Devoted to technical writing and technical writers

The previous sections give one an idea of that course made in hell, the WAC, short for Written Analysis of Cases. One’s ability to distill the essence of a given WAC into a few pages of well-written analysis provides a platform for the everyday business-world task of writing memos, managerial briefs, proposals, and so forth.

Since I am now more or less retired from big-office settings – which, I understand, are going the way of the dinosaur in this day of mobile infotech – I cannot speak with authority on how most of them are organized these days. But ten to twenty years ago, we still had the traditional layouts with executives ensconced in corner suites or cubicles, with a personal or pool of secretaries to handle dictation, filing, answering of calls, etc. These days, modern technology allows people to leave messages or call directly through cellphones, send email direct to intended audiences, and to stay away from the office to, hopefully, do more productive things on the road.

Managers who learn early – perhaps because of WAC or similar exercises – to prepare their own memos or proposals also render this usual secretarial function redundant. Thus, the day of the large secretarial pool has generally been numbered…..unless one is in an office where (male) executives like to ogle the female staff to the obvious displeasure of their fellow (female) executives. And these memos get sent direct to the mailboxes of senior executives – creating another huge vacuum in between where once, mid-level managers and / or executive secretaries used to hold court, and determine which papers would find their way up or get lost somewhere in the corporate maze.

sourced by JMJF