Writing or communicating?
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Growing up, two school subjects I always did well in were PE and math. English, not so much. My reading comprehension was always excellent, as was my spelling and grammar. However, my writing, especially creative writing, was always the struggle. Knowing myself now, I doubt it was a lack of creativity or a lack of technical skills. It’s probably because writing is a subjective skill. Math and spelling have correct answers (generally…). Writing requires judgment. I can certainly imagine a young Geoffrey writing his two page report on bears and never thinking about it again. You wanted a two page report on an animal, here is two pages about bears. Done. Task accomplished and problem solved. Creative writing assignments, such as short stories and poetry, would probably have been even worse. As I progressed through school, I learned, but not necessarily practiced, a variety of techniques to make my writing better, topic sentences, figures of speech and the like.
With the transition to university and a business degree the focus of the writing changed. No longer were winding, creative stories desired. The emphasis became communicating a message (an idea or opinion) instead of telling a story. This message was usually relayed in two forms, a written report and an oral presentation. The skills of writing were replaced with the skills of communicating. Communication can take many forms, but let’s focus on written communication versus writing.
In my view, written communication can be very different than writing. Communication is about delivering messages. Strong message driven written business communication should be clear and concise; the receiver shouldn’t have to reach for a dictionary or search for the meaning. Alternately, an excellent piece of writing may have deeper themes that are not prevalent at first glance and words that are new to the reader. Writing has the power to cause reflection, something that is unlikely to be found in a press release. When writing, an author is more likely to focus on the theme, the message or the story whereas a piece of written communication should always come back to the recipient.
Where does a thesis fit? Is it written communication or writing? I would argue that it is written communication since it strives to explain and offer insight into a problem. However, given the length and depth of a thesis, it must be extremely well written. Standard ‘communicating’ techniques of simplification and conciseness take away from the significance of the issues at the centre of the problem and will not allow the reader to gain the knowledge required for full comprehension of the thesis. The challenge of thesis writing is balancing the techniques of writing (presenting deeper themes, using a wide vocabulary, etc.) with the purpose of written communication (clear and easy to read).
I look forward to having all the spelling and grammar errors pointed out to me….
