Prompt 1: What is professional writing?

I want to start out by reflecting on and discussing the topic of this class. Just what is professional writing?

It can actually mean a lot of different things and some academic programs and some employers use it rather interchangeably with terms such as business writing or technical writing. And of course, just to further complicate things sometimes the word writing is replaced by communication so it can incorporate more media (as for many writing implies working with print media only).

Some examples of programs:

·         Texas Tech (where I earned my Ph.D. & so I know lots of folks)

·         University of Cincinnati (where I have friends on faculty)

·         Eastern KentuckyUniversity (I earned my MA there and taught there for a while before MSU)

·         Michigan State University program about jobs in professional writing

In the end, it all boils down to one word: rhetoric.

Please watch this video about rhetoric: http://youtu.be/BYMUCz9bHAs

And read a blog post I wrote about rhetoric a few years back: http://masclemetawriting.blogspot.com/2010/03/forgotten-r.html

While you probably are not faced with the same identity question, I do want you to think about where your interests lie now and where you think they might take you in the future. Certainly all educated professionals will use rhetoric in the future.

In fact, if you read communication journals there has been talk for decades now that we are now in an information age and what is necessary are “knowledge workers” (what I would call rhetoricians). You can read an article about this here: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95dec/chilearn/drucker.htm (skip down to the section “The Rise of the Knowledge Worker” if you don’t want to read the whole article).

Written language was actually born out of the necessity for government officials and business people to communicate about transactions. It was not until much later that writing was used for the literary purposes we take for granted today. It is also important to remember that it was not until the 20^th century that literacy became commonplace. Actual college courses focused on professional, business, and technical writing were first offered by colleges in the period after the Civil War. Prior to the Civil War most colleges were small and catered almost exclusively to the sons of wealthy landowners and professionals. The two Morrill Acts (1862 and 1877) founded and promoted land-grant agricultural and mechanical colleges that dramatically increase the availability of higher education and changed it in many ways – in both focus and student body. With a change from a more liberal arts/ humanities focus to more technical subjects and an increase in the number of students who came from less privileged backgrounds (without private tutors, for example) it became clear that more attention would need to be paid to writing. First came the advent of required composition courses in the early 1900s (trivia note: these started at Harvard) then the professions began to demand that future members be trained to write coherent reports as well as simple business letters. Professional and Technical Writing really came of age after World War II in part due to the GI Bill but also a tremendous growth in technical writing due to the use of technology during the war (WWII was the first truly technological war). Today we find professional writing in many more places than engineering firms and places of business and professional writing is much more than simply technical or business writing. It's now grown to include all these things and more.

Professional writing falls into two basic categories: professionals who write on the job, such as engineers, nurses, scientists, etc;. and people who write as their profession. But there is one simple truth: professional means getting paid for what you do.  

·         My friend Lisa’s description of Tech Comm: http://www.tek-ritr.com/tech_comm/pmwiki.php?n=Foundation.WhatIsTechComm

I love technical communication now but when I was an undergrad many many moons ago it wasn't even on my horizon. I did know then that I wanted to be a working writer. Do you? What does that mean to you? How do you define professional writing? What is a professional writer? What kind of professional writer do you want to be? What is rhetoric to you (definition)? Do you consider yourself a rhetorician? Write a journal post (you can find your journal in BlackBoard under tools) exploring and reflecting on these ideas and questions.

Then Tweet some response to your journal entry. Try to include a hashtag (label) so your response becomes part of a wider conversation. Some possible hashtags include #writer #writers #writing #jobs #techcomm #rhetoric #communication #media

Finally, participate in the Blackboard reflection discussion for your Week 1 prompt.