I did find a helpful article in the departmental guide for new 305 instructors. In “Will Professional Communication Be the Death of Business Communication?”, Locker argues that “professional communication” is blurring the distinction between business and technical communication.

This is how she defines technical communication: “The archetypical problem in technical communication is represented by blinking 12:00s on VCRS across America. People want to record programs, but they don’t know how to set the time. So technical writing attempts to explain. Technical communication focuses on exposition. One assumes a motivated but ignorant and perhaps impatient audience. How can one make information clear?” (129).

Hope this helps.

Locker, Kitty O. “Will Professional Communication Be the Death of Business Communication?” Business Communication Quarterly 66.3 (2003): 118-132. Communication and Mass Media Complete. Web. 27 Aug. 2012.

How do we as professional writers define ourselves and our purpose and our need? How do use rhetoric to explain rhetoric to others? Every form of writing is a persuasion. Therefore, every person needs to be informed on how to professionally communicate and persuade others to believe that their writing has purpose and is true. Professional writing and Rhet/Comp belong in absolutely every part of the university because the skills are necessary in every trade. They are practical skills, valuable in some way in all career paths.

“For the most part, the channels these mechanisms create are one-way: influence flows primarily from nonacademic practices to the academy. The gradient is reflected in the language at the industry-university interface, which includes, on the one hand, “demand,” “need,” “value” and, on the other, “re- sponse,” “service,” “utility,” (Miller 66). So then, all departments in a university need to have these courses offered. They need to be teaching their students these skills. Unfortunately, too many students are coming out of the university setting not understanding the rhetoric is not just something politicians use, it’s a way of making other people believe in their work. It’s a way for doctors to write about clinical trials and persuade other doctors about using new methods. It’s about writing articles that present real issues in a way that others can’t ignore. It’s everywhere, and it belongs everywhere. We just happen to be the specialists, whatever that actually means.

“A liberal education makes a person more-not less- useful in a professional setting because it teaches that person to value ideas more than facts and systems and because it confers powers of persuasion and empathy without which cooperative endeavors remain impossible,” (Rutter 24). If we as the specialists and teachers, could help others understand the importance of this part of communication, we could give students the skills they need to be creating the future. We teach essay format, we try to help them with proper grammar, we explain ethos, pathos, and logos with some success, but how do they apply these ideas to their own practical needs?

I do believe that everyone is rhetorician. Each simple sentence contains something that is persuasive. It may seem extreme, but our body language, our tone of voice, our word choice is all based upon an audience and what we’re trying to get them to understand. Therefore, it seems that professional writing and rhet/comp should be a major part of every individual’s communication. It’s how we learn and how we grow – by believing in new ideas.

Miller, Carolyn R. “What’s Practical about Technical Writing?” Professional Writing and Rhetoric: Readings from the Field. Ed. Tim Peeples. New York: Longman, 2003. PDF.

Rutter, Russell. “History, Rhetoric, and Humanism: Toward a More Comprehensive Definition of Technical Writing.” Central Works in Technical Communication. Eds. Johndan Johnson-Eiola and Stuart A. Selber. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. pp. 20-34. Print.