Resources
for Students
An internship experience
can help you determine your
career path, focus your degree
program, and ease your
transition from the workplace
to the classroom.
Annotated Bibliography
These suggested readings have been taken directly from annotated bibliographies prepared by English department students as part of their internship experience. These selections are supplemented each semester
Blake, Gary and Robert W. Bly The Elements of Business Writing. New York: Collier Books, 1991.
This book is an excellent guide to business writing. It is not a text with exercises, rather it is a reference, a style guide, containing principles of business writing in a well-organized, clear, and interesting format. The features covered are easy to find using either the table of contents or the index. Chapters topics are principles of composition, principles of organization, principles of wording and phrasing, principles of tone, principles of persuasion, principles of punctuation, grammar, abbreviation, capitalization, and spelling, and principles of format. This book is a great reference for instructors and would also be a good reference for advanced level English students.
Bly, Robert W. "Expand Your Business-Writing Business with Sales Brochures." Writers Digest 70 (August 1990) : 30-34.
This article discusses the lucrative freelance business of writing sales
brochures. Bly begins by stating that every organization needs printed
literature to inform, sell, or educate. He mentions potential clients,
what and how to charge the clients, and six items necessary in successful
sales brochures: strong selling message on the cover; appropriate illustrations
and graphics; logical organization following a decision-making process;
answers to all consumer questions; division of larger parts into meaningful
sections; and stress of benefits to persuade the consumer to buy the product.
Bly ends the article with suggestions for freelance technical writers on
"selling themselves."
Carliner, Saul. "Revisions: A New Writer's Challenge." Basic Technical Writing. Ed. Frances J. Sullivan. Arlington,Va.: Society for Technical Communication, 1987. 71 -74.
Carliner seemed to have a negative view of starting out in the technical writing field by revising current texts, but after he completed three different types of revisions, he discovered that revision writing is a good way to train new writers. He states that writers are still able to prove their writing ability, affect product development, and be responsible for large projects even if they start out doing only revisions. The article describes three different types of revision processes and the differences among them: small revisions (and the importance of maintaining original style for consistency), larger assignments (with the freedom to add some illustrations and new material), and the complete rewriting of publications.
England, Lizabeth and Christine Uber Grosse. Speaking of Business. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1995.
This text is definitely aimed at the advanced level. It has three main
focuses: business concepts, communication skills, and cross-cultural understanding.
Readings are from such sources as The Wall Street Journal and The
Economist, etc. Exercises include pre-reading skills, building vocabulary,
taking notes, writing memos, and self- and peer-assessment. Each chapter
also contains a business communication task, such as conducting a meeting,
making a presentation, or networking.
Focht, Daniel W. "Technical Writing for the Market Place--Why Not?" Basic Technical Writing. Ed. Frances J. Sullivan. Arlington, Va.: Society for Technical Communication, 1987. 75-77.
Focht describes the move from technical writing to promotional writing. He states that the largest difference between the two is that promotional writing must persuade the audience to actually read the material first. An owner of a computer manual has a different purpose in reading than someone flipping through a magazine or reading a direct mail advertisement. Focht then lists the characteristics of technical writers that help them move to promotional writing: their attention to detail, ability to revise their own material, and ability to determine the objective of their writing. He also writes the new things they must learn: capturing interest, writing about the benefits rather than the features, focusing on important points, using familiar words, and anticipating the readers' questions.
Hollett, Vicki. Business Objectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
This text has an attractive layout containing good photographs. All
of the chapters apply specifically to a business context. The chapters
are arranged by objective, such as meeting people, telephoning, describing
products and services, meetings, making arrangements, comparing alternatives,
planning, negotiation, etc. The activities in each chapter are varied,
and include listening to audiotape, reading texts, writing, speaking with
partners or groups, and more.
Hallihan, Edward J. "Practical Writing and Editing Techniques." Basic Technical Writing. Ed. Frances J. Sullivan. Arlington, Va.: Society for Technical Communication, 1987: 67-70.
In this article, Hallihan deals with something that I've already completed
for my current position--creating text from existing documents with a minimum
of supervision, in a short amount of time. He gives four practical techniques
to remember when editing documents: exposure (complete an audience analysis),
research (use exact wording from current manuals, plans, specifications,
etc.), participation (become familiar with the product by attending schedule,
budget, or project meetings), and review (use informal reviews and follow
the given checklist before the final review).
Lay, Mary M., and William M. Karis, eds. Collaboration Writing in Industry: Investigations in Theory and Practice. New York: Baywood Publishing, 1991.
This book is a collection of essays concerned with collaborative writing.
The authors surveyed over 400 professionals from a variety of organizations
and found that "collaborative writing" in the workplace might
not be "group writing," but really a writer simply interacting
with others (88). They clarify this point through the chapter and state
that the discrepancy is probably due to the lack of concrete definitions
of "collaborative writing."
Matis, David. "The Graphic Design of Text." Intercom 43.2 (February 1996): 22-23.
Short but very useful article that stresses the need for writers to
understand principles of typography. A succinct review of research dispels
myths and established guidelines for creating reader accessibility to text.
Reep, Diana C. Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1991.
This textbook provides useful review information about collaboration,
analyzing readers, document design, presentations, and so forth. Perhaps
most useful are the collected essays at the back of the book, written by
professionals working in the field.
Samson, Donald C. Editing Technical Writing. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Samson's book provides an excellent review of the technical editing
class I took last year; in fact, it goes more in-depth in sections than
the book that we used last semester. It covers definitions of writing,
editing, and proofreading; how to create technical documents; the roles
of the different employees; a review of proofreading symbols, grammar,
and punctuation; the degrees of edit and a description of style guides;
and the budgeting of writing projects.
Sides, Charles H. "Should You Know How to Do Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations Writing?" Technical Communication 39, (August 1992): 367-75.
Sides informs us that in order to secure jobs as technical writers, we need to learn more about public relations writing. This article describes three main types of writing: marketing plans, advertising copy (television ads, radio advertisements, and direct mail advertising), and public relations writing (media outlines, news releases, and public service announcements). For each type, Sides provides a generic outline and describes how each document defines the product. He mentions that technical writers already have many of the skills necessary for this kind of writing.