A PowerPoint presentation for ENGL151 at Northampton Community College. Created by Ashley Supinski from the textbook SUCCESSFUL WRITING AT WORK.

1. CHARACTERISTICS
OF JOB RELATED
WRITING
A BRIEF OVERVIEW

2. 6 BASIC FUNCTIONS
• Provide practical information
• Give facts rather than impressions
• Supply visuals to clarify and condense information
• Give accurate measurements
• State responsibilities precisely
• Persuade and offer recommendations
Comes after answering who, why, what, how.

3. PROVIDING PRACTICAL
INFORMATION
• “Here’s what you need to know.”
• Gives only the need-to-know information. Leave everything
else out.
• Action oriented
• Instruct your reader to do something
• Knowledge oriented
• Explain what your reader needs to understand

4. GIVING FACTS,
NOT IMPRESSIONS
• What can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled
• Uses concrete language and specific details
• Emphasis on facts rather than writer’s feelings or guesses

5. VISUALS
• On the job writing makes frequent use of visuals
• Helps readers better understand a concept
• Makes detailed relationships clear to the reader
We will talk about visuals later in the semester!

6. GIVE ACCURATE
MEASUREMENTS
• Numbers are clear and convincing
• Most supervisors want to see progress in numbers THEN have
an explanation given
• Be sensitive to the unit of measurements used by clients or
partners
• Most countries use the Metric Scale of measurements
• Use numerals
• ‘1’ instead of ‘one’

7. STATE RESPONSIBILITIES
• Make it absolutely clear what you expect of the audience
• Don’t assume the reader knows how to do something
• Misunderstandings waste time and cost money!

8. PERSUASION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Persuading Readers
• Promote company image
• Convince readers about something
• Support your claims with evidence
• Offering Recommendations
• Make sure to offer plausible recommendations.
• If you do not have a recommendation, you can leave this part
out.