What Careers Do Professional Writing Majors Prepare for?

The BA in Professional Writing at Purdue University prepares students to be writing specialists within organizations as technical writers and editors, publishers, information designers and developers, public relations specialists, editors and reviewers, document designers, and corporate trainers. It also prepares students for graduate work in technical and professional writing.

Undergraduates majoring in professional writing elect one of two possible concentrations: writing for the arts or business and technical writing. The Writing and Publishing concentration has an emphasis on electronic and print-based publication and writing and designing for the WWW; it prepares students for positions as magazine writers, editors, and publishers; reviewers, and developers of promotional materials. The Technical Writing concentration has a rhetorical/informational emphasis; it prepares students to be technical writers, online information developers, and usability specialists. Students in both areas have opportunities for internships.

What Courses Do You Take in the Professional Writing Major?

Click on the link below to see the curriculum (that is, the bingo sheet) for the Professional Writing Major:

Reader Awareness and Ethical Responsibility. All professional writing courses stress the importance of defining the needs of the rhetorical setting: determining who the readers are, what they need, and what medium and document form will best meet those needs. Along with this awareness of readers comes an obligation to them, an ethical responsibility not to mislead, but to present information and others' positions accurately and fairly. Most courses employ a client-based pedagogy: that is, many assignments are done for real clients with real needs.

Computer-Based, Internetworked Writing. Most courses are taught in networked Macintosh computer classrooms, where students learn to write using multiple programs in a real-world publishing environment. They learn how to use drawing, page layout, and web authoring programs in conjunction with word processing programs to produce professionally designed print and electronic documents. They also learn how to write and design online material and how to use network technology (e.g., servers, e-mail, World Wide Web) for researching as well as distributing documents.

Collaborative Interaction/Planning and Project Management. All courses require at least some collaboratively authored projects. Students learn how to work effectively in groups, how to coordinate and plan large-scale projects, how to use editorial critique, and how to negotiate with others in an organizational setting.

Visual Rhetoric. Professional writing courses stress the visual component of writing: for example, how to use visual tactics for invention as well as for presentation of information; how to use drawing and page layout programs as writing platforms; and how to layout and design information (both print and electronic) for readability and navigability. Courses stress the importance of integrating visual and verbal components in almost any writing situation (e.g., in the use of type fonts, tables and graphs, rules, and other forms of highlighting and structuring text).

Digital Publishing and Graphic Design. Faculty have expertise in areas of digital publishing (in print and electronic forms) and graphic design and work with students in class projects and funded research programs to help them develop professional-level abilities as editors, designers, and information architects.

Research. Professional writing courses stress the importance of careful and thoughtful research. We introduce students to tactics for locating print and electronic sources, conducting interviews, designing surveys and questionnaires, and conducting usability tests. One of the core required courses (English 203, Introduction to Research for Professional Writers) establishes the value and importance of careful research tactics and introduces basic resources and methodologies for conducting research.

For more information, contact:

Dr. David Blakesley
Director of Professional Writing
Department of English
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47909

765-494-3730