Karen's blog

Our group has gathered a great deal of research, so it looks like the next step is to figure out where to focus our attention for the white paper.

I'm actually waiting to hear from Susan Davis to see if I can work with her to find a business to work with. But as soon as I know who my class will be working I will use the template!

Karen

I especially liked the "Group Work and Collaborative Writing" piece, in fact I think I'll tack that on to my students' readings as they gear up for the white paper assignment.

Professional writing covers a great deal of territory - everything from technical papers, instruction manuals, memos, marketing and advertising materials to web page design. I think audience awareness is prominent in professional writing situations. And there are two components to your audience in professional writing: your supervisors/bosses and the company's customers. Forms are also more important in professional writing than in other kinds of writing. Almost every company has its preferred forms, templates, and style sheets.

a white paper and a document that makes an argument (policy statement or brief) or recommends a solution (recommendation report)

According to Michael A. Stelzner, a white paper advocates for a single, specific solution to the issue it addresses. It was originally a governmental document intended to inform policy, yet now it is often used as a sales and marketing tool.

I found this assertion by Haswell intriguing: "Students are reluctant to change their rhetorically inept ways because their old ways have stood them academically in sufficient stead (second-language specialists call this "error resistance"), and because they don't like the image of themselves as inepts."

After a semester of classical rhetoric, I've got a bunch of definitions for rhetoric swimming around in my brain. The one that springs to the forefront most often these days is the ability to see the various means of persuasion, a paraphrase of Aristotle's definition. This seems especially an especially apt definition to use in business.