K. Alex Ilyasova
Volume 6
Chapter Description
So, you’ve had writing assignments before, probably ones where you had to compare and contrast something or a few things, or where you wrote a story/narrative. And possibly a few where you’ve even had to write a research paper on a specific topic. You’ve maybe even had to write an argumentative paper at some point on some issue or topic as well. But now you’re in a business writing class or a technical writing class, and things feel different. You now have to write a report. Not only do you have to write a report, but you also have to write these other parts of what seem to be pieces that go alongside the report, such as memos, and even smaller pieces like summaries and abstracts, that you might never have had to do in previous writing assignments. Where do you start? How do you know you did them well? And why do you need to write all those other pieces anyways?
What follows is a series of practical guidelines that help you understand the why and the how for three specific pieces of writing that often accompany reports and other professional and technical writing assignments. These three pieces of writing are cover memos, executive summaries, and abstracts. As you read the guidelines, you’ll come away understanding the goal, purpose or why of each piece of writing, the definition, and what aspects make each effective. Along the way, we’ll apply some of these guidelines to actual examples. You’ll also be able to get into the heads of other writers as they formulate their own approaches to how they write these specific pieces/assignments.
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