Professional Writing Skills

The Importance of Developing Your Skills

The Importance of Writing Well

“When I go around the country talking with big corporate clients, I am astounded at the number of managers who bewail the fact that nobody who works for them can write a simple paragraph. You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but they’re no good to your company, or your career, if you can’t express them clearly and persuasively.” –Gary Blake, Communication Workshop leader

More quotes

When hiring someone, Paula Goodman, a vice president and senior recruiter at Citigroup in New York City, finds that strong writing skills are “a tiebreaker. If I have two job candidates in front of me, equally qualified except that one can write well and the other can’t, I’ll hire the one who can—every time.”

Some Statistics

Of the 1,000 largest employers in the U.S., 96% say employees must have good communication skills to get ahead.

Stephen Reder, a linguist at Portland State, found that among people with a college degree, those in the highest quintile in writing ability earn, on average, more than three times what those with the worst writing skills make.

(Fisher, A. The high cost of living and not writing well. Fortune, 138 (11), 244.)

IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning

The skills & abilities you will develop in W231 will help you attain many of the Principles of Undergraduate Learning.

http://www.imir.iupui.edu/iupuifolio/teach/teach_pul.htm

W231 will also help you develop the Fundamental Abilities, Skills, and Qualities Needed by Workers listed by the Department of Labor

The Ability to Work Effectively with Others• Working in a team

• Teaching others new skills

• Serving clients and customers

• Exercising leadership

• Negotiating

• Dealing with diversity

The Ability to Acquire and Use Information• Acquiring, organizing,

maintaining, interpreting, and evaluating information

• Using computers to process information

Fundamental Abilities, Skills, and Qualities Needed by Workers

The Ability to Utilize Resources• Scheduling time

• Budgeting funds

• Assigning space

• Managing staff

Fundamental Abilities, Skills, and Qualities Needed by Workers, cont.

The Ability to Utilize Technology to Solve Problems• Being familiar with a

variety of technologies• Selecting, applying, and

maintaining technologies

The Ability to Operate Effectively Within Organizations• Understanding how

social, organizational, and technological systems operate

• Operating effectively within systems

• Monitoring, evaluating, and correcting performance

• Improving or designing systems

Foundational Skills & Abilities Communication and

Computational Skills• Reading and

comprehending complex materials

• Writing clearly and convincingly

• Listening carefully & accurately

• Speaking articulately& persuasively

• Performing mathematical operations

Thinking Skills• Creating• Decision making• Problem solving• Learning, reasoning,

and organizing• Understanding

symbols, tables, and graphs

Foundational Skills & Abilities, cont. Personal Qualities

• Acting responsibly• Possessing high self-esteem • Exhibiting appropriate social skills• Demonstrating self-management• Displaying integrity

U.S. Dept. of Labor: The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. (1991). Washington, DC: Author.

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