478155

BCQ76210.1177/1080569913478155Busine
ss Communication QuarterlyTeaching Students to Write for the Workplace Part 2

Teaching Students to Write for the Workplace Part 2

Personal, Reflective Writing:

A Pedagogical Strategy for
Teaching Business Students
to Write

Business Communication Quarterly

76(2) 192206
2013 by the Association for
Business Communication
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/1080569913478155
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Holly Lawrence1

Abstract
The use of personal, reflective writing exercises is well documented in the disciplines
of composition and management, and each discipline has been highly influential in
establishing pedagogical practices in the business communication classroom. However,
we see little evidence of the pedagogical practice, the use of personal reflective
writing exercises, in the teaching of business communication. This article looks at
pedagogy and theory that informs the use of personal, reflective writing exercises
in composition and management and suggests the relevance of these same practices
in business communication classrooms today. Building on relevant pedagogical
theory and practice, the author also makes the claim that personal reflective writing
exercises can make students better writers and more effective managers and leaders.
The article concludes with sample exercises that readers might try in their own
business communication classrooms.
Keywords
classroom practice, reflection, personal writing, management education, writing process

Like many of us in business communication, where I began is not where I ended up.
As a PhD student in composition, I taught a basic writing course to first-year students
who did not place into college writing. The courses custom text contained fictional
stories and other narratives by authors from diverse backgrounds, which, in turn, typically reflected the backgrounds of the students in the class. After reading excerpts
1

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Corresponding Author:
Holly Lawrence, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Isenberg School of Management, 121 Presidents
Drive, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Email: lawrence@isenberg.umass.edu

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from texts, such as Piri Thomass Down These Mean Streets (1997) and Maxine Hong
Kingstons Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1989), students
were assigned writing exercises that often asked them to make personal connections as
step one toward critiquing and grappling with the texts concepts. Given this framework, many of our scaffolding exercises were personal, reflective writings. The purpose of these exercises ranged from stimulating in-class discussion to preparing
students for a more comprehensive essay that would soon follow.
Around the time I completed my PhD, I found myself teaching business writing in
a business school. In making the switch from college writing to business writing,
I turned to two textbooks, Janis Forman and Kathleen Kellys Random House Guide
to Business Writing (1990) and shortly thereafter Kitty Lockers Business and
Administrative Communication (1994). I immediately recognized principles of composition in both texts; however, the more I became involved in the field of business
communication, the more I was surprised by how little use of personal, reflective writing I found.
By personal, reflective writing, I mean writing exercises and assignments that are
self-reflective, self-referential, or self-expressive in nature. In short, I am talking about
exercises that ask the writer to write about herself or himself.
In truth, we do see some examples of such exercises in Formans and Lockers texts.
Both ask students to perform a self-assessment as part of the job search. In keeping with
self-assessments, students are asked to list achievements, strengths, and weaknesses and
consider values, likes, and dislikes. Locker (1994) asks students to think about experiences that have given [them] the most satisfaction (p. 527). Forman and Kelly (1990)
ask about relevant educational experience with questions, such as, What were you most
successful in, and what did you enjoy? (p. 681) and go on to suggest that student readers
reflect on personal qualities, interests, work values, and preferred work environments
that might make the student happiest (p. 683). In addition, Locker (1994) uses other
composition practices, such as freewriting, as a technique for brainstorming, planning,
and organizing business documents (p. 114). We can still find these recommendations
and practices in subsequent editions of her text, and self-assessments as well as some
written evaluative exercises are offered in other contemporary business communication
texts. For example, we can find self-assessments as part of the oral presentation process,
such as those offered in Newman and Obers Business Communication (2013). We also
see even more examples in business communciation texts with a focus, such as Barretts
Leadership Communication (2011) and Dufrene and Lehmans Building HighPerformance Teams (2011). However, examples are few. Personal, reflective writing is
used very little compared with what we see in composition and in another primary
affecting discipline of business communicationmanagement.
Within management, especially organizational behavior or leadership textbooks and trade books, personal, reflective writing exercises are quite common.
The standard self-assessment in organizational behavior often aims to help students assess leadership abilitytheir own or others. Management and leadership

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author Andrew Dubrin has numerous examples of self-assessments in his texts, for
example, in his Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (2012). We
can also easily find more exploratory personal, reflective writing exercises in publications, such as Schaetti, Ramsey, and Wantanabes Personal Leadership: A
Methodology of Two Principles and Six Practices (2011) or Neck and Manzs
Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (2012).
In fact, personal, reflective writing exercises are especially common in management and leadership texts and trade books, those often recommended to business
undergraduates and MBA students. The exercises encourage students to engage in
this type of writing as a form of self-discovery and as a way to validate personal
experience.
Compositionists have touted the benefits of personal reflective writing for decades
and have encouraged students to write about the self as a standard part of the writing
process. Compositionists William Coles (1978), Ken Macrorie (1985), Peter Elbow
(1991), and Kathleen Yancey (1998) are especially notable early supporters with
claims that written articulation of personal experience places responsibility on the
writer to make her or his own knowledge and further the learning experience. We can
see ongoing evidence of the theory and practice supporting personal, reflective writing
in contemporary composition texts, such as Barbara Fine Clouses The Student Writer:
Editor and Critic (2012), Traci Gardners Designing Writing Assignments (2008), and
Chris Jenningss Lesson Plans for Teaching Writing (2007).
Of course, business communication is a different field with its own uses for the
practice and theory produced in management and composition. However, given the
relationship of personal, reflective writing between these two affecting disciplines, I
continue to be surprised by its limited existence in our literature and textbooks. In this
article, my goal is to review the theory behind personal, reflective writing, as it is used
in management and composition, and, in turn, suggest ways to use personal, reflective
writing in the business communication classroom. Like theorists and teachers before
me, I believe that incorporating reflective exercises in business communication
courses can help our students take more responsibility for their own knowledge,
become better writers and thinkers, and, in turn, become better managers and leaders.

Brief Historical Context and Perspective

During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, theory and pedagogy in management and composition were influenced by some of the same ideas and theories. In particular, we see
influences from experiential learning, educational theories on reflection, humanistic
psychology, and critical pedagogy. In addition, understandings of the different roles
and functions of managers and leaders within organizations and the importance of
understanding the self as a part of management and leadership development are
directly linked to how personal, reflective writing is used in management and leadership texts and trade books.

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Management and Leadership in Practice and Theory

Management, a relatively young academic discipline, developed as a field of study in
the late 1950s and early 1960s with Fayols (1917/1967) documentation of the functions of organizational management. His study set in motion the formal academic
study of managers in organizations (Koontz, 1961). Drucker (1954, 1964) went on to
establish the role of manager as someone within organizations who is empowered to
make decisions. According to Northouse (2013), within organizational settings, management, as a structure or system, was established to provide order in an otherwise
chaotic organizational body. John Kotter (1990a) went a step further to define differences between management and leadership. Kotter argues that, within organizations,
managements primary function is to provide order and consistency whereas the primary role of leadership is to seek productive change.
This history is important because much of the literature relevant to personal, reflective writing exercises and practice in management education is concerned with leadership theory and practice and, therefore, with effectiveness, goal setting, decision
making, and skill development, as management and leadership scholars Yukl (1989),
Kotter (1990b), Manz (1996), Bennis and Nanus (1997), Drucker (2002) have
established.
Given this background, discussion of personal, reflective writing in management
education journals and examples of exercises available in textbooks and trade books
often focus on assessing ones effectiveness, setting organizational and personal goals,
considering choices and reflecting on decisions made, and evaluating skill sets. This
approach spans decades, including examples in texts from Kolb in 1984, Yukl in 1990,
and Neck and Manz in 2012. Typically, their personal, reflective exercises are designed
to help students become better (i.e., more effective, skilled, self-aware) managers and
leaders. Several scholars emphasize the importance of conceptual skills in managers
and leaders, first identified by Katz (1955), and according to leadership scholar Pondy
(1978), a leaders effectiveness can be best understood by her or his ability to make
meaning for others. Additionally, leadership scholars Pfeffer (1977), Bennis (1979),
and Kotter (1990a) argue that an effective leader must also be able to make meaning
for herself or himself. As a result, used as a form of personal leadership development,
many personal, reflective writing exercises in management and leadership are designed
to help leaders make meaning for themselves as well as make meaning for others.

Experiential Learning and Reflection

In the management classroom, theories on reflection and experiential learning clearly
influence the use of personal, reflective writing exercises. They are used to illustrate
course concepts and help students take charge of their own educational experience
(and, therefore, practice making meaning for themselves). In composition, we see the
same pedagogical approaches. Yancey (1998) puts it this way. Through reflection,
we can circle back, return to earlier notes, to earlier understandings and observations.

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. . . Reflection asks that we explain to others . . . so that in explaining to others we

explain to ourselves. We begin to re-understand (p. 24, italics in original). Yanceys
interpretation builds on theories of reflection from John Dewey (1933, 1938) and
Donald Schn (1983, 1987). She makes a case for the use of reflection in the writing
classroom as an opportunity to help student writers become agents of their own
learning (p. 5).
Schn (1983) writes, Phrases like thinking on your feet, keeping your wits
about you, and learning by doing suggest not only that we can think about doing but
that we can think about doing something while doing it (p. 54). Schns approaches
to learning and knowledge-making parallel the experiential learning theory found in
management education and established by organizational psychologist Kolb (1984),
who defines learning as the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience (p. 40). Kolbs idea of transformation parallels Yanceys
re-understanding and Schns reflection-on-action-in-action. We see Kolbs theories on learning styles very much in practice today. A quick search on Google can
easily yield more than 150,000 results. Not all are relevant, but many are. Relevant hits
range from links to businesses (both for and not-for profit) to university course syllabi
and lectures to YouTube videos describing the value of his work and how to apply it.
In an instructional course video posted on YouTube, Antonette MacDonald (2011) of
the University of Louisville discusses using Kolbs model for writing critical thinking
and reflective essays.

Humanistic Psychology and the Writer/Student as Individual

We also see considerable overlap in the fields educational applications of principles
from humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychologists treat personal growth as a
positive experience and often characterize the process and achievement of human fulfillment as self-discovery (Rogers, 1989), self-actualization (Maslow, 1971), or selfrealization (May, 1983). Rogers, Maslow, and May were, of course, hugely influential
in management theory and education. Maslow (1971) describes eight ways in which
one self-actualizes, including listening to ones own self, making choices, and finding
out who one is (pp. 46-47). Of humanistic psychologys influence on the field, management and leadership scholar Michael Reynolds (1998) claims that humanistic psychology takes the form of experiential learning, personal and team development, and
numerous variants of self-managed learning which have played a considerable part in
shaping professional practice in management development (p. 185).
Compositionists began to use theories of humanistic psychology in the 1960s
(Berlin, 1987) to aid students in the process of self-discovery. Compositionists
Rohman and Wlecke (1965) suggest techniques, such as journal writing, as a useful
part of the prewriting stage of the writing process. Rohman (1965) goes on to claim
that journal writing can help a student make discoveries about herself or himself or,
as one of his students put it, the discovery of myself for myself (p. 109). Berlin
(2011) labels most compositionists who are concerned with self-discovery or

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self-actualization expressivist. In expressivism, writing is treated as a creative act

wherein the individual and her or his expression is the focal point; in expressivism,
the writers experience of expression, the process, is as important as what is expressed,
the product (Berlin, 2011).
In both management and composition, personal, reflective writing exercises are
used to help students experience greater self-understanding or self-discovery (Neck
& Manz, 2012; Rohman, 1965; Waddock, 1999), agency (Yancey, 1998), and individual as well as community-based knowledge construction (Prasad & Caproni,
1997; Shor, 1980).

Critical Pedagogy
Emphasis on the individual in relation to the greater community is especially important to critical pedagogy. As Richard Miller (2011) makes clear, composition scholarship on critical pedagogy ranges from discussion of Paulo Freires Pedagogy of the
Oppressed (1968/1970) and applicability of his theories in U.S. higher learning institutions generally (Berlin, 2011; McCormick, 1992; North, 1991) to practical applications of his pedagogy in U.S. composition classrooms (Berthoff, 1984; Bizzell, 1992;
Shor, 1987). Shor (1980) defines critical pedagogy this way:
Critical education prepares student to be their own agents for social change,
their own creators of democratic culture. They gain skills of philosophical
abstraction which enable them to separate themselves from manipulation and
from the routine flow of time. Consequently, their literacy is a challenge to their
control by corporate culture. (p. 48)
Although the body of research and scholarship on critical pedagogy is smaller in
management than composition, there is a passionate group of educators who publish
on critical pedagogy and its related schools of thoughtReynolds (1998, 1999) on
critical pedagogy; Densten and Gray (2001) on critical reflection; and Alvesson and
Willmott (1992) and Prasad and Caproni (1997) on critical theory. Alvesson and
Willmott call for critical reflection in management pedagogy in order to fight technical
rationality.

Personal, Reflective Writing Exercises in

Todays Business Communication Classroom
Examples of relevant personal, reflective writing exercises are easy to find. The ones
I use I have developed over the years from theories, principles, and pedagogy from
composition, management, and business communication. Most of the personal, reflective writing exercises I assign go ungraded and typically support another business
writing assignment, facilitate learning about a business communication topic, or aim

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to get students in the mood to write and tackle a business writing task. What follows
is a description of personal, reflective writing exercises useful in a business communication class.

Personal Leadership: Writing About Values,

Beliefs, Experience, and the Career
The personal mission statement is, from my point of view, the quintessential personal
leadership document. In his popular The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989),
Stephen Covey offers readers numerous exercises in his Application Suggestions
following each habit. While the purpose of each suggestion typically relates to the
specific goals of one of the seven habits, his exercises generally require the reader to
engage in some form of self-exploration through written expression. Representative
of this type of book, Coveys exercises range from personal mission statements to
more open-ended reflections on past experience as well as visions of the future. For
the personal mission statement, Covey suggests readers begin with writing tasks.
Covey (1989) instructs,
Take a few moments and write down your roles as you now see them. Are you
satisfied with that mirror image of your life . . . start a collection of notes,
quotes, and ideas you may want to use as resource material in writing your
personal mission statement. (p. 144).
The Franklin Covey website offers a personal mission statement builder at www.
franklincovey.com/msb. Many other leadership gurus and authors share similar materials online as well.
I have used these exercises in my classes in different ways. For example, in an
undergraduate leadership communication and other business communication classes,
I launched the personal mission statement at the beginning of the semester and treated
it, as Covey suggests, as something that takes time to develop. As a result, we revisited
the mission statements periodically through the semester, occasionally taking 10 to
15 minutes of class time to work on them, discussing format and form, and even, for
those who volunteered, sharing their statements with others. The personal mission
statement can be easily coupled with a module on career documents or the job application process, allowing students to link who they are with what they want to be.
Covey (1989) claims that creating a personal mission statement changes you
because it forces you to think through priorities deeply, carefully, and to align your
behavior with your beliefs (p. 129). Because the mission statement can take a lot of
time in a semester, I often limit the work and ask students to create lists of roles, goals,
and priorities. From the lists, they can go on to develop a mission statement or use
them to develop resume and cover letter content or develop an elevator pitch. A Google
search can yield excellent examples of personal mission statements as well as suggestions for building a mission statement and understanding its purpose.

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Assessment, Evaluation, Feedback, and Reflection

Self-assessments are also excellent personal, reflective writing exercises for helping
students assess a skill, ability, or performance, and they are not uncommon in business
communication textbooks. For example, framed as a feedback exercise, Newman and
Ober (2013) ask students to provide feedback on their own presentations and on a
peers presentation, guiding students to comment on both strengths and areas for
development. Barrett (2011) instructs students to take an oral presentation selfevaluation. Presented in a grid or table format and divided into two parts, the first part
guides students through a self-evaluation based on viewing her or his videotaped
presentation. Categories to evaluate include delivery, voice, content and organization,
and graphics. Students rate their strengths as in a range from needs work to excellent (p. 179). The second part encourages students to develop an improvement plan,
derived from reflecting on the presentation. In Barretts exercise, students are asked
the following personal, reflective questions: What was the best part of your presentation? What are key areas to improve? How do you propose working on improvement
areas? How will you measure your progress in these areas? (p. 180)
In Barretts (2011) and Newman and Obers (2013) textbook examples, students
use assessment, evaluation, and feedback to reflect on experience. The questions are
concrete and the approach is goal-oriented. Their exercises allow students to become
agents of their own learning (Yancey, 1998, p. 5) and support Yanceys claim that,
through written reflection, we come to know and understand our work and perhaps
thus to improve it (p. 12).
Dufrene and Lehman in their Building High-Performance Teams (2011) ask students to reflect on team development by answering questions about the greatest
strength(s) [the student] brings to the group project and about area(s) [the student]
needs most help with concerning the team project (p. 6). Students are also asked to
reflect on the forming stage, an early stage in team development, and to consider the
role [the student] is most comfortable playing, the role he or she would like to try, and
the negative role the student dislikes (p. 11).
In my classes, I assign similar exercises. I often start the self-evaluation of an oral
presentation or of a role in a group project as an exercise that gets revised, placed in
memo format, and submitted for a grade. Because the memos content is personal and
reflective, I tend to keep the value of the grade low. However, I am comfortable requiring that the piece be reorganized as a final submission for credit because, in addition
to all the pedagogical rationales and benefits to student learning I have discussed thus
far, students must also be prepared to evaluate themselves and others in professional
organizations. Finally, exercises that encourage reflection on their own performance
help inform the feedback and evaluation processes they might use in a written evaluation about others. To this end, in my classes, I also require students to provide feedback, in memo form, to another student about her or his presentation. Students submit
a copy of the feedback to their peers and to me. The guidelines they use for writing the

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feedback are similar to their self-evaluation and feedback exercise. However, with the
peer feedback assignment, they have to be more conscious about other elements of
good business writing, such as making it reader-centered and practicing positive or
neutral wording.

Free Writes and Loosely Structured

Prompts: Writing About (Almost) Anything
It is the compositionists who have the corner on free writing. Ken Macrorie (1985)
and Peter Elbow (1973) are probably best known among composition scholars for
advancing the technique in the composition classroom. During free writing, students are instructed to write, without stopping, without worrying about grammar,
without editing, without worrying about readers or the topic or the purpose of the
piece (Macrorie, 1985). In many ways, the guidelines for free writing are anathema to
those of effective business writing, such as determining the purpose or the channel
of the message or envisioning the audience and adapting the message to the audience (Lehman & Dufrene, 2013, pp. 38-40). So the question is why use free writing
techniques in a business communication class?
The answer is simplemaking meaning and writing the truth. In an interview by
Schroeder and Boe (2010), Macrorie (1985) discusses writing the truth and treats the
truth as more basic than grammar, spelling, and punctuation, more basic than writing
for an audience and adapting to form; truth is meaning. As we know, Pondy (1978)
established meaning making as a most valuable leadership quality.
For Elbow (1973), free writing is a method by which a writer can produce more and
more writing, keeping or rejecting what he or she wants from the session. Free writing,
in its purest sense, is not guided or linked to an assignment or topic. In my business
communication classes, I have used pure free writing exercises (as in, write for
10 minutes; write about anything; write about nothing; go) and free writing exercises
that are more guided (as in, write for 10 minutes; write about your reactions to the
reading assignment; consider your feelings, your opinions, or your positions; go). In
the former example, free writing is designed to get the students writing juices flowing, to make them more comfortable with the task of writing. In the latter example, the
exercise is designed to facilitate a classroom discussion that will follow about a case.
In neither case is the exercise designed to help students produce a specific assignment.
However, their writing could take any number of forms, including the production of
something useful to an upcoming writing assignment. Free writing, too, has the potential to be the place and space for engaging a critical pedagogy, for example, to allow
students to contemplate tough questions about the role of the corporation and the individual. Or a guided free write can allow students to consider their goals, values, and
beliefs and serve as an accompaniment to the personal mission statement or a job
application package.

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Practical Applications for the

Business Communication Classroom
Roles, Goals, and Priorities
As juniors and seniors in college, my business students are often in the middle of
applying for internships and full-time jobs while taking my classes. To help students
think deeply and carefully about career choices and other important aspects of their
lives, I have them create three different lists. List directions follow below:
1. Make a list of the different roles you hold in your life, such as student, son,
girlfriend, basketball player, and so on.
2. Make a list of things that are important for you to do in life, such as travel,
play sports, write poetry, or go out with friends. List as many as you like.
3. State three major goals you hope to achieve in the next 5 years.
After creating such lists, I ask them to begin to focus on whats most important and
why. Usually I give them time between generating the lists and focusing on whats
important. For example, I may begin the list activity in class and ask them to chip
away at it before our next class meeting. At the next class, I ask them to pull out their
lists and begin to focus on the most important. I might spend 10 minutes of class time
on this. However, I ask them to go back to the results of the activity at different points
in the semester.
When working on resumes and cover letters or engaging in interviews, I suggest
they use their personal, reflective writing in the following ways:
1. To help them think about jobs that might suit them best
2. To generate content for an elevator speech
3. To have conversation points that might come in handy during an interview
I may also take the exercise a bit further and ask the students to create a personal mission statement. At the end of the semester, the original lists, the career-related applications, and the final mission statement come together as a whole, as part of a process
for reflecting on important aspects of who they are and what they want. I sometimes
bundle the pieces together to serve as a career and professional development portfolio.
My students routinely tell me that this work is meaningful to them because it allows
them to think about important changes and experiences in their lives. For teachers of
large classes, having an activity that is personal and meaningful to their students can
bridge a gap between how much you can realistically do to help students personally
and how much personal satisfaction they receive from a classroom experience and
activity. Finally, because of the nature of the portfolio, I often give credit for its
completion or simply give credit for effort.

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Reflecting on Performance
I film all of my students oral presentations, and in addition to having students evaluate each other, I ask them to evaluate themselves. I begin this assignment in class with
a writing exercise in which I ask them to describe themselves as a presenter. Nearly
all my students have already given an oral presentation in high school, in other college
classes, or in other environments. They typically know (or think they know) their own
strengths and weaknesses.
Next, I ask them to set two goals for their upcoming presentation in my class. The
goals should be narrow, such as to reduce the number of interrupters they use or to stop
putting their hands in their pockets. I get them to file their goals away or send them to
me as an email, and on presentation day, I ask them to keep their goals in mind as they
present.
Once recorded, I have them watch their presentations and reflect on their earlier
writing about strengths and weaknesses. Did they accurately describe themselves?
What surprises did they find? Can they update their list of strengths and weaknesses?
I also ask them to review their goals? Were they realistic? Did they meet them? What
new goals should they set for future presentations?
This version of self-evaluation and reflection could be graded or not.

Free Writing: Guided and Just Plain Free

I have used free writing in my business communication classes in different ways.
Sometimes, on days when students seem tired or overwhelmed by the semester,
such as during midterm exam period, I call for a brief free write at the start of
class. The free write takes as little as 10 or even 5 minutes. The idea is to use the
time to help students get into the mood to write. During the free write, they can
write about anything. They can write about how they are feeling, what we are
doing in class that day, or how stupid they may think free writing is. The topic is
truly open.
A guided free write can be more helpful for actually trying to move forward on a
specific writing assignment. For example, I might ask them to write about the assignment, for example, about their feelings about their work so far, any struggles they may
be having with the assignment, or plans for next steps. Or I might give them something
brief to read and ask them to respond to the reading. The reading, ideally, is related to
the assignment topic or purpose. In short, there is no prescribed form, no idealized
product, just writing.
As such, when I bring free writing into my business communication classes, I
emphasize process, not product. Nothing is collected. Nothing is graded, and what
students produce remains private. As their instructor, I want the experience of writing
to be liberating. I want them to be agents in charge of their own learning.

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Emphasis on the Process of Writing

Personal, reflective writing is a pedagogical strategy that emphasizes the process of
writing. Because business people often produce communications on a time-sensitive
deadline and may have little opportunity to practice the process approach when tackling a writing task during an average workday, business communication scholars have
argued against an emphasis on process writing in a business communication class
(Bracher, 1987; Kottle & Hickey, 1987). However, like others before me, I contend
that the process approach helps students take the steps necessary for reaching a final
product and learn along the way about the complexities involved in professional
writing (Barbour, 1987, p. 64). Because personal, reflective writing requires reflection and awareness of the self and others, it also has the potential to better prepare
students for the realities of the business setting they will soon enter. Personal, reflective writingas a pedagogical strategy for teaching business students to writeis
designed to help students learn about themselves, take charge of their learning, generate ideas, reflect on experience, and connect with the work they are assigned to produce. If coupled with other business writing tasks or experiences that relate to our
students experiences in business school, personal, reflective writing can help business students see the personal in business writing. By personal, I am talking about
acknowledging the writer behind the communication, the person who makes decisions
about words and content and who visualizes an audience as he/she writes. I am arguing for the use of personal, reflective writing as a way to fight technical rationality and
avoid a potential tendency to objectify the other. Instead, I hope that personal, reflective writing can help make our students more accountable to themselves and others
and, in turn, make our students better writers, managers, and leaders.
Authors Note
This article is based on research conducted for a doctoral dissertation: Lawrence, H. (2007).
Personal, reflective writing in business communication and management (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation). University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

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Bio
Holly Lawrence is a senior lecturer and director of the Business Communication Program in
the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. She holds a PhD in
composition from the University of Massachusetts Writing Program. She teaches business communication to undergraduates and MBA students.

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