{"id":473,"date":"2013-05-04T09:32:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T16:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/?p=473"},"modified":"2013-05-04T09:32:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T16:32:05","slug":"no-more-memos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/2013\/05\/04\/no-more-memos\/","title":{"rendered":"No More Memos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Delivered to my house this week was the instructor’s edition of Daniel G. Riordan’s stalwart textbook Technical Report Writing Today<\/a>, 10th edition. I was thrilled, I have to say, having used the 9th edition of Riordan’s text in my upper-level communications classes for years because I loved its pristine prose, lucid organization, meat-and-potatoes examples, and writing exercises.<\/p>\n

In the new edition Riordan has directly addressed changes in the way professionals write one another. Discussion of “Memos<\/a>” is gone completely; the word is not even listed in the index. “People don’t write memos any more. They send e-mails with attachments,” Riordan notes. And the chapter on “Letters” is no more. Discussion of this topic is tucked into the chapter on Job Application materials.<\/p>\n

Added are sections on social media (of course), presentations, and writing grants for non-profit organizations.<\/p>\n

Regarding the latter Riordan notes: “Many of our students will be involved in such writing either because they work for a non-profit, or because as a community member they join a board that requires such work in order to facilitate the daily running of the organization. In addition this topic allows students a wonderful opportunity for a community service project. Whether you are in a major urban or a rural area, you will be able to find a non-profit organization that will be delighted to have your students help them with this important work. Creating a grant proposal will also place your students into the world where their writing ‘counts,’ not for a grade but to make a difference in other people’s lives.”<\/p>\n

My students will find this new edition immediately useful. Almost all of them volunteer for one or more non-profit organizations and choose them as the basis for real-world term projects.<\/p>\n

The book will be a handy addition to the library of any communications professional or academic as well. (Look at Riordan’s Table of Contents<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delivered to my house this week was the instructor’s edition of Daniel G. Riordan’s stalwart textbook Technical Report Writing Today, 10th edition. I was thrilled, I have to say, having used the 9th edition of Riordan’s text in my upper-level … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[42,43],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roberts-posts","tag-for-educators","tag-for-students"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}