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WRA202 SU206:
Introduction to Professional Writing
Welcome to WRA202!
COURSE DESCRIPTION
WRA 202 Introduction to Professional Writing (3 cr). Basic principles of rhetoric and composition applied to professional writing. Page design, field
definition, research tools and practices, genres and conventions, and professional style.
COURSE FOCUS
WRA 202 introduces you to rhetorical principles and compositional practices helpful to your work as a professional writer. The courses also serves as an
introduction to the field of professional writing. The principles and practices you learn and apply in this class will help you understand and communicate
effectively within professional workplace writing scenarios. We will devote time to understanding what "professional writing" means, to understanding the
professional writing major here at MSU, and to understanding the meaning and value of core concepts such as rhetoric, culture, community, organization, and
technology. We will address issues related to genres of workplace writing, design principles, digital writing, and research skills and methodologies. Given the
nature of professional writing, the course will involve both individual and collaborative work.
Identity, Rhetoric, Interface
These themes are woven through this course as the main obects of study.
Identity. The course description and course focus mention "field definition" and "the field of professional writing." We will first investigate the work and
professional identities of professional writers: What are professional writers? What kind of work do they do? How are professional writers related to other
kinds of writers, such as creative writers, technical communicators, and journalists? How are they related to and different from graphic designers, information
architects, and project managers? By the end of the course you should have a solid idea of what it means to be a professional writer and a sense of which track
or emphasis you would be most interested in pursuing within the BA program in Professional Writing: Digital and Technical Writing, Writing in
Communities and Cultures, or Writing, Editing, and Publishing.
Rhetoric. In general, rhetoric is the art of how to communicate. It refers to theories and principles guiding the production of writing and speech. (In WRA
202 the focus will mainly be on writing, but we'll also be looking at the rhetoric of oral presentation as well.) Rhetoric provides a set of tools and procedures
for analyzing communication situations and for making strategic decisions about how to persuade or inform your readers. Rhetoric provides us with
procedures, methods, and analytic tools that we can use to analyze problems, build arguments, and test ideas. In the vocabulary of the digital age, you might
think of this as "content development." This process certainly involves collecting and evaluating information (aka, research), but it goes beyond that to
include the critical analysis of information, audience analysis, and ethical considerations. Some of the rhetorical procedures we will focus on in WRA 202
include:
planning and managing a project: coordinating tasks, collaboration, milestones, testing and evaluation
applying procedures for inventing, developing, assessing, and finding content
analyzing rhetorical situation (purpose and audience, goals, ethical issues)
analyzing your audience (readers and users of your documents)
analyzing your client (who might or might not be the same as the reader/user of the document/s you are producing)
analyzing the organizational context for your writing
Interface. Another major focus of WRA 202 will be interface design, with a particular focus on the design of the page. One of the most ubiquitous interfaces
in academic work is the paper page — we still often design our documents as 8 1/2 by 11 inch texts intended to be printed and distributed as material objects.
While the page is one major form of interface (and one that we will be working with rather extensively), the screen is another primary interface, particularly
for the work of the professional writer. Different forms of pages and screens provide different constraints and opportunities for the kinds of writing we do.
Think, for instance, of the different kinds of text that might appear on a billboard, the label on a medicine bottle, or the display on your cellphone. But the
interface is not only a mechanism for conveying or circulating information — the interface acts as an intermediary that facilitates action. In this sense, your
work as a professional writer can be itself a form of interface, as you work to facilitate a particular activity through the writing that you do.
Interface and Audience Access: To take these terms from theory into practice, consider an interface that many of us engage with daily—a medicine bottle.
Jim Porter explains:
“A medicine bottle is an interface. Somebody writes the copy for the label (deciding what is vital information vs. what can be left off). Somebody designs the
layout and makes typographic decisions for the copy. Somebody else (a very evil person) designs the cap, which, although it's not writing, is still part of the
user interface. OK, the person who designs the cap is not really evil — he or she just has a challenging design task: Design a cap that is safe and secure, one
that small children can't open; yet design a cap that seniors with arthritis can open. Lots of writing design problems are of that sort: Design a document that is
useful for very different kinds of readers.
One of the key things that professional writers do is make pages or interfaces. This activity typically includes developing the content for the page as well as
designing that content — the two things go together and influence each other. The interface is that space designed by the writer (typically) that allows the
writer and reader to interact. Of course usually the writer isn't "there" — the page stands in for the writer in absentia (although with some electronic
communications, like blogs, the writer may be very much there and actively present). The mark of a good interface is that it works. It enables productive
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communication to happen between writer and reader, allowing both to meet their goals.”
We will accomplish these goals through assignments that incorporate rhetorical strategies and interface design as integral processes, and throughout the
course we will consider how our choices relate to the field of professional writing.
Policies, Participation, Professionalism
I consider you as colleagues in pursuit of professionalism. To achieve the goals of this course, there are requirements and expectations for participation.
These include readings, attendance, performance criteria, ethics, and collaboration.
REQUIRED READINGS
Required readings will be posted to the course ANGEL site. Each week will include selected readings along with a directed assortment of relevant links to
tutorials, articles, and Web sites. The resources listed below represent the "required" texts for this class.
Friedman, Vitaly The Web Developer's Handbook. This is a compendium of hundreds of sites that will be invaluable to creating your online portfolio. I
will target specific areas weekly, and I strongly encourage you to explore and experiment with sites that will build your skills.
Lynch, Patrick J., & Horton, Sarah. (2002). Web style guide: Basic design principles for creating web sites. Use the free online version at
http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html. Or, you can order a print copy if you like —the publisher is Yale University Press (about $14). NOT
available in the campus bookstore, and the 2nd edition is the most recent.
You can expect to read about 3-5 short articles or chapters per week. However, most of this assigned reading will NOT be textbook material. Most of
the readings will be online — either articles available on the web (the URLs will be posted in the WRA 202 schedule) or documents posted to the
ANGEL course site as PDFs. You are expected to complete all assigned readings before class on the day they are listed in the schedule.
Entering Expectations
You are expected to know how to use the following applications/utilities. If you don't know how to use these applications, then you should let the instructor
know immediately (Week #1). The instructor will advise you on how to learn what you need in order to begin the class.
the World Wide Web → for accessing online readings and doing Internet-based research
standard search engines, like Google
MSU ANGEL → for course communication (email, document distribution)
MSU-based email → for 1-1 correspondence
Word → for print documents
PowerPoint → for presentation slides
What you will learn in WRA 202
The instructor will provide basic tutorials helping you to learn the following applications:
Dreamweaver → for web authoring
Photoshop → for design work, image manipulation, text graphics
screen shot utilities → for capturing computer screen images
Attendance and Participation
Because this is a class that requires collaboration and discussion, you are expected to attend class and be prepared. We will often work on projects and other
exercises during class time, and there is no substitute for your presence during these workshops. If you miss more than 2 classes, your grade will be lowered a
letter grade for lack of participation and professionalism. Being late for class or leaving early is considered unprofessional and will count as an absence.
As always, there are legitimate reasons to miss class; thus, you may miss 2 classes because S[tuff] H[appens]. If you know in advance that you must miss
class, you must contact me and any project groups with which you are working before your absence to coordinate future activities.
Grading
Each component of the major projects will be assessed following the specific rubrics I hand out in class; the combined point total will be used to calculate the
final grade for each project; similarly, modules and class participation will be assigned points based on rubrics for those activities.
Punctuality and meeting deadlines are crucial to successful professional writing. If you are unable to turn in a project on time, you must make arrangements
with me in advance of the class meeting in which the documents are due. Absences do not relieve you of the responsibility to turn in work by the set due date
and late work will be penalized.
In all collaborative work, you will be asked to evaluate your peers (and they you). I will use these evaluations in my determination of individual grades for
collaborative projects. In general, all members of a group receive the same grade. There are instances, however, where one or more members of a group
"slack" or are otherwise unprofessional and unproductive. This will not be tolerated. I reserve the right to lower grades for poor performance.
You are responsible for keeping track of your points in this class. Create an Excel spreadsheet and list the assignments, the total points, and the points you
earn as the semester proceeds.
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Last Updated: June 28, 2005
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