Part 3: Adaptations

Overview

Overview
Letters and Memos
Collaborative Documents
Oral Presentations
Telephone Calls
Projects



In Parts 1 and 2 we presented a general model for writing. If you applied that model step-by-step to your own work as you read, then you've seen how it works for a document that requires your best efforts. We also hope you gained a new awareness of planning, writing, and revising as a multi-step process that you can apply to many different kinds of documents.

The reality of writing at work is that you write all kinds of documents-- some long, some short, some that have to be polished, some that have to go out in the next five minutes. Perhaps even more important, writing often isn't the end of it. Frequently, writing must become speaking. You have to discuss an issue orally, to report, propose, answer questions, perhaps even testify in regard to documents you or people who work with you have produced.

The method you have practiced can be applied to all these situations and formats. In Part 3, we suggest adaptations for some of the more common "special circumstances":

As you read Part 3, you'll probably see other ways these techniques can be adapted to fit your particular situation. They are, after all, basic tools for thinking. The goals provide direction and guidance, the procedures provide method. But you control them. So, once you have learned the method, adapt it, extend it, make whatever changes you need to get maximum leverage for you.


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e-mail:
jbs@cs.unc.edu
smithcath@ecu.edu
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