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BCQ76210.1177/1080569913478155Busine
ss Communication QuarterlyTeaching Students to Write for the Workplace Part 2
Holly Lawrence1
Abstract
The use of personal, reflective writing exercises is well documented in the disciplines
of composition and management, and each discipline has been highly influential in
establishing pedagogical practices in the business communication classroom. However,
we see little evidence of the pedagogical practice, the use of personal reflective
writing exercises, in the teaching of business communication. This article looks at
pedagogy and theory that informs the use of personal, reflective writing exercises
in composition and management and suggests the relevance of these same practices
in business communication classrooms today. Building on relevant pedagogical
theory and practice, the author also makes the claim that personal reflective writing
exercises can make students better writers and more effective managers and leaders.
The article concludes with sample exercises that readers might try in their own
business communication classrooms.
Keywords
classroom practice, reflection, personal writing, management education, writing process
Like many of us in business communication, where I began is not where I ended up.
As a PhD student in composition, I taught a basic writing course to first-year students
who did not place into college writing. The courses custom text contained fictional
stories and other narratives by authors from diverse backgrounds, which, in turn, typically reflected the backgrounds of the students in the class. After reading excerpts
1
Corresponding Author:
Holly Lawrence, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Isenberg School of Management, 121 Presidents
Drive, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Email: lawrence@isenberg.umass.edu
193
from texts, such as Piri Thomass Down These Mean Streets (1997) and Maxine Hong
Kingstons Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1989), students
were assigned writing exercises that often asked them to make personal connections as
step one toward critiquing and grappling with the texts concepts. Given this framework, many of our scaffolding exercises were personal, reflective writings. The purpose of these exercises ranged from stimulating in-class discussion to preparing
students for a more comprehensive essay that would soon follow.
Around the time I completed my PhD, I found myself teaching business writing in
a business school. In making the switch from college writing to business writing,
I turned to two textbooks, Janis Forman and Kathleen Kellys Random House Guide
to Business Writing (1990) and shortly thereafter Kitty Lockers Business and
Administrative Communication (1994). I immediately recognized principles of composition in both texts; however, the more I became involved in the field of business
communication, the more I was surprised by how little use of personal, reflective writing I found.
By personal, reflective writing, I mean writing exercises and assignments that are
self-reflective, self-referential, or self-expressive in nature. In short, I am talking about
exercises that ask the writer to write about herself or himself.
In truth, we do see some examples of such exercises in Formans and Lockers texts.
Both ask students to perform a self-assessment as part of the job search. In keeping with
self-assessments, students are asked to list achievements, strengths, and weaknesses and
consider values, likes, and dislikes. Locker (1994) asks students to think about experiences that have given [them] the most satisfaction (p. 527). Forman and Kelly (1990)
ask about relevant educational experience with questions, such as, What were you most
successful in, and what did you enjoy? (p. 681) and go on to suggest that student readers
reflect on personal qualities, interests, work values, and preferred work environments
that might make the student happiest (p. 683). In addition, Locker (1994) uses other
composition practices, such as freewriting, as a technique for brainstorming, planning,
and organizing business documents (p. 114). We can still find these recommendations
and practices in subsequent editions of her text, and self-assessments as well as some
written evaluative exercises are offered in other contemporary business communication
texts. For example, we can find self-assessments as part of the oral presentation process,
such as those offered in Newman and Obers Business Communication (2013). We also
see even more examples in business communciation texts with a focus, such as Barretts
Leadership Communication (2011) and Dufrene and Lehmans Building HighPerformance Teams (2011). However, examples are few. Personal, reflective writing is
used very little compared with what we see in composition and in another primary
affecting discipline of business communicationmanagement.
Within management, especially organizational behavior or leadership textbooks and trade books, personal, reflective writing exercises are quite common.
The standard self-assessment in organizational behavior often aims to help students assess leadership abilitytheir own or others. Management and leadership
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author Andrew Dubrin has numerous examples of self-assessments in his texts, for
example, in his Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (2012). We
can also easily find more exploratory personal, reflective writing exercises in publications, such as Schaetti, Ramsey, and Wantanabes Personal Leadership: A
Methodology of Two Principles and Six Practices (2011) or Neck and Manzs
Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (2012).
In fact, personal, reflective writing exercises are especially common in management and leadership texts and trade books, those often recommended to business
undergraduates and MBA students. The exercises encourage students to engage in
this type of writing as a form of self-discovery and as a way to validate personal
experience.
Compositionists have touted the benefits of personal reflective writing for decades
and have encouraged students to write about the self as a standard part of the writing
process. Compositionists William Coles (1978), Ken Macrorie (1985), Peter Elbow
(1991), and Kathleen Yancey (1998) are especially notable early supporters with
claims that written articulation of personal experience places responsibility on the
writer to make her or his own knowledge and further the learning experience. We can
see ongoing evidence of the theory and practice supporting personal, reflective writing
in contemporary composition texts, such as Barbara Fine Clouses The Student Writer:
Editor and Critic (2012), Traci Gardners Designing Writing Assignments (2008), and
Chris Jenningss Lesson Plans for Teaching Writing (2007).
Of course, business communication is a different field with its own uses for the
practice and theory produced in management and composition. However, given the
relationship of personal, reflective writing between these two affecting disciplines, I
continue to be surprised by its limited existence in our literature and textbooks. In this
article, my goal is to review the theory behind personal, reflective writing, as it is used
in management and composition, and, in turn, suggest ways to use personal, reflective
writing in the business communication classroom. Like theorists and teachers before
me, I believe that incorporating reflective exercises in business communication
courses can help our students take more responsibility for their own knowledge,
become better writers and thinkers, and, in turn, become better managers and leaders.
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Critical Pedagogy
Emphasis on the individual in relation to the greater community is especially important to critical pedagogy. As Richard Miller (2011) makes clear, composition scholarship on critical pedagogy ranges from discussion of Paulo Freires Pedagogy of the
Oppressed (1968/1970) and applicability of his theories in U.S. higher learning institutions generally (Berlin, 2011; McCormick, 1992; North, 1991) to practical applications of his pedagogy in U.S. composition classrooms (Berthoff, 1984; Bizzell, 1992;
Shor, 1987). Shor (1980) defines critical pedagogy this way:
Critical education prepares student to be their own agents for social change,
their own creators of democratic culture. They gain skills of philosophical
abstraction which enable them to separate themselves from manipulation and
from the routine flow of time. Consequently, their literacy is a challenge to their
control by corporate culture. (p. 48)
Although the body of research and scholarship on critical pedagogy is smaller in
management than composition, there is a passionate group of educators who publish
on critical pedagogy and its related schools of thoughtReynolds (1998, 1999) on
critical pedagogy; Densten and Gray (2001) on critical reflection; and Alvesson and
Willmott (1992) and Prasad and Caproni (1997) on critical theory. Alvesson and
Willmott call for critical reflection in management pedagogy in order to fight technical
rationality.
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to get students in the mood to write and tackle a business writing task. What follows
is a description of personal, reflective writing exercises useful in a business communication class.
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200
feedback are similar to their self-evaluation and feedback exercise. However, with the
peer feedback assignment, they have to be more conscious about other elements of
good business writing, such as making it reader-centered and practicing positive or
neutral wording.
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202
Reflecting on Performance
I film all of my students oral presentations, and in addition to having students evaluate each other, I ask them to evaluate themselves. I begin this assignment in class with
a writing exercise in which I ask them to describe themselves as a presenter. Nearly
all my students have already given an oral presentation in high school, in other college
classes, or in other environments. They typically know (or think they know) their own
strengths and weaknesses.
Next, I ask them to set two goals for their upcoming presentation in my class. The
goals should be narrow, such as to reduce the number of interrupters they use or to stop
putting their hands in their pockets. I get them to file their goals away or send them to
me as an email, and on presentation day, I ask them to keep their goals in mind as they
present.
Once recorded, I have them watch their presentations and reflect on their earlier
writing about strengths and weaknesses. Did they accurately describe themselves?
What surprises did they find? Can they update their list of strengths and weaknesses?
I also ask them to review their goals? Were they realistic? Did they meet them? What
new goals should they set for future presentations?
This version of self-evaluation and reflection could be graded or not.
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Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
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Bio
Holly Lawrence is a senior lecturer and director of the Business Communication Program in
the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. She holds a PhD in
composition from the University of Massachusetts Writing Program. She teaches business communication to undergraduates and MBA students.
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