This class helped me to appreciate the power of writing in the business realm. First, I found the introductory section of Chapter 2 about the writing process at work quite insightful. It was interesting to learn that quality writing was more than the use of impeccable grammar in a typical, predictable essay consisting of an introduction, body and a conclusion. Effective business writing is a dynamic process that demands thoughtfulness and significant efforts of the writer.

It was exciting to acquire mastery of the five basic stages of an effective writing process, namely, researching, planning, drafting, revising, and editing. In addition, I learned new fundamentals of business writing that sharpened my skills and cleared ambiguities that I had had in understanding what should be included and what should be avoided in different forms of business writing, such as a memo, resume, and application letters, and how items should be organized therein.

It was quite a challenging learning experience to explore the basics of writing memos and emails. I had been familiar with memo writing before taking this course since I had always seen it on institution notice boards. However, I did not pay attention to the format and other requisites for a good memo. Thanks to this class, I can now create a perfect business memo and tell when to use it as a communication device within an organization. I send a couple of informal emails every day. However, methods of creating formal or business-oriented emails were not sufficiently familiar to me. I had never given formal emails the required keenness, and without the newly acquired knowledge, I would not have appreciated simple but essential basics of business emails, for example, keeping paragraphs and lines brief, putting the key message in the first section of an email, carefulness in using abbreviations, and the importance of prudently selecting recipients of the email.

A recap of various formats and indispensable components of different types of business letters was worthy. However, it was more important to enlighten and add emphasis to the tips of invoking a good impression on the reader of the letter in particular, avoid an instructive impersonal language, and keep the reader at the forefront of the letter by avoiding an excessive talk about myself. I also learned about essential components of a job-winning resume that I had not been aware of before this class. I learned about writing a skills-centered or functional resume putting emphasis on broad skills acquired for long periods of time as opposed to a chronological resume that accentuates the chronological inclusion of the latest experience first at the expense of a more relevant earlier expertise. Further, it was beneficial to learn about the need to start compiling my job portfolio and the documents that I should include in it, for example, letters of recommendation, scholarship award letters, an honor for community service, resume and academic transcripts.

Another important technique I acquired from this class was writing annotated bibliography. I can now conduct my academic research more efficiently and summarize sources while identifying and evaluating the main arguments and crucial points of books, journals and websites used and creating an informative annotated bibliography using either MLA or APA styles. I also learned the basics of writing accurate, clear and comprehensive instructions and procedures. These include the general process of writing instructions for different purposes, using an appropriate writing style, for example, verbs in the present tense and the imperative mood, and organizing essential parts of instructions, namely an introduction, equipment and a materials list, steps in the process, and a conclusion.

Another important skill I learned was writing proposals, short reports, and complex business research reports. These were entirely new skills to me. I appreciated learning different forms of business reports, which included periodic, sales, progress, test and incident. In view that I would be required to write one or more of these types of short reports in my working life, I was keen on the guidelines of writing them, and what each type of report should include. Other than learning about different types of proposals, I found simple and clear guidelines on writing distinguished ones helpful. I can now write proposals for different purposes and for different audiences with minimal efforts. Lastly, I was exposed to complexity inherent in writing long business reports, in terms of the in-depth and extensive nature of the coverage of issues in such reports. However, learning the basic process to follow in writing these types and their important sections alleviated the anxiety I had on approaching the subject matter.

When I had commenced studying the topic on business writing, I had a notion that I knew a lot about writing. This perception became a challenge when reading about seemingly simple and obvious types of writing such as emails. At first, reading was becoming boring. However, as I progressed, I realized that I knew far little than I thought. It motivated me to be keen on learning details of all forms of business writing. Thanks to this class, I feel I have grown in terms of my skills and confidence in writing. I can compose professional emails, various forms of business letters, proposals, business reports, and concise instructions and procedures. I can now search the Internet, find academic journals and books, and generate an annotated bibliography. The knowledge I have acquired thanks to this class will aid in writing my class assignments and help direct my professional writing and communication with business stakeholders and employees in the appropriate language and format in the future.