Minor in Professional Writing

Professional Writing Minor E-textbook

The Ohio State professional writing minor is looking for writers to contribute short articles (4-5 pages) about professional writing topics for an e-textbook. We feel that the most accurate information about writing that goes on in the workplace comes from those who practice it every day. This text will be used in Humanities College 450: Cultures of Professional Writing and would be sold at- or near-cost, as part of our small attempt to lower college costs. Our preliminary Call for Papers and list of topics follows.
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Humanities College 450: Cultures of Professional Writing introduces students in the OSU Writing Minor to professional writing. Students learn common workplace genres and need to be ready to do real-world, professional-quality writing at an internship after they take this course, usually the next quarter. This e-textbook will be paired with an inexpensive writing handbook that we expect students to keep as a reference.

If you are willing to contribute, please follow these guidelines:

• aim for 1000-1500 words
• focus on how the topic is used and contextualized for specific organizations (not how-to instructions for the topic)
• consider what students need to know about this topic to function well as professional writers
• give real-world examples and suggested exercises
• write with the idea that instructors of this course are not trying to teach how to write everything, but rather how to approach workplace writing tasks and challenges
• grant the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing the non-exclusive right to reproduce, translate, and/or distribute the submission, in print and electronic format and in any medium, including but not limited to audio or visual for the purposes of inclusion in the Humanities College 450 text (note that you retain the copyright). Our license agreement [PDF] has more information.

Preliminary deadline: May 1

Topics:

• Overview of your writing process
• Contexts for workplace writing and how they affect style, tone, and other rhetorical issues
• How workplace writing is different not only from that for school but also from sector to sector-there is an array of work worlds
• Audience, internal and external communications, you-attitude, and other issues
• Multicultural writing (importantly connected to what is required in international workplaces)
• Importance of professional proofreading and editing skills in the work world, in terms of professionalism, marketability, and credibility.
• Preparation to enter the work world: resumes, cover letters, building a portfolio
• Professional writing or digital portfolios
• Document design: visuals, white space, readability
• Ethical and legal issues
• Who "owns" and who is responsible for writing in an organization?
• Brand/organizational voice
• crisis communication (how to address 'hostile' or potentially 'hostile' audiences; how to own up to individual/organizational mistakes; corporate social responsibility)
• Online ethics
• New Media
  Social media
  Audiovisual
  Web writing

Along with our students, we appreciate your efforts here and look forward to learning from practitioners in the field.

Thank you,
Doug Dangler
Associate Director, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
The Ohio State University
614-292-1308
dangler.6@osu.edu