Research Basis

Research Base

Write for Business aligns its Courses, Guide, and eTips with the following resource:

University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 2017.

What pedagogy does Write for Business use?

Write for Business uses the seven traits of effective writing, a framework supported by 50 years of research. For more information about the seven traits, see the following resources:

Arter, Judith, Vicki Spandel, Ruth Culham, and Jim Pollard. “The Impact of Training Students to Be Self-Assessors of Writing.” Paper presented at AERA, New Orleans, 1994.

Culham, Ruth. 6+1 Traits of Writing. Beaverton, OR: Scholastic Inc., 2003.

Diederich, Paul B., John W. French, and Sydell T. Carlton. “Factors in the Judgment of Writing Quality.” Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 1961.

Grundy, Thomas. “The Writing Program in the Beaverton School District.” Oregon School Study Council Bulletin 30, no. 2 (1986).

Henning, Kathleen, Verne Meyer, John Van Rys, and Patrick Sebranek. Write for Work. Burlington, WI: UpWrite Press, 2011.

Hillocks, George. “Synthesis of Research on Teaching Writing.” Educational Leadership 44, (1987): 71–82.

Meyer, Verne, Patrick Sebranek, and John Van Rys. The Business Writer. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011.

Spandel, Vicki. Write Traits. Boston, MA: Great Source, 2001.

Who else uses Write for Business?

The Write for Business Guide is the chief business-writing resource for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Amgen, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Johnson & Wales University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Gateway Technical College, and many other organizations. It is also the central writing text for Graduate School, the main trainer for the U.S. Federal Government. As a result, the Guide incorporates teaching from the following resources:

Plain Language Action and Information Network. Federal Plain Language Guidelines. Washington, DC: Plain Language Action and Information Network, 2011.

Plain Language Action and Information Network. Plain Language: Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public. Washington, DC: Plain Language Action and Information Network, 2020. http://www.plainlanguage.gov.

U.S. Government Publishing Office. U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2016.

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