13 Professional Communication is a Transaction

Professional communication is “transactional.” This means it entails a purposeful transactions between a sender and a receiver that provides specific information for practical and specific purposes (informing, instructing, persuading) and is usually geared towards the needs of a specific audience. Some of these documents and products are as follows:

• Proposals and requests for proposals (RFPs)
• Technical or research reports
• Documentation records and product specifications
• User guides (step-by-step instructions, procedures, manuals)
• Online help, technical support
• Reference information (encyclopedia-type information)
• Consumer literature (information for the public about regulations, safety issues, etc.)
• Marketing literature (product specifications, brochures, promotional literature)
• Technical journalism (found in trade magazines, media releases, etc.)
• Operational and business correspondence (emails, letters, memos, etc.)

This means it is a highly designed form of communication that requires the writer to have a heightened awareness of the conventions and rhetorical situations in which they are communicating.