Interviews
Good written communication is essential in the workplace. Whether a person is sitting in a forum, having an interview, or interacting with a client, the foundation of good communication skills is important. It enables an aspect of individuals making a difference between being misunderstood and getting personalized views around. It is the main reason individuals achieve some deals and positive working relationships while others do not do so. In most cases, written communication is an important way of ensuring individuals understand the professional environment and its implication in changing professional processes and procedures. With such knowledge at hand, I focused on identifying the relevance and need for effective professional written communication in the workplace. The quest involved having an interview with two professors-Professor James Manu (Psychological Department) and Madam Jane Anger (Communication Department). The two professors’ selection was due to their unique professional backgrounds and experiences with written communication, which would bring out differing and similar answers to the interview questions. A focus on the interview questions looks into their information, experience commonalities, experience differences, relevance, gains, surprising and disheartening issues, and the use of the information for current and future endeavors.
Presenting Information regarding the Interviews
For the interviews to become highly comprehensive, I had to consider some issues. First, I had to conduct the interviews differently in terms of time and locations. I visited Professor Manu’s office, where I interviewed while Anger’s interview was undertaken in the school garden, according to their preferences. The questions were also similar, despite the answers they provided remaining unique. The following was key to the interview:
Summary of the Interview Information provided by Each Participant
Professor Manu was more focused on overriding some interview questions by focusing on the definition and position of written communication in the professional environment. Written communication was put into a tab such as a paper and click board of a computer giving rise to social media posts, emails, and e-based materials. Professor Manu touched on the internet as changing the written form of communication. As he argued, “the main purpose of written communication is for capturing the attention of the reader to get one’s point across clearly. The reader gains an opportunity to understand your perspective regarding an area of development. Hence, a powerful piece of written communication focuses on the topic comprehensively and heeds the reader’s interest. Writing for him was about ignoring the risks associated with spoken language, which was somehow filled with vagueness and ambiguity.
As he argued about writing, he suggested that it made individuals feel confident due to the clear expression of every perspective that individuals undertake. Conducting business may involve written communication to ensure effective communications and negotiations with business partners, colleagues, and clients. The other point he raised focused on the establishment of loyal relationships. The conveyance of messages creates effective relationships. With clear messages, Professor Manu reiterated that one could develop trust and integrity with the readers. Well-written communication meant identifying problems, formulation and definition of goals, and developing the needed solutions. Executive memos, as Professor Manu described, were important in providing employees with directives that eliminate confusion.
On the other hand, Madam Anger was more fixated on the contribution that professional written communication had introduced into different world sectors. She argued that modern society had welcomed written communication as a popular form of sharing ideas. She thanked advanced technology through social media platforms and emails to message individuals and share business reports everywhere. Madam Anger also suggested that examination papers should be undertaken through digital platforms due to the efficiency they create in meeting learning needs.
Madam Anger was more focused on frameworks of written communication. She talked about language style, punctuation, syntax, and word choices as significant elements of effective professional writing. According to her, writing depends on credibility, reliability, and validity created by the above elements. She focused on writing written language in paragraphs to ensure readers understood the information that individuals were passing across. For Madam Anger, professional written communication would open doors if individuals were considerate of professional developments and needs.
Commonalities between the Interviewee’s Experiences
Both Professor Manu and Madam Anger were focused on defining the role of technology in changing professional written communication. They suggested that the internet had made it possible for writing to become popular among individuals. Even for the academic sector, everything was formulated to depend on written communication for clear understanding. An example they provided comprised the presentation and defending of an academic thesis.
Individuals had to make oral presentations, but professors evaluated how the presentation was translated into the written thesis project documents. The two interviewees argued that the world had changed tremendously with professional written communication. Books and articles were being used everywhere to ensure people learned something new in their lives. Their motivation came from the fact that governments had not influenced new professional writing standards, which affected curriculum developments. However, they were happy that technology would change how people would learn eventually.
Differences between the Interviewees’ Experiences
Despite the discussions that created similarities between the interviewees, few differences were associated with the interviewees’ answers. The difference focused on the uniqueness of traditional professional writing communication and digital professional writing communication. As per their known differences, the two are mandated on different platforms. Traditional written communication uses exercise books, stone tablets, wood carvings, and materials such as clothing to communicate ideas. On the other hand, digital professional written communication focused on using mobile phones, tablets, and computers for writing letters, emails, social media posts, and undertaking mathematical computations.
The two professors suggested that these two differences were important to consider when communicating with the environment around us. Both professor Manu and Madam Anger argued that digital professional written communication would lose its essence with informal written forms of communications such as social media posts became common. It eroded formal and professional writing elements, which was dangerous to the learning process. The two tasked teaching members of the society to focus on proper ways of strengthening written communication as a whole (considering traditional and digital written forms) to ensure they maintained a professional standard despite the changes in the learning environments. With the above, it would be easier to control the implications associated with professional written communication.
The relevance associated with the Interviewees’ Experiences in the Interview
The relevance of the interviewee’s experiences was important to my understanding of professional written communication. Madam Anger taught me the importance of creating reliable information regarding a specific area of development. For me, this has dawned on me several. I have always been a poor writer due to ignoring some important elements of written communication. When an individual fails to respect punctuation, it becomes harder for readers to understand the information they are putting across. Effective communication is about expressing oneself well through professional paragraphs, good diction, and proper arrangement of words. I realized that I needed to read more for me to write the best documents for my readers.
Professor Manu also provided me with relevant lessons that I would use for my future developments in the academic and professional sectors. According to Professor Manu, writing is about acquiring the right points about ensuring that individuals can define developments. In this case, written communication is about putting grammar, punctuation, and syntax into the correct format to ensure a clear understanding of the information passed across. With the academic world focusing on software like Microsoft, students need to edit grammar and syntax. I have come to appreciate technology as highlighting important sections in improving writing initiatives.
The Insight Gained from the Assignment
The most significant insight from the assignment revolved around the position of written communication against oral communication. Despite oral communication being unavoidable, professionalism in communication is defined by written communication. The main reason is that written communication is somehow efficient and effective in driving points forward. It is the main reason why individuals and companies prefer written memos compared to forums in directing information regarding specific communication areas. With digital communication in place, many people access information through social media posts, emails, telephone messages, written updates, and digitized memos, among others. Even in marketing, oral communication is founded on written communication models.
Professional written communication ensures information is evenly distributed among a large crowd of individuals due to its efficiency. An example is a business memo that outlines new policies and processes that everyone should be aware of and ensure compliance with their application in society. Written communication ensures that things are done faster and efficiently compared to oral forms of communication. The interview has taught me that I should always focus on organizing my information in the best way possible before communicating my ideas to those around me. This is crucial because it promotes the right relationships and ensures individuals can gain the needed information within the needed timeframe. Individuals can understand ideas provided to them by writers with much ease.
The surprising thing about the Interview
The most surprising thing about the interview was that the two professors focused on integrating technology on written communication. At the beginning of the two interviews, I thought they would touch on traditional forms of professional written communication and prefer oral communication. However, they were more focused on growing technology to ensure that it changed written communication and professional standards to control the change. Professor Manu was more focused on promoting the right incentives in the academic sector, and technology was the most important incentive.
In this case, it showed that they understood society’s evolution and how it needed to be maximized to ensure changes are inculcated into the writing areas of development and learning. For them, the writing was an important factor in every aspect of life. I agree that everything in society depends on writing, even when it focuses on using oral forms of communication for its developments. Nothing was disheartening about the interview and the information that was provided by the professors.
Conclusion and Recommendation (The use of Information for current and future Endeavors)
As per Madam Anger and Professor Manu’s experiences, written communication will always be an important factor to consider in sharing ideas in society. People have to come up with possible ways to improve its use and position in society. For this, the information I learned will be important in promoting a positive writing outcome in my life. I would want to start reading more on how to develop my writing skills professionally. I have to focus on syntax, grammar, and punctuation to ensure that I can focus on developing my written communication professionally. I am focusing on writing some short stories that are interesting and focus on our daily lives. I believe that writing will open doors even when I look for greener pastures in other career areas.