A Heuristic Tool for Teaching Business Writing

Abstract

To teach effective business communication, instructors must target students’ current weaknesses in writing. One method for doing so is by assigning writing exercises. When used heuristically, writing exercises encourage students to practice self-assessment, self-evaluation, active learning, and knowledge transfer, all while reinforcing the basics of good writing. Using writing exercises as a diagnostic or maintenance tool at different stages in the semester, in addition to the core assignments, can drastically improve undergraduate and graduate student writing and increase the probability that these students will transfer that writing knowledge into other courses and into their practices as professional writers in industry.

Flipping to Teach the Conceptual Foundations of Successful Workplace Writing

“…Similarly, instructional scaffolding should be provided without "extensive analysis of component skills" (Applebee & Langer, 1983, p. 168). Nevertheless, some business and professional communication scholars do incorporate a conceptual approach into their pedagogy (e.g., Ortiz, 2013;Schultz, 2013;Yunxia, 2000). The key seems to be recognition that conceptual knowledge is necessary but not sufficient for gains in procedural knowledge (Parker & Campbell, 1993;Sternberg & Horvath, 1999).…”

Comparison of College Faculty and Business Professionals as Evaluators of Student Business Letters

“…Another method to facilitate improvement would be to design entry and exit exams within the business communication classes (Fraser et al, 2005), although this may be hard to implement as a strategy for improvement on a writing assignment that is assigned mid-way through the semester, as is the case with the common assignment. Self-assessment and directed peer review techniques should be facilitated in the classroom to improve professionalism and mechanical deficiencies in students' business writing (Crossman & Kite, 2012;Ortiz, 2013).…”

“…According to Ortiz (2013), employers seek employees who possess the soft skills of oral and written communication, where students find they are deficient (May et al, 2012;Ortiz, 2013). Yu explored bringing workplace assessment into business communication courses to prepare students for professional careers.…”

“…Sustainable assessment is another technique that can be used for assessment and improvement in students' writing skills (Andrews, 2001;Boud, 2000;Boud & Soler, 2016). Selfassessment and directed peer review techniques are employed for improvement (Crossman & Kite, 2012;Ortiz, 2013). Business communication instructors can also improve the deficiencies found in the assessment by reducing variations in assessment process (Hunter & Docherty, 2011).…”

Measuring remote working skills: Scale development and validation study

“…), using suitable formats for different readers, persuasiveness, etc. are additional aspects of written communication skills [ 95 , 104 – 107 ].…”