Professional and Technical Writing Major (B.A.)

Professional Writing is a discipline that also engages scholarly and professional challenges connected to writing, speaking and design in a variety of communication contexts. The discipline’s growth and maturation over the previous 30 years was sparked initially by its embracing of rhetoric as an alternative for scholars who had felt limited by their traditional research questions and methods. Professional Writing has throughout its history maintained commitments to exploring the interconnections of science, technology, culture, and communication, and thus to exploring the challenges of communicating in professional, technological contexts and media.

These are the seven outcomes for the PTW program:

Audience, Purpose, Genre, Context
Students will develop effective and responsible documents in multiple genres that serve audience needs and purposes in-context.

Collaboration
Students will work in teams with peers from professional and technical writing and subject matter experts from other disciplines.

Document Design
Students will demonstrate professionally appropriate design strategies (at the page and project level).

Language and Conventions
Students will make appropriate style and language choices, and edit documents effectively.

Project Management
Students will manage projects, including conducting research and managing resources such as budgets, time, personnel, and tools.

Theory
Students will demonstrate awareness of and be conversant in relevant theoretical perspectives.

Tools and Technologies
Students will use a variety of communication tools and technologies.