Teaching a class in professional writing in the 21st century is vastly different then it was a decade ago. The one time world of “workplace writing”, “technical writing” or just plain “non-fiction” writing has gone from print documents capitalizing on a theoretical base of composition theory and the genre of expository writing to working with emerging theories on networked communications and multimedia writing practices. As such, the two main areas of 'professional writing' covered here are business writing and technical writing.
Business Writing is a type of professional communication that focuses on documents necessary for a business or professional organization to communicate effectively both within the organization and outside of the organization. Therefore, the goals for this class are for students to:
"The main aim of business writing," according to Brent W. Knapp, "is that it should be understood clearly when read quickly. The message should be well planned, simple, clear, and direct" (A Project Manager's Guide to Passing the Project Management Exam, 2006). |
Technical Writing is generally expository writing that is conducted within a variety of disciplines to convey specialized knowledge and expertise for a specific audience or user group. For example, a scientist writing an account of a specific experiment, an ethnographer writing about a specific study, a teacher writing about specific teaching methods , a real estate salesperson writing about a property for sale, or a business executive writing a white paper are all engaged in some form of technical writing. In addition, technical writing works with:
"the process of gathering information from experts and presenting it to an audience in a clear, easily understandable form." |
It is clear that what both these types of writing have in common is the need to create clear, concise, well planned, and well formatted messages in order to promote usability. Therefore, both business writing and technical writing strive to deliver documents that have a clear purpose and that are used to help their readers perform.