Difference Between School and Workplace Research, Essay Example

What do you think are the difference between school and workplace research? What types of documents do you have to write for work that requires research? Also, how important is it to cite to the information you use in work documents?

There are a number of differences between writing academic papers and writing projects in the workplace. First, writing papers in the academic environment typically involves some form of critical thinking, and  ultimately the goal of most academic writing projects is to learn something from the process. When writing for the workplace, the primary goal is usually to provide information to the person or people who will read the finished project. Examples of workplace writing include memos, production reports, and other updates and announcements. For projects like these it is necessary to provide the important information clearly and directly. There may be times when it is necessary to do some sort of research in order to complete a writing project for the workplace, but it will not usually be necessary to cite the sources of the information or provide references for those sources. A report for the workplace that provides information about something, such as sales figures or forecasts, might require the writer to do some research, but in most cases it will not be required of the writer to include in-text citations for the information. The person or people reading the report will expect the information to be accurate, and will probably not have any reason to check out references or sources as long as expectations are met.