BECOMING A BUSINESS WRITER: OMANI ESP STUDENTS’ SELF-PERCEIVED WRITING CHALLENGES, NEEDS AND WANTS

Today, effective English writing is one of the most valuable professional skills for growth and development in the world of entrepreneurship. In spite of the prominence of English as the leading language of business and business education, writing is still one of the biggest challenges that business students face. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that explored Omani business student-perceived challenges, needs and wants in writing. The study used an online survey involving seventy students from Sultan Qaboos University who were asked to share their perceptions in regard to these three dimensions specifically related to the skill of business writing. Analysis of the data was conducted using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Findings reveal that business students place effective writing skills high in terms of their perceived necessity. They also indicate that in spite of interesting and engaging writing activities contextualized in Oman’s world of business, students’ overall enjoyment level of writing is moderate on average due to perceived challenges throughout learning, and lacks in perspectives pertaining to how the writing tasks and assignments could be developed and implemented, including providing more guiding writing practice, more feedback, more interesting topics and more real-world topics and tasks. These student challenges, needs and wants analysis’ findings can direct further developments, leading to a successful English business writing syllabus and teaching practice.

How to Write (Science) Better. Simplified English Principles in a Skill-Oriented ESP Course

Teaching writing to doctoral students or academics at a technical university is a challenging task. Because they need to publish their research findings in English to pursue academic careers, they are usually highly motivated and expect a lot of the class. Their language competences, however, very often lack enough proficiency and may contribute to manuscript rejection. The paper focuses on language issues based on the rules of controlled natural languages (CNLs) and guidelines of Plain English. It shows how employing these issues improves grammatical quality and readability of science-oriented written texts. The paper describes four principles: removing nominalisation and using the so-called strong verbs to make the message simpler and more direct; combining nouns in strings to express complex ideas economically; applying grammatical consistency for coordinate elements in sentences to make them less chaotic; and reducing wordiness to obtain a more precise and comprehensible piece of writing. Sample phrases and sentences from authentic student writing as well as their improved versions are provided to each of the guidelines so that a reader has a deeper insight into how the principles work in a specialist context. Because problems with, for example, research papers, grant proposals or reports are common to various disciplines and at various levels, the Author of the paper draws conclusions that these principles should be implemented not only in a technical but also legal, medical and business writing course offered by English teachers to both young researchers and experienced scientists.

Core Self-Evaluation, Writing Motivation, and Business Writing Performance of College Third Year Students of Occidental Mindoro State College

This predictive cross-sectional study explored core self-evaluation, level of writing motivation, and their influence on the business writing performance of junior business students at Occidental Mindoro State College. One hundred fifty junior business students of Occidental Mindoro State College Main Campus in Academic Year 2020-2021 selected through a simple random sampling technique were the respondents in the study. It was found that the student’s level of core self-evaluation was moderate considering their results in the locus of control, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. However, the students are highly motivated in performing their writing activities. Therefore, the improvement in core self-evaluation may slightly improve writing motivation and writing performance. Likewise, improving writing motivation may slightly improve the writing performance of business students. The positive beta coefficients indicate that if the indicators of writing motivation are improved, the students’ writing performance becomes better. Thus, core self-evaluation and writing motivation affect students’ business writing performance.

Teaching Gender-Sensitive Language And Gender-Biased Terminology

This article will define gender sensitive language and illustrate its importance in communication, especially business writing. In addition, this article examines the reasons for gender sensitive language and gives some examples to gender biased terminology.

Wealthy Watches Inc.: The Substantive Testing of Accounts Receivable in the Evolving Audit Environment

Substantive testing of accounts receivable through confirmations is an established and required audit procedure. However, the technology used to perform portions of this work is evolving. This case exposes students to the testing of accounts receivable while introducing them to audit-related technologies (such as Interactive Data Extraction and Analysis (IDEA) software and robotic process automation (RPA)) used in practice. In this case, students 1) evaluate a client-provided data file, 2) select a sample of customer invoices using IDEA, 3) obtain audit evidence from their firm’s RPA software and evaluate the evidence for the identification of exceptions, 4) project any misstatements from the sample to the population, and 5) document their conclusions. This case helps students develop a greater awareness of technologies used in audit practice. The case also allows students to practice skepticism, apply professional judgment, and hone their business writing skills by documenting their results in a professional memo.

Penulisan Bisnis Dalam Akademik dan Tempat Kerja

The focus of this paper is a research project conducted in three higher education sites and at a variety of work sites to compare the writing produced in business writing programmes with the writing practised in workplaces. The aim of this study was to determine whether business communication courses adequately prepare students for business communication in the world of work. Documents produced at both the higher education and workplace sites were studied, and surveys and interviews were done with students and their lecturers, and employees and employers. Data from the different contexts were then compared. The findings show patterns of alignment and non-alignment in the business writing practices of higher education and workplaces. Recommendations are made to better align classroom and work practices for the mutual benefit of student learning and workplaces.