Survey or industry report
Communication in the Workplace: What Can NC State Students Expect?
Jason Swarts et al., Professional Writing Program, Department of English, North Carolina State University, 2018
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- A university survey of working professionals in seven fields, asking how much of their work week they spend writing and how important writing quality is to their jobs. The report averages each field's self-estimates of writing time.
- How much weight it carries
- A university report, not peer-reviewed. The percentages are respondents' own estimates, not time logs, and some fields have small groups (programming has 60 respondents), so treat the field figures as indicative.
Facts taken from this source
- In the NC State 2018 survey, marketing professionals reported spending an average of 42 percent of the total work week writing, the highest share of any field.
“the average percentage reported across professions ranged from a high of 42 percent of time for marketing professionals to 26 percent of time for programmers” (Section 1, Figure 1.5)
- In the NC State 2018 survey, the average share of the work week spent writing for the other professions fell between 30 and 40 percent.
“Average responses for the remaining professions varied between 30 and 40 percent of the total work week spent writing.” (Section 1, Figure 1.5)
- In the NC State 2018 survey, programmers reported spending an average of 26 percent of the total work week writing, the lowest share of any field.
“the average percentage reported across professions ranged from a high of 42 percent of time for marketing professionals to 26 percent of time for programmers” (Section 1, Figure 1.5)
- The NC State 2018 survey's writing-time figures are averages of what respondents said about their own writing time, not measurements.
“we averaged the percentage provided by respondents across each profession” (Section 1, Figure 1.5)