Writing Well is Not Just for Graded Work > Tricia Berry

Last month, Dean Betty Vandenbosch wrote that writing is more than just mechanics, and she described the process of helping students focus on their audience, structuring the message, and telling a story.  Betty provided a wonderful structure that can easily be used across all disciplines in a wide variety of formal coursework.  Students should also be encouraged (and, in my opinion, required) to use the same process with less formal written communications such as email. Students often appear to feel that writing rules and mechanics apply only to the work they submit for a grade.  Below are fragments of emails I have recently received from students:

I appologize for the latteness of my background check paper I will be faxxing it over in the next 20 mins.

If i have a job i would have to quit so i can do my clinicals becuz I didn’t realize I wouldn’t b getting paid for it.

Is their drs offices I need to talk to exactly?
   
Do I need to get the list of shot I need I have not and also need to know what else so I many start on time please send me an email?

    These examples are not isolated incidents, but rather common occurrences during my day-to-day interactions with students.  If just reading these does not create cause for concern, then consider it from this perspective:  As a part of the clinical requirements of their academic program, each of these students was either currently representing Kaplan University at a medical facility or was within a few weeks of doing so, yet none of them had a clear understanding of how important the rules of writing are every time you write.  Does it make you wonder what they might have been writing in a patient’s medical chart?

When I receive emails like these, my response to the student usually includes a note about remembering to use appropriate grammar, punctuation, and spelling in all written communication.  In many cases I receive a return response that says something along the lines of “I’m sorry.  I always make sure to use correct grammar in assignments” or “I didn’t know it mattered in an email.”  Considering the amount of email communication that goes on in most professional settings, those kinds of responses set off alarm bells.  It is important that we prepare our students to write well in a variety of formats so that they can be successful in the transition to professional interactions, and it is important students understand that the rules of writing must be applied outside of “just assignments.”

Chan (2005) stated that email has become the predominant communication method in the workplace, but points out that poorly planned messages can have unintended consequences.   Email does not carry the social cues that face-to-face communications do, and thus it is important that writers become much more intentional about the construction of their message.   As Betty suggested in her article last month, a writer must carefully plan the message.  According to Chan, consideration of the reader’s point of view is a critical element in the planning process and should influence the tone of the delivery.  Chan provides additional suggestions for business email etiquette:

1)    Always use a salutation and closing.

2)    Use appropriate sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation (and avoid the use of “texting” type communications in an email).

3)    Deliver a concise and focused message.  Email is meant to facilitate quick communication.  Important points in lengthy messages may get overlooked.

As educators, our goals and responsibilities extend beyond teaching the content of a specific academic discipline.  We must teach, and role model, the skills our students need in all aspects of their professional lives.  One part of that responsibility is to guide, encourage, and support students as they learn to communicate in a variety of written formats.   If we do not provide them with those skills, who will?

References

Chan, J.F. (2005). Email: How to write and manage email in the

     workplace.  Oakland, CA: Write It Well.

Did you know...

... that Tricia started teaching part time as a hobby when her first baby was born, and never intended to make a career of it!

Tricia Berry is the Assistant Dean of Clinical Placement and oversees the process of making sure HS students have clinical sites for hands-on learning.