2.5: Institutional Writing

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Institutional Writing

Having looked at drafting and design and usability, we will close this chapter with a few notes about writing in institutional settings. When you write in an institution, you operate differently than when you write in your college classes or when you write on your own. The institution will have its own conception of what it does, how it is seen, how it operates, and what it expects from documents. This understanding will then be layered onto the hierarchy of the organization with your supervisors and coworkers and subordinates all bringing their own understanding of the institution, their own understanding of how things work/don’t work, and all the fun unwritten and written rules that pervade such situations.

When you join an organization, one of the most important things you can do as a writer is to figure out how things work and how they don’t work. Many times this involves a savvy interrogation of the written and unwritten rules, a process that can be daunting. To make sense of all of this, you can append the following suggestions to your existing writing workflow:

Instituational Writing Question

• What am I being asked to do? Who is asking?
• What does the document I’m creating normally look like?
• If I’m creating a new document, who will it need to make happy?
• How does the institutional normally communicate? What voice/terms are used?
• Is there a style guide? Does it apply to my document?

By asking the above questions, you can become more aware of the situation you are writing in with a new institution. In many cases, the secret to effective institutional writing is to simply take things slow. Watch what other people are doing. Think about what they’re not doing that you might naturally do in your own writing. Take all of this into account as you slowly learn what is going to work for you as a new hire/member.

Section Break - Institutional Writing

What are the unwritten rules of communicating as a college student? Why do you think these rules exist?
How does your institution express itself? Describe the institutional voice and the way that the institution talks in official channels and social media. For an added challenge, write a new text using this voice to announce an event or special occasion.