The Military Army Writing

The purpose of this report is to inform you about the expectations of writing in the army based on my interview with SGT Unite. I will be discussing the army writing and some of the audiences that are encountered in this type of workplace. To discuss the expectations of writing in the army, I interviewed SGT Unite. She is currently active and has served for over 10 years in many, different units. I chose her as my interviewee to get an accurate depiction of what written communication is like in the army. I believe with her experience results; my report could prepare you for what is upcoming once you graduate from basic training.

One specific finding in my interview with SGT Unite is the use of acronyms in the army workplace. It’s almost equivalent to the use of slang of teenagers and young adults but with much more importance. These acronyms are usually learned along the way. Their different acronyms can stand for the ranks in the army, procedures, locations, and even different types of documents, which you will have to learn and adapt to use. I conducted my research by first sending an email inquiry to SGT Unite asking if she would like to participate.

After her agreement, I prepared some questions to email her, and she got back by email after 2 days. Once I got her answers, I then proceeded to form my results and emailed her for any clarifications or questions I had. I also ultimately chose to solely interview her by email to get a feel for her writing.

Results

This section will be discussing the findings of my interview with SGT Unite. My results intend to inform you as an upcoming graduate of military basic training on the writing expectations of being in the workforce. The first section discusses the style of writing you are expected to embody. The second section explores the different acronyms involved in this workplace that are used as a form of communication. Lastly, the third section will tackle the different types of writing in this workplace. Being in the military involves a unique way of writing. The writing style of being in the military, specifically in the army, tends to be concise, simple, and easy to understand. Military writing includes a lot of acronyms, and the workplace itself uses a lot of acronyms to communicate quickly and in certain circumstances to communicate codes in dangerous conditions. The daily writing involved in SGT Unite’s workplace are in the forms of emails, reports, and/or memorandums.

Style

In the army, written communication is preferred to be short, simple, and easy to understand according to my interviewee. They are also to follow the army writing guidelines, in which according to the United States Army Combined Arms Center, it should send a clear and error-free message (2013). Being in the army, they are also expected to write at a 9th-grade level at the least.

Communication

As I have highlighted in my introduction, the military army writing is unique in that, their communication uses acronyms on a daily basis. These acronyms can have multiple meanings; whether for addressing someone in a different rank, for certain locations, and/or certain procedures. Some commonly known acronyms are SGT for sergeant, COL for colonel, AAFES for the army and air force exchange service, AWOL for absent without official leave, and ASVAB which stands for armed services vocational aptitude battery. In my interview with SGT Unite she mentioned that her daily writing involves writing SOPs, which as civilians we might not be familiar with, but after asking, it stood for Standard Operating Procedure.

Genres

At her workplace, SGT Unite’s daily writing consists of emails, SOPs, reports, and memorandums. When sending an email, she explained that it should be straight to the point, consisting of the issue being addressed, its impact, and how to mediate the issue. SOPs are written documents that contains a set of instructions for certain procedures according to SGT Unite. As far as reports or memorandums, she clarified that they need to be specific to the requirements but still follow the army style of writing. Based on my results, it is evident that the military army’s communication is concise and tackles the issue right away. The workforce uses a lot of acronyms as a daily form of communication to keep it short and simple like needed in their writing.

The different forms of written communication like emails, reports, and memorandums also follow the army writing guidelines of being specific and straight to the point without errors. I can conclude that written communication in the military’s army is brief and concise based on my interview results with SGT Unite about the styles, communication, and genres of written communication at her work. To add on to the research results of my interview with SGT Unite, I will also be discussing the different types of audience she writes for and how she caters to them. Audience is an important factor we all consider and think about when writing, it is the reason why we write; therefore, I believe this should be expanded on my results to show importance and brief you, PVT Benjamin, of what to expect and how to produce the right written content for your future audience. To do so, first, I will be discussing her main audience of Officers. I will follow by addressing the customers that are impacted by her decisions. Lastly, I will be tackling her staff as an audience.

Officers

Officers in the army are equivalent to managers in the civilian world. They are the decision makers in their unit and they are responsible for the safety of the people in their command. Officers include lieutenants, captains, colonels, and many more ranks. When communicating to her officers, SGT Unite takes great precaution to keep her writing respectful, comprehensible, and concise due to their ranking and limited time. She also checks in with the officer for any inputs and suggested revisions for her document before presenting and submitting it.

Customers

Being assigned to the public health unit, SGT Unite works closely with people in the food industry. She inspects various restaurants and public services around the base for the overall safety of the public. Some of her customers are restaurants that are sponsoring or organizing events at the base. Her task is to inspect the food and workplace, and produce reports, assessments, etc. reflecting the results of her inspection. These documents are specific and really addresses the issues and concerns according to SGT Unite. She makes sure to specify the issues in a straightforward manner and inform both her unit and the customer in the form of verbal communication, letters, reports, or emails. StaffSGT Unite’s staff consist of people in lower ranks than hers. They range from newly joined, like privates, to some with lots of experience. Her staff includes ranks E1-E5 which is a combination of junior enlisted and non-commissioned officer ranks. Her staff’s written communication is mostly for public consumption like public service announcements (PSA), letters, newsletters, etc.

Once these are written, they are then ran through her to check for grammatical errors and spelling errors, which she then passes on to her unit’s Public Affairs Officer to check once more and ultimately decide on the publishing of the writing. My research results show the importance of catering and adjusting to your audience to communicate adequately. This was embodied by SGT Unite’s experience of writing in a concise manner when addressing her Officers; specifying issues and informing her customers in a straightforward manner through reports and such; and by being a point of contact for her staff’s documents. Overall, our audience greatly affects our writing style, we must adapt and report to our audience in the appropriate needed manner to communicate our writing effectively and successfully. Based on these results, you will be expected to be adaptable in writing for different audiences.

Discussion

SGT Unite emphasized the importance of sticking to error-free and concise responses, and the ability to adapt to your audience as seen in my results.

To sum up my results:

• Style – the army writing delivers the issue in an efficient way that is free of errors.
• Communication – the usage of acronyms to communicate effectively, such as for ranks (COL, PVT, CSM), locations like the AAFES, and procedures like the ASVAB.
• Genre – the army’s daily writing can consist of emails, reports, memorandums, newsletters.
• Officers as an audience – they are to be communicated in a respectful tone.
• Customers as an audience – it is important to specify your issues towards their business to inform them and improve their overall service.
• Staffs as an audience – you serve as a point of contact between them, and the higher ups.

Be responsible for proofreading and correcting any errors found. As you’re finishing up basic training, I congratulate you in advance for your accomplishment. As you move into the military workforce, you’re writing will play a significant part in your overall communication. You will make mistakes as it is inevitable, but instead, use this memo as your starting guideline on written communication in the army. To close this off, I leave you with an advice from my interviewee to new graduates: learn as you go, but it never hurts to be aware.