Introducing Professional Writing Skills to Future Naval Officers: An Adjunct to NPS Distance Learning
Abstract
Newly-minted naval officers will be judged by seniors on the merits of their writing skills. Required undergraduate English composition courses do not prepare officers to write the clear, well-organized correspondence required during active duty service. This project answers the following question: will written communication training provided to midshipmen prior to commissioning enable them to report to their first assignments with the written communication knowledge and skills to communicate their intentions clearly at first attempt and write with impact, thus decreasing the administrative burden on senior officers? To answer this question, we provided professional writing training in the form of interactive modules to 17 NROTC midshipmen at Marquette University and then assessed their understanding and capacity to apply the concepts. Midshipmen earned scores that met or exceeded our criteria for comprehension of the guidelines for professional writing. In addition, midshipmen interview responses were overwhelmingly receptive to this training, and, as a result, 100 percent of midshipmen surveyed felt better prepared for future professional writing tasks. We recommend that the NETC mandate standardized writing training for midshipmen prior to their commissioning. Additionally, we recommend that the NPS partner with the NETC to assist in creating a distance-learning tutorial for professional writing.
Description
Sponsored Report (for Acquisition Research Program)
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.NPS Report Number
NPS-HR-08-120Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Introducing professional writing skills to future Naval Officers: an adjunct to NPS Distance Learning
Booher, Brandon M.; Waisanen, Derek S. (Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2008-12);Newly-minted naval officers will be judged by seniors on the merits of their writing skills. Required undergraduate English composition courses do not prepare officers to write clear, well-organized correspondence required ... -
Military legislation: explaining military officers' writing deficiencies
Borysov, Andrii (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2016-06);In performing jobs related to national security and defense, personnel must comply with rules and decisions communicated in the form of written legislation, which includes directives, memos, instructions, manuals, standard ... -
Developing decision-making skills in United States Naval Academy midshipmen
Healey, Daniel P. (Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2004-06);This study shows the importance of decision-making skills in a military leader. Different models of decision-making are examined, and effective ways to teach decision making are presented. If, as the literature shows, ...