Academic vs Business/Professional Writing
Academic/School writing Business/Professional Writing
Purpose In this type of writing:
 Shows you have learned
before.
 Writer focused.
Audience  Teachers and peers.
 Teachers are paid to
read.
Information  Reader already knows
the information.
 And people are familiar
with what you are
presenting.
 If it’s unclear they can fill
up the blanks.
Organization  Beginning with thesis,
three main points and
repeat in conclusion.
 Readers rely on
paragraphs to find
points
Style  Academic tends to be
formal.
 Longer sentences
 Complex sentences
 Sound smart
 Use specialized terms
In this type of writing:
 It is to inform.
 To request/ persuade.
 To build goodwill.
 Establishing relationship between
organization and audience.
 Get “er” done + organizational
need.
 Audience focused.
 In this you have busy, distracted
readers and they won’t read if they
can’t follow or understand
document.
 Need to grab their attention.
 The information is new
 If it’s unclear they have no way to
understand the message or know
what’s missing.
 Purpose is first = at the top and
clear.
 Grouping information by topic and
using headings
 So that Readers can easily scan for
what they are reading.
 Clear
 Direct
 Short
 Precise
 Access your knowledge to decide to
define key terms
Design  Title  A lot more time of formatting and
 Then string of using grouping.
paragraphs  White space
 Font formatting
 Headings