INTRODUCTION

Professional writing. A career path, field of study and a broad label for many things related to communication. Who does it? What is involved? How is life in the field of professional writing? To answer these questions, I sat down and talked with Mr. Allen Brizee. Brizee is in the graduate program of Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University.

Brizee’s involvement in the professional writing field consists of many different aspects that will help my exploration into the field. I used Brizee as a sounding board for questions related to the field that could give me some insight. The interview was successful and I have developed a quality understanding of one man’s journey into professional writing.

BACKGROUND

While attending a community college, Brizee harmlessly took a few technical and business writing classes. What he didn’t know was that the skills he developed in those courses would lead to a summer job that began carving his path into the field of professional writing. Brizee was hired to work in Washington D.C. in a division surrounded by engineers. Brizee soon found out that the more he worked, the more he helped the engineers develop business communication. All of the sudden, Brizee was the “de facto” technical writer for the engineers he was working with.

“It really blossomed for me,” Brizee said.

With the summer job developing into something he never imagined at first, Brizee decided to transfer to Virginia Tech. Fortunately for him, Dr. James Dubinsky, who is a well-known rhetorician, arrived about the same time Brizee did.

With the help of Dubinsky, Brizee’s mentor, Brizee found himself knee-deep in any professional writing project around. Through his four years at Virginia Tech, which he obtained his Bachelor of Arts and his Master of Arts, he worked on two service-learning projects with Dubinsky that heavily shaped his study at Purdue.

The first was developing a new Web site and booklet for a non-for-profit group. The purpose of the communication was to educate students about trips to Kenya to help the local area. The second was helping a lower-income community develop a newsletter. The purpose of the communication was to help generate a sense of community and spur economic growth.

“I was lucky enough to work with Dr. Dubinsky on two wonderful projects,” Brizee said.

After Brizee finished his work at Virginia Tech he took a slight detour before arriving at Purdue.

With a desire to work in the technical field, Brizee became a technical writer contractor. A growing need for money and desire to teach led Brizee to teach at the University of Maryland, George Washington and his former community college. What this meant for Brizee was a lot of commuting and stress. With the dividends from all of the jobs he was undertaking not being great enough, Brizee decided to further his education.

The few schools that topped his list were Miami (Ohio), North Carolina-Greensboro and Purdue. In fact, those were the only there he visited. With Purdue’s well-known graduate program, Brizee was enthralled when he found out the good news.

“I did my Purdue happy dance when I got my acceptance letter,” Brizee said. “(Purdue) stood out as the primary goal.”

So it was off to West Lafayette, Ind., for Brizee.

WHAT'S NEXT

Now, as Brizee is preparing to interview to become a tenure-track professor, he is finishing up his work with the Purdue Online Writing Lab, as well as thinking about possible work for his dissertation. For that, he will turn to his roots he embedded within the professional writing field years ago – community engagement.

Fortunately for Brizee, when he was doing undergraduate and graduate work at Virginia Tech he wasn’t picky on what projects he tackled. And for that, he will be focusing his dissertation on helping expand the writing lab to the community in conjunction with the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy.

CONCLUSION

Brizee has shown the path into the professional writing field is not always conventional and, in fact, one should do what he wants to do. He found out it’s working just fine. But always remember, try anything.

“No job is too small, no job is too big,” Brizee said. “You just kind of have to go for it.”

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

- How did you get started in professional writing?

- How were you working with engineers?

- What other projects have you worked on?

- You spent how many years at Virginia Tech then?

- So, just a couple years at your junior college?

- You said some of your side work got kind of monotonous.

- Any other places you applied to?

- How much longer do you have left in the program and what projects are you working on?

- So you’re getting to the point in the next 2 ½ years, hopefully, to be done?

- Anything you would like to add about the professional writing field?

By Leroy Bridges