Question

Interview Questions: Importance of Written Communications in Your Field. See Unit 3, Module 13, pp. 217-227; Unit 7, Module 30, pp. 507-512

“Recent research proves that written communication skills are at the top of employers' wish lists. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 73.4% of employers want a candidate with strong written communication skills. Written communication was the number three most desired quality overall, behind leadership skills and ability to work as a team member.” (Moore, 2017, para. 2)

For this assignment, you will explore the importance of written communication in the workplace by interviewing a professional, ideally in the field you wish to enter upon completion of your degree, a series of questions on the role of writing in the professional world. This is NOT a mock interview. You must interview a person that represents a true "professional" to you. You may ask an employer or supervisor, a professor, a mentor, or someone on your campus. Try to pick a person who you would like to imitate in the future, such as someone who holds a position you wish to have. Do NOT interview a family member or your instructor for this class. You may interview the person on the phone, via email, or in person.

You must ask a total of FIVE questions. Be sure several of the questions deal with writing and communication within the person's professional career field.

You may use a MAXIMUM OF THREE of the questions found on pp. 70-71. Reference p. 69 and p. 441, LO 26-4.

Include a paragraph (250 words) on what you learned from the interview and how it will help you in the future.

Format this assignment as follows:

Interviewee Name:

Position:

Company:

Contact Information (email is acceptable):

Question 1: Include Your Question Here

Response:

Question 2: Include Your Question Here

Response:

Question 3: Include Your Question Here

Response:

Question 4: Include Your Question Here

Response:

Question 5: Include Your Question Here

Response:

Remember to include your reflection (250 words) on what you learned from the interview and how it will help you in the future.

Answer 1

I am providing the following answer after discussing with my friend. I am maintaining her anonymity. Hope this helps.

INTERVIEWEE NAME : XXXXXXXX

Position : Content Writer

Company: UPWORK

Ques 1: What do you need to know before you start writing ?

Response: First make sure you know the topic being discussed . Make use of internet and books related to the topic and do a small research on how many points do you have to write upon. Think in audience point of view. Depending on who your audience is students/ professionals/ businessmen your content should focus on relevant info that they might look for. If you are confident that you know all these , then pick up the topic and answer. If not pass on to next one instead of giving a poor quality write-up.

Ques 2: How do you know which tone should you use for writing?

Response: That depends on the goal of the project and what audience it is intended to. The tone is what attitude the writer has towards the reader. Always you have to adjust your tone according to the situation. Say you write a business letter , you need to sound more formal and less friendly. While it is for a blog your tone should be friendly, conversational etc. When it comes to writing a negative message , use a neutral tone. Example : To reject a leave application, you should not directly write that "Your leave request has been denied". Instead , you can say, "We regret to inform you that your leave request has been denied. Please contact Administrator if you need more information."

Ques 3: How do you know your content is doing well ?

Response: If your content is good enough, you can get more page views. You can track this using google analytics or using a simple heat map. The denser the heat map, the more the audience is. You can also keep a track of the number of likes/tweets/references to your page. There may be requests coming in for acknowledgement or for using blog links. You would even get a guest blogger request. All these will tell you how much your content has reached the audience.

Ques 4: How can you write such good contents and get more traffic on your page?

Response:

First , focus on SEO( Search Engine Optimised ) content. SEO is nothing the goal of ranking high on search engines , which will obviously drive more traffic to your page. Attach appropriate tags in your posts. Think what you would search so you would end up in this page. Those keywords can be added as tags/ categories which search engine would identify easily. Publicize your page on social media platforms. you can set it to share automatically whenever you add a new post. On top of all that, blog regularly and connect to other bloggers to discuss on the topic.

Ques 5: How about the feedback you receive ? Do you incorporate them always?

Response: You can improve as a better writer only if there is criticism. Feedback may be positive or negative. In both cases, We will have to deal with them neutrally. We should not take them personally or have an emotional approach to the feedback. You can get feedback using the comments or you can have a separate feedback form. Collect all that comes in and segregate which ones you need and which ones are not appropriate. Try to incorporate those points which many of the viewers mentioned. You are the owner of your writing , so you can omit irrelevant/ inappropriate feedback from your page. Before submission, review a lot. You may ask a fellow blogger for help. There are automated feedback providers for this too. Doing all this will reduce the negative feedback way before.

Summary:

I had learnt how to see a content from writer's point of view. I thought writing was only expressing views but it is much more to that. Every step in writing is very crucial for a good content. Choosing evergreen topics for blogs , writing in appropriate tone are all important points to note. Earlier,Content writing to me was only blog writing or writing for websites. Now I have understood it also applies to business writing, advertising, marketing etc. After talking to XXXX I have a clear idea of how a blog should be. I am even planning to start a new blog.