What is Professional Writing A Guide for Students

What is Professional Writing? A Guide for Students by Perry Glasser

All Writing - Process Object Message Writer Audience Different teaching theories focus on different aspects. Diagram adapted from A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers by Erika Lindemann

Qualities of Professional Writers • Collaborative – professional writers work with subjects, primary sources and editors • Audience focused • Interdisciplinary thinkers – graphics and layout are part of the creative process

Professional Writing Compared to: • Rhetoric – traditional composition, focuses on the Message – Persuasion and argument, or forms. • Writing in the Disciplines – Research for a social science or literature for examples – focuses on an agreed upon model of the world, the “Object” • Creative or Imaginative Writing – focuses on the Writer – “Write what you know. ” • Professional Writing focuses on Audience

JOIN THE EMERGING CREATIVE CLASS • Organizational Writing – Some writing requires a specialized vocabulary: finance, education, etc. – Professional writers “translate” special knowledge for generalists • Interviewing and research are professional writing skills • Publishing – – Literary journalism differs from reporting Desktop publishing is a necessary part of writing Publishing careers are built on editing and critical thinking skills Professional Writers are needed for Print and Web! • Electronic Media – Power. Point, Desktop publishing, Web and Internet, Blogs, DVD, CDs You name it.

Professional Writing Careers • Publishers – book and magazine editors, literary agents • Writers – freelance and staff writers • Corporate writers produce internal documents and external documents – Grants writers often work in the non-profit sector