I just had my business communication exam yesterday and we had to write a conclusion, recommendation of a report, and the analysis of a transcript with reference to meeting skills, interpersonal, and intercultural aspects. We were given 2 hours to complete all these.

Initially i thought it would be pretty straight forward because by now, we would have written quite a few reports. However, when it comes to the actual execution of the tasks, i tanked big time. I ended up spending far too much time trying to structure the conclusion and rec that i did not have enough time to do a proper analysis of the transcript that was given. Needless to say, the paper was kinda half done.

Thinking back, i realise the problem i faced during the paper was that normally we'd be doing all this stuff in the computer with the help of our trusty word processors. Not that i miss the ability of the spell and grammar check, but it was because the word processor allows me to throw up sentences almost as fast as i think, and still be able to rearrange them later on. When writing using the pen, i found myself thinking one word at a time, which resulted in many pauses as i lose my train of though. Furthermore, i had to be more careful of what i write because it was a hassle to delete sentences and rewrite them unlike in a word processor whereby i could just cut this sentence to paste it into another section.

Well, don't get me wrong. Im not trying to blame the poor performance during the test on word processors. But rather, i think it seems like a feasible idea that our over reliance on word processors these days might have a detrimental effect on our normal ability to write with a pen. Although it may seem kind of far fetched, but i think give it a few years, we might see either people not being able to write as well as they used to when using the pen (spelling is getting poorer these days too) or they're gonna allow us to use word processors to type out our answers in essay exams. :p

Try mapping out the various approaches u are going to write the essay, do a mindmap on a piece of paper, will save u much more time than you think cos after that, u just keep writing and writing without losing ur train of thought
» AC (202.156.10.13) on 2008-05-02 09:24:08

i think its also due to the fact that we are now spending more time on computers penning down our thoughts and whatever else with the keyboard and not the traditional pen and paper. i know this cos i kinda faced the same problem of not knowing what to write next, while keeping my log when i was in thailand, and i had to keep striking out the stuff i wrote wrongly too. haha.
» HellSinG on 2008-05-06 05:59:58

i tried coming up with like a structure like u said, but think i took too much time there :S
» Koban on 2008-05-07 09:26:47

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