Validation

Last Thursday, I participated in a forum for students here at Wright State University. The forum was hosted by the Communication Department. They invited students from their Mass Communication courses to talk with a dozen alumni who were gathering over Memorial Day weekend for a WWSU (the campus radio station) reunion.

During the forum, we went around the room, told a little about our academic and professional lives and gave some advice based on our experiences. I was sitting in the back row of the panel, so I was like the tenth person to talk. What struck me as I listened to each of the people who preceded me was that each one of them mentioned the importance of writing to their jobs.

The prevalence and importance of writing to these people's careers probably isn't surprising to you since writing is a form of communication and they were all communication majors. The diversity of jobs is what struck me. Among the participants were people who work in journalism, sales, and production. Some are on-air talent while others worked in training or had their own marketing businesses. One even runs his own government contracting company. But even in those areas that are more technical, writing was still an important skill set to their career success.

Sitting in the back row, I was thrilled that they were making my point for me. When it was my turn to talk to the students, it was easy to find examples to make the point that writing is important to success in your career. Since that's one of the major themes of this blog, I thought I'd share it with you as well.