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| Preface | |
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| Principles | |
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| Characteristics of Writing at Work | |
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| Writing at Work versus Writing at School | |
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| Achieving job goals | |
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| Addressing a variety of readers who have different perspectives | |
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| Excessive paperwork and e-mails | |
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| Unknown readers over an infinite time | |
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| Legal liability for the writer and the organization | |
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| Using a variety of documents | |
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| The Foundations of Effective Writing at Work | |
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| The Qualities of Good Technical Writing | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Writing for Your Readers | |
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| Understand Your Readers-The Heart of the Planning Process | |
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| Determine your readers and their perspectives | |
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| Determine your purpose | |
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| Understand your role as a writer | |
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| Plan the content | |
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| Anticipate the context in which your writing will be received | |
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| Case 2-1 | |
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| Case 2-2 | |
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| The Basic Parts of the Composing Process | |
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| Analyzing the writing situation-purpose, readers, and context | |
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| Choosing/discovering content | |
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| Arranging content | |
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| Drafting | |
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| Revising | |
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| Editing | |
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| Case 2-3 | |
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| Planning and Revision Checklist: Audience, Purpose, and Context | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Writing Ethically | |
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| Your Professional Obligations | |
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| Codes of Conduct | |
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| Recognizing Unethical Communication | |
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| Plagiarism and theft of intellectual property | |
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| Deliberately imprecise or ambiguous language | |
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| Manipulation of numerical information | |
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| Use of misleading illustrations | |
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| Promotion of prejudice | |
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| Managing Unethical Situations | |
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| Ethics Decision Checklist | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Achieving a Readable Style | |
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| The Paragraph | |
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| Examples for study | |
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| Basic Principles of Effective Style | |
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| Determine your readers' knowledge of the subject | |
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| Determine whether a Particular style is expected | |
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| Adjust the style to the purpose, the readers, and the context | |
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| Keys to Building Effective Sentences | |
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| Select your level of language | |
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| adjust the density of information | |
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| Watch sentence length | |
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| Keep subjects and verbs close together | |
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| Write simple, squeaky-clean prose | |
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| Avoid pompous language | |
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| write to express, not to impress | |
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| Avoid excessive use of is/are verb forms | |
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| Use active voice for clarity | |
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| Word Choice | |
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| Style Checklist | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Designing Documents | |
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| Understanding the Basics of Document Design | |
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| Know what decisions are yours to make | |
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| Choose a design that fits your situation | |
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| Plan your design from the beginning | |
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| Reveal your design to your readers | |
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| Keep your design consistent | |
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| Designing Effective Pages and Screens | |
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| Use blank space to frame and group information | |
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| Space the lines of text for easy reading | |
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| Set the line length for easy reading | |
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| Use a ragged right margin | |
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| Helping Readers Locate Information | |
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| Use frequent headings | |
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| Write descriptive headings | |
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| Design distinctive headings | |
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| Use page numbers and headers or footers | |
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| Document Design Checklist | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Designing Illustrations | |
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| Tables | |
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| Bar and Column Graphs | |
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| Circle Graphs | |
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| Line Graphs | |
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| Organization Charts | |
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| Flow Charts | |
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| Diagrams | |
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| Photographs | |
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| Designing Illustrations Ethically | |
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| Illustration Checklist | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Applications | |
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| E-mails, Memoranda, and Letters | |
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| E-mails | |
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| Memos and Letters | |
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| Guidelines for Ensuring Quality | |
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| Appropriate Tone in E-mails, Memos, and Letters | |
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| Phrases to avoid | |
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| Writing that sounds phony or arrogant | |
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| Writing that sounds tactless | |
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| Guidelines for Creating an Appropriate Tone | |
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| Planning and Writing Common Types of Memos and Letters | |
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| Case 7-1: Informational memo | |
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| Case 7-2: Instructional memo | |
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| Case 7-3: Letter requesting information | |
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| Case 7-4: Unfavorable news letter | |
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| Case 7-5: Persuasive letter | |
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| Case 7-6: Letter of reply | |
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| Review of Principles: Questions for Planning | |
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| Correspondence Checklist | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Technical Reports | |
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| Kinds of Reports | |
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| Report Heading | |
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| Subject line | |
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| Reference | |
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| Action required | |
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| Distribution List | |
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| Parts of a Technical Report | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Summary | |
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| Introduction + summary | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Recommendations | |
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| Attachments | |
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| Developing Reports | |
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| Case 8-1 | |
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| Additional report examples | |
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| Elements of Formal Reports | |
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| Prefatory elements | |
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| Abstracts and summaries | |
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| Discussion, or body of the report | |
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| Case 8-2 | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Recommendations | |
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| Appendixes | |
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| Letter Reports | |
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| Report for Study | |
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| Checklist for Developing Proposals and Progress Reports | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Proposals and Progress Reports | |
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| Proposals | |
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| Example RFP | |
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| The context of proposal development | |
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| Effective argument in proposal development | |
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| Standard sections of proposals | |
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| Case 9-1: Research proposal | |
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| Case 9-2: Project proposal | |
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| Progress Reports | |
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| Structure of progress reports | |
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| Case 9-3 | |
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| Case 9-4 | |
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| Style and Tone of Proposals and Progress Reports | |
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| Checklist for Developing Proposals and Progress Reports | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Instructions, Procedures, and Policies | |
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| Instructions versus Procedures | |
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| Planning Instructions and Procedures | |
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| Structure and Organization | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Theory governing the procedure or instruction | |
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| Warnings, cautions, hazards, and notes regarding safety or quality | |
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| Conditions under which the task is to be performed | |
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| Name of each step | |
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| Case 10-1: Process instructions | |
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| Case 10-2: Instructional report | |
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| Case 10-3: Instructional letter | |
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| Online Instructions | |
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| Case 10-4 | |
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| Reflections on Developing Effective Instructions | |
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| Case 10-5 | |
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| Checklist for Developing Instructions and Procedures | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Oral Reports | |
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| Understanding the Speaking-Writing Relationship | |
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| Analyzing the Audience | |
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| Determining the Goal of Your Presentation | |
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| Choosing and Shaping Content | |
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| Analyzing the Context | |
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| Choosing the Organization | |
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| Choosing an Appropriate Speaking Style | |
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| Choosing Visuals to Enhance Your Purpose and Meaning | |
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| Planning Your Presentation-Questions You Need to Ask | |
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| Audience | |
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| Purpose | |
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| Context | |
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| Content | |
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| Graphics | |
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| Style | |
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| Speaking to Multicultural Audiences | |
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| Designing Each Segment | |
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| Choose an interesting title | |
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| Develop your presentation around three main divisions | |
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| Plan the introduction carefully | |
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| Design the body | |
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| Design the conclusion | |
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| Choosing an Effective Delivery Style | |
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| Techniques to enhance audience comprehension | |
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| Designing and Presenting the Written Paper | |
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| Structuring the written speech | |
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| Writing the speech | |
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| Practicing the presentation | |
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| Checklist for Preparing Oral Reports | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Resumes and Job Applications | |
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| The Correspondence of the Job Search | |
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| Letter of application | |
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| The resume | |
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| Follow-up letters | |
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| Interviewing | |
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| The interview | |
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| Negotiation | |
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| Before and after the interview | |
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| Job Search Checklist | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Brief Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage | |
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| Documentation Systems: MLA, CMS, and APA | |
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| Index | |