September 12, 2008

As many other students have indicated, Chapter 3 provides a great deal of insight to writing with effectiveness. Usability and persuasiveness, while essential, only work if you have written your communication in a way that is usable and persuasive to your intended reader. As I read through the ten guidelines, I could not help but think of how some people within the organization I currently work really implement the guidelines to benefit their writing and how others seem to overlook them completely. I also began realizing what an enormous task writing a reader-center communication is. Our last assigned reading gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling about how great it is going to be to focus my efforts and attain the best results. Chapter 3 pointed out what a magnitude of effort is required just defining objectives.

Objective 3 had me chuckling to myself with its example of a bank manual. I work in a bank, and not long ago our entire computer system was changed. The reader indicated that the best approach for this type of communication would be to show "how easy the system is" (72). Rather than providing such a manual, the powers that be relied on verbal queues that the new system was super simple and possible problems were not even worth discussing. The reality was that many, many problems did arise and the only manual available required a degree in advance double speak to decipher.

Objective 5 had me a bit perplexed right up until the end when it referred to a "3rd context" (80). It seemed counter-productive to constantly be writing the opposite of what comes natural. I was thinking of how there should be some kind of compromise for writing cross-culturally. The idea that this alternate context may arise then felt obvious.

I was very pleased to see Objective 7. From the beginning, I appreciated that there was an abundance of questions to consider before writing a particular communication, but I kept asking myself how I was supposed to know the answers. My own feeling is that if someone is not willing to tell you what it is that they want they do not necessarily deserve it. I am sure this is a perspective I will need to re-evaluate if I want to be successful in my communication efforts.