education-economics

Review of: Technical and Business Writing for Working Professionals by Ray E. Hardesty

(Review appeared in Technical Communication: The Journal of the Society for Technical Communication, May 2002. Reviewed by Laura A. MacLamale, M.A.)

As industries evolve, so do the roles of employees. For example, the e-commerce evolution marked a need for corporate Webmasters, and employees had to adopt the skills necessary to assume a corporate Internet presence. In the evolving corporate structure and workplace, non-technical employees may need to acquire technical skills, and technical employees may need to acquire skills in information design and writing. This concept of technical employees acquiring writing skills is the principal focus of Technical and Business Writing for Working Professionals, written by Ray E. Hardesty, former book review editor of Technical Communication.
Hardesty credits the "change...in the business world" with placing writing responsibilities "on the shoulders of professionals for whom writing is not their primary specialty." The author states his goal up front: "to serve the audience of working professionals who may need a concise refresher course on the use of the English language in general and the use of language in the professional world in particular."
At 229 pages, including an index, the book is a fairly quick read. It's divided into three main parts: "Basics of English, "Technical Writing," and "Business Writing." Each of these main sections consists of several separate lessons, and each lesson has a "Memory Solidifier" at the end for self-quizzing.
"Basics of English" provides an overview of standards of the language, with emphasis on parts of speech and sentence structure. "Technical Writing" offers a discussion of standards and styles that establish the ideal approach to your audience. "Business Writing" contains suggested approaches to communicating in industry, from electronic memos to oral presentations.
The first section is intended as a primer for busy professionals and students with more experience on the technical side than the writing side. Hardesty breaks the section into chapters based on the parts of speech. Although the general discussion of various components of grammar is helpful, some of the examples could be stronger to directly clarify the concepts that they are intended to support.
For writing professionals, the section is more of a resource to consult occasionally for the basics. My copy has some highlighted notes on some concepts that need reinforcement from time to time. (Reminders on the proper uses of that and which, and restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses are always appreciated.)
The second section, "Technical Writing," highlights the "rules" of good technical writing. This section is aimed at technical employees who are familiar with the content but not with the task of explaining it to a non-technical audience. Here you will find practical advice about acronyms, units of measure, syntax and usage, and other writing conventions. This section also emphasizes the need to "Visualize your readers!" This consideration is necessary for all technical writers, but especially for those who are familiar with communicating advanced technical concepts with other subject matter experts but not to a non-technical audience.
The third section, "Business Writing," is the strongest. All types of business communication are discussed here, from e-mail and letters, to reports and proposals. The author again stresses the importance of "visualizing your audience" across the various media. The chapter on the internal report is relevant to both technical and non-technical writers who are required to write white papers in their jobs. (White papers describe a product, service, or technology, and are usually circulated within an organization to influence a business decision.) Those who are charged with writing them would find applicable information on organization and content here.
The discussion of proposal writing is also relevant to writers of all stripes, as this seems to be a form of communication that many professionals and students are not familiar with. A somewhat specialized niche in writing, proposal writing can be particularly demanding, detail-oriented, and deadline-driven. Requests for proposals are usually quite specific in their requirements, and the proposal writer's precision becomes extremely important.
Because this section covers the everyday writing that all industry employees are likely to participate in at one time or another, "Business Writing" is probably the most relevant portion of this book, and the most thorough.
The "Memory Solidifiers" throughout the book may also contribute to its value as a resource, for they allow readers to make notes on their own terms and view those notes as needed when questions arise. For readers who prefer to consult their own notes rather than scan through textbooks, the "Memory Solidifiers" would be an added bonus.
In my current position, we have the opportunity to train business professionals in writing skills. For that purpose, I would recommend this book to the trainer as a source of topical overviews and demonstration ideas. The "Business Writing" section would be my main reason for recommending this book, in part because it's the strongest and in part because it's the most relevant to our purpose.
Indeed, as industries evolve, so do our roles. Although the audience for this review contains many technical communicators, the target audience of this book would include a larger pool of employees with less writing experience. For that audience, the book would be a good introduction to basic concepts. It would make a handy quick reference to keep on hand, along with a standard such as Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. For an audience of technical communicators, this book would be a companion piece to both Strunk and White and a technical style guide as a reinforcer of the principles of effective business communication.

Theo has worked in Korea, Vietnam, the South Pacific, Nicaragua, South America and the Caribbean. He begins by setting the scene in which health workers struggle to do their jobs. He shows how the global debt crisis, expressing US domination of the international financial institutions, damages health across the world. US-imposed Structural Adjustment Programs force dis-investment in health and education. He notes how first world banks have made at least three times the amount they originally lent, and how no country has ever paid off its IMF debts.

The heart of the book is a superb chapter on the Cuban model of development. 40% of Cuba's GNP, the world's highest proportion, is spent on health and education. By 1974, its doctor-patient ration was better than the USA's or Britain's, and in 1996 it could generously send 600 doctors to South Africa. Cuba has adopted the basics of health promotion - personal autonomy and high self-esteem, leading to neighbourhood advocacy and female emancipation, and to collaboration between health and education workers. Cuba is indeed a 'worldwide model of how to organise and administer global health promotion'. Its precondition is a social revolution, based on democratic participation; the old systems of representative democracy simply won't do the job.

Theo presents a series of brilliant case studies of primary health care in Nepal, the World Bank-imposed user health fees in Uganda, the effect of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, the privatisation of pharmaceutical provision in India, and the IMF's 'shock treatment' of Peru. He details British American Tobacco's assault on China, China's development of its successful health and education systems after the USA ended all its aid programmes to China in 1949, the USA's use of GATT to stop Thailand banning tobacco imports, and the baby milk manufacturing companies' attack on breast-feeding. He also refutes Amartya Sen's pro-capitalist dogmas about the causes of famine.

Paul Walker, Vice President of the Socialist Health Association, sums up the book's vital message in his Foreword, "capitalism is bad for health; effective health promotion requires a socialist economic and political milieu."

I feel that Mr.Barefoot did an excelent job. Not only did he emphasize the impact that Jefferson had on America, he also let us know that he was a real person. I have read many Jefferson books, but this one is at the very top.
thank you for writing this wonderful book!

This is a beautiful book. Beautiful in its clarity, depth, and vision, and for the wonderful hope it inspires.

While I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, I deeply believe that Tranformative Learning should be made required reading for every University President, Minister of Education, and Professor on Earth.

Anyone interested in economics, but afraid to tackle it due to it's abstract reasoning and theories needs to pick up Jean Baptiste Say's "Treatise on Political Economy". Say, a free market liberal, was an admirer of Adam Smith, but was also critical of his views on the Labor Theory of Value. Say, an ardent republican, and participator in the French Revolution, was also an admirer of Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson with whom he corresponded.

Say believes government policy should stimulate frugality, risk taking, and investment. Say provides a very complelling arguement against excessive regulation, unequal privilege, high taxes, and corporations. Say,although a free marketeer, does not see pure benevolence in corporations, he see them for what they are: chartered privelged companies with government favor. This favor imperils economic freedom and destroys individual risk taking. Say advocated the abolition of monopolies, trade restrictions, and subsidies to corporations.

Say also shows his Enlightenment ideals of public spirit and the diffusion of knowledge. He relates the proper role for government as the propmotion of public schools, academies, libraries, canals, roads , bridges and military defense. Say although a thorough liberatrian, was not a worshipper of social darwinism. Say feared huge concentrations of wealth, luxury, and privilege as destructive to a free economy and republcan values.

If you love freedom and republican government, this is a classic.

This classic text provides a quick method for learning to type for speed and accuracy. (I recommend it for Grades 6 and up)

It is divided into brief step-by-step lessons beginning with the home keys "a s d f j k l ;" and ending with speed and accuracy tests on full text transcriptions.

When I was in high school, I used this book to learn how to type during February school vacation. I did a three lessons a day, 30 mins each morning, afternoon, and evening. In one week, I went from 0 to 35-55 words per minute.

The result of the easy instructions and simple drill and practice lessons was a skill which has served me well ever since.

Highly recommended.

The standard image of the Cultural Revolution is red guard hooliganism, economic disruption, factional wars, violent army repression, closed schools, extreme emperor worship, persecution of intellectuals, and ideological rigidity. These are all true, for most areas and in certain periods of the CR. However, there was a wide variety of experiences, and all such experiences must be examined for an all-around accurate perception of this tumultuous period. This volume is an account of an altogether different Cultural Revolution period experience.

In this Shandong village, where the author grew up (eventually coming to the US for a Ph.D. in political science), the Cultural Revolution was not "10 lost years" at all, but rather a period that saw substantial gains in educational opportunity and economic development.

The author argues that the advances in education in his village during the CR and a change in the local political culture both facilitated economic development, that the three cannot be disentangled.

Traditionally, he argues (citing a Chinese scholarly work, among other sources) China's political culture was one of "officialdom", where local officials had unchecked power and peasants felt powerless and thus were politically passive. One might cite the occasional peasant rebellions in Chinese history as point of balance (there are likely subtler ways of resistance as well), but in general the point is good. He argues that the traditional education system's bias against peasants, which continued after the establishment of the PRC, helped stabilize this political culture by keeping the peasants ignorant.

In this village, when the "serve the people" communist guerrillas (who had received enthusiastic support from Shandong peasants during the wars against the Japanese and Nationalists) became the new rulers after 1949, they -- having no constraints on their power -- gradually abandoned many of their war time populist ways and adopted the old "officialdom" ways. Han argues that a major purpose behind the many campaigns from 1953-1965, many of which had vague anti-corruption tags, was to challenge continuing "officialdom". But these campaigns were successfully steered away from the practitioners of officialdom and often towards scapegoats, often supposed "class enemies". These pre-Cultural Revolution campaigns, and their alleged failures are quickly brushed over; more detail would have been better (but one can read about some of them, for instance the "Four Clean-Ups", in other village studies like _Shenfan_, _Chen Village_, _The Spiral Road_, _Cadres and Kin_, _Red Earth_). Han argues that the Cultural Revolution was Mao's last major attempt to root out the culture of officialdom and establish a new political culture where the peasants would be empowered to challenge the village elite, and this time it worked, in this particular area, thanks to the actions of CR inspired rebels.

Han also has chapters detailing the reforms in education, which widely increased both access (especially to girls) and the local applicability of the curriculum, and economic development (agricultural yield growth and rural industrialization), which followed the political and educational changes.

The attempts to move to the general, away from the experience of this village raise questions. How typical is this positive experience? It's hard to say In the north at least, it's probably not rare. Some village studies indicate the Cultural Revolution was not the kind of bottom-up populism as described here, but rather horizontal factional jostling for power. Also, the rebels were not always good. And we know from Andrew Walder and Yang Su's extensive examination of county annals (China Quarterly, March 2003) of the sobering level of violence inflicted in the 1968-71 period, often the army and party crushing rebel groups, which the "establishment radicals" (see Peter Moody -- Journal of Contemporary China, Fall 1993) were either unwilling or unable to stop. China is so large and complex there is no one-size-fits-all description. Nevertheless, Han's village experience at least shows the potential of mass education and populist politics to facilitate equitable rural development, and needs recording as one of the varied experiences of the Cultural Revolution.

Han goes on to point out how the reforms have rolled back many of the achievements in rural education during Cultural Revolution years, failed to maintain equity (an important value for Chinese peasants), and also brought back the familiar officialdom style of rule. A case could be made that Han underemphasizes the overall nationwide problems with Cultural Revolution (doubtlessly influenced by his own village's success), and doesn't give enough praise to the reforms' positive aspects (ex: much more freedom for locals to grow what they want, and market it at fair prices). But just as the reformers were right to blame the Cultural Revolution for ideological rigidity and intolerance and the many problems that caused, the reformers should be called to answer why they have not extended or in some cases even maintained the social justice gains of the previous period. Unfortunately, voices like Han's are usually left out of the debate on rural policy in China, because they challenge the official view, and vested interests.

Horton's laterst book could also be called "The Economics of E Learning" as he looks at the ROI of E-Learning from every angle. He provides practical examples of what you would want to calculate and then demonstrates the formulas for performing the calculations in a simplified way.

Anyone who up to now thought that capturing ROI data was difficult, impossible, or just too much trouble, should read this book. Trust me, you'll refer to it many times after you read it.

We, in training and human performance improvement, are increasingly asked to justify the impact on the bottom line that our solutions have. We should be doing it proactively. Those who don't think it's important or just want to dodge the issue will eventually find themselves "on the street" -- I've seen it happen many times. If they had only been feeding upper management information about the true $$$$ value they provided, they would probably still have their jobs. Training is unfortunately seen as an overhead expense that is expendable during times of economic downturn. It's our fault that we are perceived that way.

Get a copy of Horton's book and begin to capture the data and send it upline to management. Keep them informed of the true value you have -- that true value being what your group adds by way of profit to the company. Don't wait until you are asked for it -- that's too late. The handwriting is on the wall that they are thinking about outsourcing or disbanding your organization.

"The job you save may be your own and the jobs of your peers or subordinates."

Bill's other books, "Evaluating E Learning" and "Leading E-Learning" are great companion books. Used together they will position your function as a vital part of your organization.

Suddenly it all makes sense! Virtual universities get hyped up, but what have been the results? We hear of all sorts of initiatives, yet somehow the educational world hasn't changed that much - or has it?

In 'The Virtual University: an action paradigm and process for workplace learning', Teare, Davies and Sandelands outline a coherent vision of what is possible, backed up by real examples of what they are achieving today.

The book manages to sketch out the big picture of the learning society within the context of a rapidly changing, uncertain world. It presents an inclusive, 'open systems' model of personal and organizational learning. But it's not just a theoretical model, as is ably demonstrated by the creation of Our University for Industry - hospitality worldwide, among other experiences related.

The use of electronic communications media is discussed, but this is not a book for the techno-heads, it's for educationalists and in-company senior training and OD specialists. And it's for everyone seeking to develop themselves on an ongoing, 'lifelong' basis.

It follows on nicely for me in the tradition of 'The Knowledge Game' and 'Our Enterprise School of Management' by Gordon Wills, and all works by Reg Revans e.g. 'The ABC of Action Learning'.

I enjoyed it and feel I have benefitted from finding the time to read it cover to cover!

Claire Huntley Contributing Editor: Technology Strategies Editorial Advisor: Global Anthological Journal of Action Learning

My grandaughter, Meredith, is 2 years old and this is her absolute favorite book. We have read it so much that she can recite most of it. She lost her first copy and was so upset. I was so glad to find her a new one at amazon.com.