1. What is your job? 2. Do you ever have to write for work (emails, proposals, etc.)? 3. In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work? 4. Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job?
I don't only want people who write for a living to respond. From firefighters to waitresses to stay-at-home moms to people who own their own businesses, I'm curious about what you wish you had known writing-wise (if anything) before you got thrown into the real world.
posted
1. What is your job? I analyze traffic safety data -- crash reports collected in giant databases where each record is a crash, a vehicle or a person (driver and/or victim). I also advise state & federal agencies on how to collect better (more reliable and more useful) data about traffic safety. That gets into roadway data, driver & vehicle data (licensing, registration, history of convictions or crashes), medical data for trauma victims, etc.
2. Do you ever have to write for work (emails, proposals, etc.)? Constantly. My peak output is approximately 100 pages a week, but more average is about 1/2 that.
3. In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work? The bulk is e-mail communication punctuated by a major deliverable ranging from 20 to 200 pages, depending on what the project is.
Proposals are a less frequent thing but when we write them they are also long and highly technical.
4. Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job? When I first started in traffic safety, I was already a good writer. I have improved since then. Technical writing in this field is generally of poor quality, but I work with folks who are really good at it and who value the quality of writing as a way to set our company apart from the others in the field.
Having said that, I have on occassion writtem some rather lackluster reports. I still cringe over some of them. Not because the data are bad or the conclusions are something I would prefer not to endorse now, but because some of the writing is unclear.
I tend to be a very poor editor of my own work. Fact checking is easy. Spotting and correcting the run-on sentences or other aspects of it that could make the report more eloquent is another matter.
That's why we always work in a group. My boss, the other people who worked on the project, and we have a tech writer/proofreader/software expert to make sure all the formatting and grammar mistakes are caught.
It takes a long time to get a deliverable through the entire process. But, again, it makes us different from our competitors.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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I kill commies for mommy . No, I turn valves and play with steam turbines and pumps.
2. Do you ever have to write for work (emails, proposals, etc.)?
Yes, training reports, precepts letters, and other stupid stuff.
3. In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work?
Microsft Office. Memo style.
4. Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job?
I was able to write decently well since high school. Not the grammer stuff, but the other stuff yes. It was once recommended I take a creative writing course in college because of a short story I wrote. Most of my memos are fill in the blank type stuff so any body could be able to fill one out in a matter of minutes. It is being able to use all the resources availabe that make the difference. The only reason I was moved to the office was because I utilized all the resources I had to get the information I needed. And if all else fails.....scam it and hope you're good to go. Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Thanks, Bob and Stan the Man. I want to hear from more of you, even if your answer to question 1 is no. I'll be teaching soon, and it's my firm belief that real-world writing should be taught more in schools. However, I only have a vague idea of what real people in the real world are writing, so I'm asking you good people.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I am a grad student, so I mainly write computer programs. However, I do occasionally need to convince people that I've been doing actual work lately; then I write presentations, using LaTex and emacs. (Death to the Evil Empire!) I've also written a thesis, and will need to write another. Then there's articles for scientific journals.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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3. I write sermons, articles for the church newsletter, and an occasional newspaper column. Sermons are a little different, since they’re written to be spoken and heard rather than read – but I do write mine out, 1200-1800 words a week. Right now I’m also writing curriculum for an adult Bible study, which may or may not end up being used by other churches.
4. I was lucky enough to have an incredibly good writing teacher in college – the kind that all the smart kids in the class (including me) hated at first because she took the type of essays that our previous teachers had always raved about and ripped them to shreds. It was a hideous year, but we were all much better writers at the end of it. Thanks Ms Baldwin! Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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2. Do you ever have to write for work (emails, proposals, etc.)?
I very rarely "create" anything. If I do, it's a "please find enclosed" kind of letter/e-mail. I do, however, translate lots of correspondence, offers, reports, memos, minuts of meetings etc.
3. In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work?
see above reply
4. Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job?
Now, that depends. A lot of incoming correspondence is crap, written by people who don't really know what they're doing. We recently got a letter from an angry subonctractor, in which he said that: "[the representative of our company] woke up from his dream and asked for a meeting ... and that they had to to a lot of "sightseeing tours" instead of actual site inspections".
The reports/offers would be difficult at the beginning, but once I've learned the way they're done, they're pretty easy.
However, the correspondence between ourselves and our supervision is a totally different story. It's not only a completely diffferent style of writing, but an entirely new discipline. I learn something new every time I translate a letter into Polish. See, you have to be very careful with your words here. You want to be harsh, but not insulting. Or you want to sound respectful, but not kissing their behinds. A well-written letter is like a gem. You can read it multiple times and smile and smile and smile and admire how beautiful it is. And i'm not even exaggerating too much right now
(I did have the necessary translation skills needed for the job, due to very intense training at the university, but that was not really the question)
Posts: 5700 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
1. What is your job? 1a. school secretary 1b. high school science teacher
2. Do you ever have to write for work (emails, proposals, etc.)? Yep, lots.
3. In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work? 3a. Memos to staff, letters to students/teachers/parents/donors, behavior report summaries, lists, and assorted other paperwork. 3b. Lesson plans, student project outlines, homework assignments, tests.
4. Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job? For the most part yes, although I pick up new skills on an ongoing basis. However, I did have to refresh my memory on the basic rules of formal letter writing (and then discard those which this workplace seems to ignore ) when I started doing office work. I also could have used a "Tricks of Using Microsoft Word" refresher course.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
What is your job? I am a Developmental English instructor at a local tech college.
Do you ever have to write for work? Yes, every single day. I write worksheets for my students and create handouts that allow them to learn more about---writing, of course!
quote:In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work?
Let's see--handouts, on the board in class. I also have to create reports and presentations for students and teachers.
quote: Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job?
Absolutely! I have been writing in some form or fashion since I was eleven. The cool thing is that as I've been able to adapt and learn many different ways to commmunicate in writing over the years. So it really doesn't matter what position I hold because I can adapt and write in whatever field I'm in at the time. Posts: 392 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Kama, I know what you mean about well-written letters. It's an amazingly hard thing to not offend people, especially when they're angry and being stupid to begin with. I answered emails from students who found (or thought they found) errors and typos in Independent Study's courses. It was the hardest when parents (especially parents with PhDs) emailed me angry about how much trouble the typos were causing their children. But when you sent that golden email and don't hear from the parent again, it's downright euphoria. Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
1. I register patients in a hospital ER. In other words, data entry. 2. The only real writing I do is emails telling my supervisors how stupid people are. 3. See #2 4. I have a degree in journalism. It comes in handy when my coworkers are writing scathing emails of their own and need someone to make them sound professional.
Posts: 1090 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
1. What is your job? I am a senior writer in a large corporate creative department.
2. Do you ever have to write for work (emails, proposals, etc.)? Writing is the reason they hired me
3. In what forms do you most regularly have to write for work? Pretty much anything they need. I do everything from short ad headlines for products to the company's annual report. I am currently on a team that is primarily responsible for corporate-oriented communication rather than product-specific stuff, but I've done it all. Whatever communication/marketing needs anyone in the company has, it comes through us.
4. Do you feel like you had the writing skills to succeed in your line of work when you started your job? Barely. I think my editing skills got me the job in the first place. I used to quake in my shoes when I was handed a long project because I had no idea how to start. Now I'm quite a bit more confident. I think I would go back to being nervous again if I had to switch to an independent ad agency or some other high-strung job. Part of getting comfortable has been figuring out what individual clients want, how much I can fudge deadlines, and then trying to nail it the first time.
I am nowhere close to being a really good writer, but I'm not a bad writer and I'm learning. I come face-to-face with my limitations every day.Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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. No, I turn valves and play with steam turbines and pumps.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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) when I started doing office work. I also could have used a "Tricks of Using Microsoft Word" refresher course.
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