Self-Reflection

Over the course of the semester I kept noticing how my writing improved from one assignment to the next. I noticed significant progress in the areas of style and expression, whereas in organization and material the changes were more subtle. The changes in my writing may be attributed to the new forms of writing (i.e. memo and business letter) I learned during the course and to the instructions and examples of how to approach the assignments.

As it turned out, business communication requires a somewhat different set of writing techniques. The very first assignment set the tone for the type of changes I had to make in my writing style. My first version of the first assignment, on how to write a memo, was too long and contained a lot of redundant and lengthy explanations. For example, in my first assignment, I wrote: “First, try to answer the question: What is the overall goal of my memo? There are two principal answers to this question: to persuade or to inform.” Clearly, my expressions were too lengthy and writing style was too informal for a business memo. Today, I would change that sentence as follows: “A business memo has two principal goals: to persuade or to inform.” Generally, I had to start paying more attention to the style and expressions I used so that my assignments would be accepted without revision.

In the areas of organization and material, I believe, my writing has also improved, though less noticeably for me. I cannot identify exactly what has changed but my approach to organizing and selecting material for my writing became more conscious. This might be attributed to the quality of explanations and examples provided by the instructor through website and feedback. All materials provided through the course were focused on making my writing more effective. Examples were very easy to follow and helped me in organization of my assignments. For instance, every memo had to start with a brief statement of purpose of the memo. This simple structure made me think of organization and material before I even started to write anything. I had to understand the whole before summarized it.

However, my writing is still far from perfect. I have many problems with correctness. For example, using or not using the articles “a” and “the” is more of an educated guess for me than an application of grammar rules. Correct application of grammar and style is my primary concern right now and I believe it will be for some time in the future. Regretfully, correctness and grammar is out of scope for a business communication course.

In general, I think our class had the right focus and was very well organized. In addition to improving my writing techniques, I learned how to write and collect a portfolio of useful documents (e.g. a resume, statement of purpose, thank-you letter, etc.), which was more than I expected from an average English course.