Conclusion
In this course you explored how to write professional social work documents in practice. It has included some approaches that you can use to consider the purpose and audience of your practice writing. As you heard from Vicki, learning to be an effective social work writer takes time. You will develop your skills throughout your practice learning as a student social worker and beyond into qualified practice.
The WiSP project reminds us of the tremendous power of writing as part of social work practice, at the heart of which is a person for whom what you write will undoubtedly impact their lives. We also highlight how important critical analysis is within writing and the necessity to consider this and other ethical issues when using any AI systems or tools. Earlier in the course we highlighted the voices of service users and carers to which we now return:
‘Everything about social work writing should reflect the view, voices and experiences of the people who are being written about ... written products should be usable and understandable by all relevant stakeholders that need to access it.’
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University Social Work courses [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .