The Problem-Solving Approach to Professional Writing
When you hear the term “professional communication,” what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of proposals, media releases, emails, and other day-to-day business operations and correspondence. When you hear the term “technical communication,” what comes to mind? Perhaps it is scientific reports, instructions, software documentation, or technical manuals. If so, you are correct. Technical Writing is a genre of non-fiction writing that encompasses not only technical materials such as manuals, instructions, specifications, and software documentation, but it also includes writing produced in day-to-day business operations such as correspondence, proposals, internal communications, media releases, and many kinds of reports. It includes the communication of specialized technical information, whether relating to computers and scientific instruments, or the intricacies of meditation. This makes the two of these combined (professional and technical communication) Writing and the Professions. In the introduction to this textbook, we grounded ourselves in the foundations of communication because this is so important to professional life.
Chapter Learning Objectives
This chapter will help you:
- Recognize the main conventions and characteristics of professional and technical writing, and how they differ from other forms, such as academic and journalistic writing.
- Understand the importance of defining the rhetorical situation in which you are communicating.
- Apply a “problem-solving” approach to professional communication, and start to learn how to fully define a problem before looking for solutions.