepresentation
From media, personal experience, or the Internet, identify an example of each of the following sources of distortion (faulty causal and/or statistical inference) for the following:
a. A study with questionable sponsorship or motives
b. Reliance on insufficient evidence/hasty generalization
c. Unbalanced or biased presentation
d. Unexamined assumptions
e. Faulty causal reasoning
Part D: Checklist for Style - Local Newspaper
Using the “Checklist for Style” on the following page (also found in Chapter 11 of your textbook), rewrite the following letter to a local newspaper.
Technical Communication Assignment 4
Student Name
Program Name or Degree Name (e.g., Master of Science in Nursing), Walden University
COURSE XXX: Title of Course
Instructor Name
Month XX, 202X
Technical Communication Assignment 4
Part A: Written and Oral Communication Skills
CollegeGrad is among the popular websites that hopeful graduates and job seekers use to connect with potential employers. Besides technical skills, the website lists core writing and communication skills like critical thinking, detail orientation, empathy & mirroring, effective listening, professional language, persuasion, clarity, conciseness, and timely sharing of information. Each of these skills is important for various reasons. For instance, critical thinking allows one to ponder the potential impact of their words, whether written or not, especially if such communication is critical for decision-making. Technical writing or transmission, for instance, relies on a detailed understanding of technical research outcomes. Further, empathy and mirroring are essential because they allow the person sending a message to be in the recipient's shoes (Fuller et al., 2021). For instance, a customer care representative should understand the customer experience to communicate better based on the customer's experiences. Listening is equally a critical communication skill. According to the website, listening allows for internalizing information and formulating appropriate responses.
In business, the whole essence of communication is to persuade. Communication is supposed to persuade people to take specific actions even within the organization. Hence, persuasion is a relevant skill in this aspect. Lastly, every piece of communication should be concise, clear, and timely. Concise means the information is straight to the point with the most relevant information. Clarity implies that the information provided is accurate and understandable depending on the targeted audience. Jargons, for instance, can be relied upon when communicating to colleagues in the same field. However, when the communication is with a layman, jargon will worsen the clarity. Provision of information promptly is also essential because it allows actions and decisions to be made quickly.
Part B: Effective Writing Teams
What kind of projects require collaboration?
Thus, collaborative writing refers to a distributed process of writing and research labor, which results in more than one writer's co-authorship of a text. Throughout the writing process, there is an interaction between participants through brainstorming, review of drafts, and review. Under collaborative writing, researchers have established seven core activities: brainstorming, conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, reviewing, revising, and editing. Where there is collaboration, each of these activities is divided into core parts distributed to team members, preferably based on expertise. Thus, projects requiring this extensive amount of input from different people include research, formulation of process instructions, rules, regulations, and instructions, and important organizational external communication for public relations. When it comes to public relations in large organizations, the PR team collaborates with lawyers and others to ensure the communication is effective and reflects the organization's wishes. In research projects, collaboration is key because each team member contributes to the outcomes.
What are the four primary attributes of an effective writing team? Provide an example each.
A collaborative writing team's key attributes include debate, communication, organization, and adaptability. Debate is crucial because it enables teams to discuss writing content without taking outcomes personally. Research shows that debate is not only a driver of innovation but also a pillar for sharing ideas and clarification of issues. In research, for instance, team members can debate the impact of the outcomes or the best methodology to capture and analyze data that fits within the project's scope.
In the same manner, the organization is essential. Organization implies that each team member understands their roles and activities...