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How to Get Your Way: Analyzing Professional Writing

Sally Rendleman

Department of Writing and Rhetoric, University of Central Florida

ENC 1101: Composition I

Professor Cano Diaz

October 26, 2023

How to Get Your Way: Analyzing Professional Writing

It is extremely important to consider the formality of a genre when it comes to writing

professionally. A professional setting calls for a certain decorum that signifies respect and

competence. Two pieces of writing that I have done in a professional setting are my resume and

an email I have sent to a professor. These examples of professional writing prove my knowledge

of how professional genres are handled.

Resumes, in general, often include specific information. Most resumes will include a

person’s name, their education, work history, and skill set. This can be interpreted as the

definition of the “resume” genre; a work that displays a person’s qualities and past experience. It

is important to know the genre in which a work lies in order to know how that work should be

both presented and received (Jacobson, Pawlowski, & Tardy, 2021). In the case of a resume, the

professional and formal setting of the piece gives the writer information on how to present their

points.

When analyzing resumes, one of the main factors to look at is the written content and its

organization. My resume (Figure 1) is fairly simple, displaying quick facts in the left column and

explaining my experience on the right-hand side. Since my resume does not have very much

work history on it, I may not be as appealing to companies. Broadening my work history by

having more years of experience would appeal to a company’s ethos as it would show them that I

have more knowledge due to my extended period of work.

In addition, a very important part of a resume is how it is presented. My resume is very

professional, with minimal colors and clear font styles. This is appealing to companies because it

shows that the candidate is serious about their work. In today’s societal standards, adding too
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many bright colors or images may make a work look immature or unpolished due to these factors

often being used in childish situations such as children’s books. Instead, using a minimalist color

scheme and very few images will portray more seriousness to a company.

I also have a professional headshot on my resume which gives companies a face to put

with my name. While this may not seem very important, it truly is essential because it is one of

the few ways a professional piece of writing such as a resume can appeal to pathos. Having a

face to put with a name will instantly humanize a prospective employee and make it easier for

the hirer to connect with them, which will most likely increase the chances of this person being

hired. However, certain biases may turn a headshot into a reason for a company to not hire a

prospective employee based on their race or how they present themselves. This is an unfortunate

reality in today’s workforce.

These aspects are well-known and often considered when writing a resume in today’s

society. Most people who are looking for jobs today know the importance of content, layout, and

professionalism in a resume because, with so many applicants in the job market, it is essential to

make yourself stand out. Using these guidelines will promote you as a serious candidate for a

job. If someone were not to follow these well-known rules of this genre as they have been

publicized in many articles and taught in many classrooms, they would most likely struggle to

find a job.

Another version of professional writing that I often create is emails to my professors. I

wrote one such email to my biology professor this semester when I had an issue with one of the

exams (Figure 2). Emails should include a greeting, the reason for the email, and a polite

signature. This can be seen as the societal definition of the “email” genre.
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To start, my email opens with well wishes towards my professor and my name and class

section. I felt this addition to my email “template” was necessary since this class is a large

lecture. Doing this alone shows my professor my professionalism and appeals to his ethos, as I

recognize he may not know me by name alone. The importance of the greeting comes down to

pathos; I believe, and many scientific experiments have proven, that people are emotional at their

core (Gabriel, 2020). If you go straight into the issue, a person will be less likely to help.

However, if you open with something acknowledging them as another human being, they will

probably be more willing.

After the greeting, I went into the content of why I was writing to my professor. This part

of the email must be written formally and must present the issue without being too personal or

aggressive. This is where logos comes in. When explaining an issue, you must appeal to the

reader’s logic, not their emotions. This is why in this portion of the email, I explain the facts, not

my personal experience. In this email specifically, I found this tip to be really hard to live by.

This email explained an issue with the exam coinciding with an extremely important Jewish

holiday that I observe, so I was very frustrated while writing to my professor. However, I made

sure to have people outside of the situation read over my work to make sure I did not make the

email too aggressive or emotional. I believe taking this extra step was crucial to obtaining the

result I was hoping for; my professor’s understanding of why this scheduling was an issue.

Finally, the email must be closed with a polite signature. This sign-off shows the reader

that you respect them and they will therefore be more likely to help you out. This part can be a

little tricky, as the sign-off greatly depends on your relationship with the person to whom you are

writing. In this instance, I chose to simply use “sincerely” to signify my honest description of

why this scheduling was posing an issue. I believe this did a good job of conveying both my
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feelings towards the issue at hand as well as showing my respect for the professor. An email’s

signature is the last thing the audience reads, so it is very important to get it right.

In all professional writing, you must subtly appeal to the reader’s humanity while more

predominantly appealing to their logic. This is the best approach to getting your point across

while maintaining a formal demeanor. These lessons are important in any professional setting

and therefore in life overall.

References

Jacobson, B., Pawlowski, M., & Tardy, C. M. (2021). Make Your “Move”: Writing in Genres.

Writing Spaces, 4.

Gabriel, R. (2020, October 27). New Research on Emotions. Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/me-the-self-and-i/202010/new-research-

emotions
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Appendix

Figure 1: My (Sally Rendleman’s) Resume

Figure 2: An email from me (Sally Rendleman) to my biology professor detailing issues with an
exam