MEMORANDUM

To: Dr. Antoinette Larkin, Associate Professor

From: Alyssa Smith and Kristin Shaffer
Date: October 2, 2014
Subject: The Practice of Written Communication in the Work Place
Our goals of wanting to work at the university level as a professor and hold an administrative
position led us to interview Dr. Heather Zoller. She is a professor and director of Graduate
Studies in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati. She is also a
senior editor at Heath Communication and she also writes for various Communication
journals.
Dr. Zoller is balancing teaching, researching, and serving in her field of Communication. She
is constantly communicating with colleagues, students, and Communication Journals. Her
interaction with written communication is constant and includes a wide range of interaction.
For a student to be effective in the workplace, specifically as a professor they would need to
grasp certain concepts about written communication. Those ideas this report will discuss are
communication with students and colleagues, communication within a professional setting,
keeping language simple and concise, and the different forms of communication.
Simplicity of the Language
Dr. Zollers experience with writing has directed her in focusing on the basics. Too often in
writing students, colleagues and herself try to be too elaborate with their writing. She
believes that a more concise writing style would be most effective in written communication.
Emails that have too much volume can lead to confusion and even her instructions to
students can be too elaborate which later lead to further instruction. If she, a student, or
another professional had simply been more precise and to the point then the confusion could
have been avoided.
We discussed similar ideas in class and the ideas in Chapter 4 concerning precise language.
We talked about the need for concrete words instead of abstract words because concrete
words have more absolute meaning. Also, the more specific the writer is the easier it will be
to understand the message. Active voice is also preferred in writing to convey a clearer
message which Dr. Zoller agreed is more helpful.
Forms of Communication
Dr. Zoller says her time is divided into 40% research, 40% teaching, and 10% service. While
these categories are different the types of communication can overlap between them. She
described how most of her time with written communication is spent sending emails. This

form is used the most since it is beneficial to all three aspects of being a professor. She writes
emails to students regarding assignments, she emails proposals to different journals, and
emails regarding the service she will be doing. Dr. Zollers time is then evenly spent writing
proposals and making/explaining classroom aides. She includes PowerPoints for her lectures,
and creates documents for her students. Dr. Zoller then spends a majority of her time writing
proposals for journals. She is constantly researching and reading to be able to make the
necessary adjustments to her proposals. The final piece of written communication Dr. Zoller
uses is Facebook. She utilizes Facebook for both professional use and personal use.
Facebook allows her view articles on Communication as well as stay in touch with friends
and family.