written communication
Uploaded by denniskeb on Jul 28, 2005
INTRODUCTION.
“Man is an animal that lives in language as a fish lives in water and so written communication is just one of the ways that man can survive through” (English scholar Annie Dillard). Writing is a skill to give information. Like all skills, it is not inborn and so it needs to be learnt. To give information you need good communication skills including the ability to write simply, clearly and concisely (Harris & Cunningham, 1996).
QUESTION A.
Delineate the purpose of written communication, giving reasons for your answers.
Different people have different reasons as to why they write. Some people write for their own private reasons or to attain their own individual goals. An example of this ‘private writing’ is exploratory writing. This is writing ideas that you do not want others to see. Introductory writing where you free write on a topic, before composing what you want to say. Examples of writing to explore a topic include keeping a journal, which helps one to take down information that will help him recollect and investigate ideas for a future write up.
Another purpose in written communication may be to communicate something that happened, or narrating an experience to a reader. This is referred to as writing to reconstruct experience. To make the experience more vivid and interesting to a reader, you should give specific details, use concrete language (words that create a specific image in the mind of your reader for example: slowly tip-toe) and use of analogies (comparison words, for example hard as a rock). Examples of this purpose of writing include: - a witness writes a police statement to describe an occurrence. Or writers who write novels or books describing a true story they experienced.
In most of our lives, we learn from those who can teach. Experienced elders or specialists teach us how to live, conduct ourselves, relate to one another and survive in different environments. My first day in USIU I was handed a student handbook which had all the rules and information about the university. That handbook was written with a purpose which was to instruct and advice. The purpose of instructions from this type of writing is to explain to readers about something or what they should do.
Another purpose for writing is to inform. Information is power. In today’s society people need a lot of information to perform, thus making information quite a valuable commodity. A good example of...