Difference Between Academic Writing and Business Writing

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Differences between Academic and Business Writing Godfrey KIimi Kenyatta University 3rd January 2014 Differences between Academic and Business Writing Introduction Both academic and business writing shares the common principle of all writing, that of conveying the message in a way the reader can understand. Academic writing is typical research paper that is marked and graded by an instructor. Business writing’ main objective is to influence actions and opinions by persuading the reader to take the course of action suggested. This paper discusses the main differences between these two genres of writing. Other differences between the two are discussed in the last paragraph of the body of the paper. The fundamental differences between academic and business writing are rooted in the audience. Main Differences The main differences between academic and business writing lie in the purpose, audience, duration of use and the format used. The purpose of academic writing is for the student to prove his or her own mastery of the course work. Businesses writing aims at conveying information to employees or a Workgroup to enable them achieve a set business goal. They persuade the audiences to use the suggested strategy to realize better results. Secondly, the audience of academic writing is the professor or a tutor who judges the writing and awards a grade. Business writing has multiple audiences who may be known or unknown to the writer. The known audience includes superiors, colleagues, subordinates and/or employers while the unknown audiences consist of the secondary audience who benefit from the written information once they understand it. The audience for business writing is more complex than that of academic writing (Young, 2009). The third main difference between the two genres lies in their duration of use. Academic writing is

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