English 160, Inc.
MEMORANDUM
TO: David Jones, Supervisor
FROM: Bo Bayles, Investigations Division
DATE: 21 May, 2005
SUBJECT: Technical Writing in Real-World Fields Interviews
As requested in Lesson 1, the Investigations Division conducted interviews of two real-world professionals, Steve Leigh and Danny Bayles, to investigate the importance of technical writing in different fields.
Mr. Leigh, a process engineer at RBF Consulting in Gainesville, FL was interviewed May 20th and 21st via e-mail. I asked him a number of prepared questions on writing in his career. My questions, and a summary of his responses follow:
How much time do you spend on writing during a typical work week?
Mr. Leigh indicated that up to 20% of his work week is be devoted to writing of some type, and that the amount of writing done he does varies with the status of the projects upon which he is working. He said that he writes most at the beginning of a project, when proposals must be written to managers and team members. The amount of writing, he said, depends on the scope of the project, but that all new projects require some written correspondence. In the middle stages of a project he writes less; most is informal communication between team members and managers. Status reports, he said, are also a part of this phase, but that these often only need to be written once or twice during a project. At the end of a project, Mr. Leigh and his colleagues have to prepare reports on how the project went, and what ongoing commitments his company will have. Mr. Leigh often writes documentation for customers, typically "process models", which explain in detail what happens during a certain manufacturing or fabrication process, and the reasoning behind each step.
What types and of writing do you do the most in your career?
Elaborating on the last question's response, Mr. Leigh gave details on the types of writing he does. In a project's early phases, he writes proposals to people both inside and outside his company. He said he often writes small proposals to superiors to ask for money to spend on his department. He also reviews formal proposals to company clients, written by co-workers if he and his division are likely to be involved in the project, or if his expertise is needed. During a project, he said, he usually only needs to communicate with team members, but since he often works alone on projects, writing is less of a concern. When writing status reports, he must go into detail about current and projected expenditures, time tables, what has been done on the project, and what is about to be done on the project. Mr. Leigh said his post-project process models take the most time to prepare, since they must be accurate and explain to the customer in detail the workings of a process.
To what audience are your job-related writings usually addressed?
Mr. Leigh said he writes to several audiences with different technical backgrounds. He writes proposals to supervisors in his own company, who are often more concerned with concepts than technical details, and also to customers, who are more interested in details and concepts. In addition, he uses written communication with colleagues, who are usually on the same technical level that he is.
In what capacity do you have to collaborate with co-workers for writing projects?
In addition to reviewing large proposals written by his co-workers intended for other companies, Mr. Leigh usually writes jointly with colleagues on larger projects that involve more than one person in his department. He said team members usually write about the portion of the process model in which they were involved, and that another team member or secretary edits the documents.
How has written communication affected chances for advancement in your career?
Mr. Leigh said that effective writing skills were important to move up in his company - being able to accurately convey information on a very technical process is the most important part of process engineering. He moved up into his current position as a process engineer after being involved in research at his company
Which writing skills are the most important to develop for a person in your position?
Descriptive and prescriptive writing, Mr. Leigh said, is more important for a process engineer than creative writing. However, he said that any writing experience helps, and the classes he took in school that most helped his writing were not necessarily technical writing courses. Mr. Leigh said that he developed his writing skills also by seeing how others in his field wrote; when he was in research, he read process papers by engineers higher in the company, and was able to learn what level of writing and skill were needed.
What opportunities does your employer provide to enhance communications skills?
LTJ Consulting's employees are expected to attend career development seminars sponsored by the company at least once a year. Mr. Leigh said that his company offers a few writing enhancement courses and seminars for employees, since accurate process description is a key part of what his company does for customers.
Interviewing Mr. Leigh gave me valuable insight on how technical writing can be very important for an engineering student. All of his projects must end with a detailed written description of the work he and his colleagues have done, and his company's customers must be able to understand and follow the produced documentation.
Mr. Bayles, a career counselor at
Montgomery Co. R-II High School, was interviewed on
May 20th. I met with him in his office, and
asked him the same questions I
asked Mr. Leigh. His responses as follows:
How much time do you spend on writing during a typical work week?
Mr. Bayles said that he spends time during his work week on writing preparation, making recommendations and collecting data for communication to be written by others, often a member of the secretarial staff. He also spends time on both formal and informal communication, often requests for information.
What types and of writing do you do the most in your career?
Mr. Bayles is most involved with communication with his own school's administration, and the administration of organizations with which his school is associated. He often writes requests for information on college or career programs or student information, and responds to similar inquiries addressed to his school and counseling department. He also prepares reports and evaluations on students, documents that must present student and program information, for teachers, parents, and colleagues.
To what audience are your job-related writings usually addressed?
Most of Mr. Bayles' written correspondence is between colleagues in other organizations and "customers" like students and parents. When writing to a school for information on a certain program, Mr. Bayles often has been in contact with the addressee in the past, so more informal correspondence is appropriate. In other cases, preparing a report for a parent or superior, there is more of an emphasis on being professional and formal; the idea is to present data.
In what capacity do you have to collaborate with co-workers for writing projects?
Providing data that is to combined with data colleagues' is important for Mr. Bayles. When helping to prepare reports, his input is focused on his area of expertise - post-secondary education and careers, and standardized testing. Documents in which he is involved might end up with information from him and several other sources, including teachers, other counselors, and school administrators. As a result, being able to effectively communicate one's knowledge is important in his position, because other people in the organization depend upon it.
How has written communication affected chances for advancement in your career?
Mr. Bayles said that advancement due to written communication is not immediately visible in his field, but that people in positions like his must be able to communicate well in order to get into the position. Most guidance counselors, he said, start as teachers, and the ability to communicate in text and in person help teachers make the jump into administration.
Which writing skills are the most important to develop for a person in your position?
Experience in writing, Mr. Bayles said, is the most important thing to develop in his position. Communication with parents and people in other organizations must be correct in spelling, grammar, and punctuation - the written communication coming from school administration should be good in order to inspire confidence about what is being taught to the school's students. As a result, he recommends exposition and argumentation courses for all students, and also literature courses, as learning by example is an effective way to improve writing skills.
What opportunities does your employer provide to enhance communications skills?
Mr. Bayles said that administration in his school do not usually have opportunities to work on writing skills, but that faculty members have a number of seminars in which they may participate as a part of professional development, and that these often deal with development of communication skills. He also said that many employees of the school take night or summer courses for higher degrees, all of which involve writing skills at some point.
Interviewing Mr. Bayles provided me with a look at how people in fields other than my own intended one deal with technical writing. As with Mr. Leigh's, Mr. Bayles' responses show that the ability to write well is an important part of getting and keeping a job, and that effective expression of information is prevalent in almost every professional field.
I took the time to thank Mr. Leigh and Mr. Bayles after the interviews, and both said that they would be available for follow-up questions if our Lesson 1 project would require them in the future. Both were glad to be able to assist. This should conclude the Investigation Division's involvement in the project; I am making our data available to the Communication Division for continued work.
CC: Norman Conquest, Communications Division