The first thing that I learned from reading part one is that there are many differences between what makes good academic writing and what makes well written professional writing. Academic writing teaches us to use long and complex sentences that are specific to the reader, typically someone who already knows about the subject matter. Academic writing also teaches us to be strict about the rules of proper grammar excluding contractions and the use of “I” or “you”. Professional writing, to my surprise, is much different. Short and sweet sentences and paragraphs seem to be the standard for this kind of communication, and the writing is actually less formal in that it allows for contractions and personal pronouns.
The second takeaway I got from this chapter was the importance of plain language in the professional world. This chapter made me realize how much time I really do spend trying to read, reread, and understand complex professional documents when they could just be written in plain English instead. This chapter highlighted some of the issues that come with hard to read texts such as misunderstandings, errors, and complaints. As a result this leads to wasted time by both the consumers and the businesses themselves, resolving issues that don’t need to be there to begin with. I also thought it was interesting to read about some factors that affect the readability of text that we don’t always notice. Some of these include white space, document design, and graphics.
