Growing the Technical and Professional Writing Concentration

By Tom Klodowsky

Technical writing, as we typically understand it, provides users of technology with written instruction manuals, guides, and software and technical demonstrations. Professional writing, on the other hand, is a genre of writing concerned with communication within a company or institution: drafting emails, newsletters, bulletins, anything that keeps employees, employers, and stakeholders communicating in a way that gets the work done. Technical writing also includes writing résumés and cover letters as well as reports and procedural documents (these short articles in this newsletter are instances of professional writing). The genres of technical and professional writing require directness, concision, clarity, and are meant to guide readers to get work done.

In order to better provide students the skills necessary to excel in careers that involve technical and professional communication, the Writing Arts department is expanding the concentration to include two new courses, which will be taught first as special topics courses. This fall 2017, Dr. Amy Reed will teach Medical Writing and Rhetoric, and this spring 2018, Dr. Fillenwarth will teach Scientific Writing and Rhetoric.

“The medical writing course will be teaching students to write in medical genres, so we’ll be writing things like proposals, graduate school applications, reports, and patient education materials. We’ll be writing in those genres at the same time we’re studying medicine as a social discipline.” - Amy Reed

In Medical Writing and Rhetoric, students will examine the field of medicine from a social standpoint, and assess the impact medical advances have had on our world as a whole. Students will work on patient-oriented assignments such as training materials, drug and disease related literature, informational pamphlets, and tools that will help a medical patient better understand and become educated about their situation. This class, combined with Magazine Article Writing, could potentially help students create concise articles in the style of the various health magazines that exist today. The topics of medical writing range from lengthy scientific documentation of research for actual doctors to read through and help with their practices, to more broader non-physician oriented guidelines for people to read and follow to take the best care of themselves. Students will become familiar with medical concepts and ideas that they can use in their writing, and also the different techniques to follow to become well equipped in a career that relies on working with medical literature.

While related to medical writing, Scientific Writing and Rhetoric takes on a broader approach. Medicine is, by definition, a science, and much of the literature is research-based as well as professionally conducted. Students will develop research practices and best approaches to developing scientific documents, including reports, articles, white papers, research development reports, and proposals. In the process, students will learn the rhetorical features of these forms of scientific writing. Students who become involved with this course will be taught the best ways to convey findings to a reader, and the differences in the writing process that come with differences in subject matter.

“In the future, we’d like to do more advanced technical writing and so some courses that are integrated with technical media. This is really an exciting time for us in making this track more robust and making connections throughout the university.” - Jen Tole

These two classes are a large addition and a start of the reconstruction of the Technical and Professional Writing concentration.  As the concentration grows with varied and complex course selection opportunities, students will continue to develop the tools to become better writers, both within the medical and scientific schools of thought, and in varied methods of professional communication. These courses offer students a base in Technical and Professional communication allowing for further development of these skills in future courses. Writers who may not initially know much about the two forms of writing are also encouraged to take these courses as they can help with basic guidelines for writing professionally, as well as enhancing the knowledge of topics that are important to our lives and understandings of health.