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This week, we were asked to read “A Newcomer Gains Power: An Analysis of the Role of Rhetorical Expertise” by Susan M. Katz. In the reading, Katz summarizes a case study she performed with new employees in either a private engineering firm or a private auditing bureau in order to further study the relationship between power and expertise. However, the main purpose of the paper is to outline one of the new employees at the auditing bureau, Darlene, and how she was able to shoot up the ranks because of her tremendous rhetorical expertise.
Katz defines power as “the capacity to mobilize people and resources to get things done.” As a Professional Writing and Editing major, I feel like that definition goes right in line with professional writing. In your internships, do you feel like being able to write and use rhetoric effectively gives you a better opportunity to get things done? I know I do. It is easy to think that coming in as “the new guy” immediately puts you at the very bottom rung of the ladder, but it’s important to remember that a skilled writer is always in demand as shown in the reading with Darlene.
As a professional writer who is interning at a law firm, I identified with Darlene and was reminded of how effective rhetoric is needed no matter the employer in question. Katz writes that one thing working in Darlene’s favor is that the auditors she worked alongside with were not well versed in rhetorical practice, being more comfortable working with numbers than with words. Are the other workers at your internship the same way? Can they write as effectively as they do other tasks? I found early on that wasn’t the case for the people at my internship and a good professional writer comes in handy for a lot of important tasks.
The main thing that I took away from Katz’s article was that it can be very beneficial to be a good writer no matter what field you go into. A PWE degree is valued for its versatility. Being an English major, there were times a felt down on myself with so many people giving me that look (we all know the one) and asking me “Well what are you going to do with an English degree?” It is important to see that being a skilled professional writer opens up a lot of doors and can be a big factor in having successful experience in the world after graduation, no matter what the field
I definitely feel that being able to write and use rhetoric effectively gives me a better opportunity to get things done in my internship. Every PWE course I’ve taken has given me a step up in my writing, and it’s showing itself through my internship work. Granted, I’m doing very little writing like what Darlene was doing, but still, I can definitely see how my writing skills are helping me get through everything else I’m doing. For example, Katz mentions that Darlene stresses the importance of clarity to all of her coworkers. At the Writing Center, I always stress the importance of clarity to my tutees (during regular work, not intern-work), and I have had to make sure all of my technical writing has been super clear (for intern work).
I can relate to Katz’s article about Darlene in a sense that I know how it feels to be needed. Now, I’m not saying that I’m the most wonderful Writing Center tutor in the world, but I am saying that a lot of times, other tutors come to me with questions about writing, grammar, etc. because they know of my PWE background. Again, this isn’t related to my internship work because the only people with whom I am in contact for my internship are my boss and my interim supervisor. I don’t really have any “coworkers” in my internship.
What struck me most about this reading was that everyone really seemed to value and respect Darlene for what she did. A lot of times, I feel as though writers are incredibly undervalued. English majors are less important than Bio majors—that kind of thing. It’s the feeling that sparks that look Mike mentions—that look we all know we get when we tell people we’re English majors. One day, maybe everyone will understand just how needed we are…but that probably won’t happen until after we save the world or something.
Rhetoric has been the main term I’ve learned about since becoming a PWE major. Every aspect of rhetoric is important. Logos, pathos, and ethos. I’ve heard those words so much sometimes it makes my head spin, but they are completely necessary when it comes to writing. Writing towards one’s audience has always seemed like the most important aspect of rhetoric to me. I mean, you’re writing with the intention that someone’s going to read it right? Then why not try to focus the goals and main points of whatever your writing towards that audience directly. I mean, that makes a lot of sense to me.
Katz says, “Rhetorical expertise involves an awareness of the basic concerns of audience and purpose” (422). This quotation helps define what rhetoric intends to accomplish. There’s always an audience for any piece of writing. It’s the writers job to create a piece of writing that connects with an audience. If you’re writing about sports, your not going to see sentences about Jennifer Aniston’s baby or if she’s getting married or not. You’ll read about athletes, coaches, amazing plays, etc. There’s always a purpose to a piece of writing and from that purpose there’s an audience who should receive that message.
The other day I finished writing up a draft about five alumni who are going to receive awards for the outstanding work they have done for the university, charity, or for representing WVU. While I was writing this article, I constantly had to think about who was going to read this and what I wanted my audience to take away from the piece. Since there were five people, I imagined most readers didn’t want to read five paragraphs about each person. I designated three paragraphs for each person. I started with an introduction about the person with some quick background about when they graduated and what degrees they got. Then the remaining paragraphs I talked about the stuff these alumnus did to receive the awards, because that’s what the main purpose of the article was.
I think it’s awesome how we all deal with such different types of writing yet we all rely on the same tools. From dealing with alumni to working at the writing center (that one is a bit obvious); there is always a demand for writing and people who are skilled in rhetoric. It can be really easy to be underappreciated as a technical writer, especially when there aren’t a lot of other writers where you work. There is a skill set there, however, and a technical writer should be appreciated.
At least at the time of this writing, businesses have not yet been able to beam information directly into the heads of other humans. Therefore every business, no matter what type, has to put words on paper in order to communicate with the clients and employees. In order to do that in the most effective way, a technical writer is needed. The better the writer is rhetorically, the better the business looks overall.
I think the best part of the Katz reading was that it gives an example of how valuable writing is in the workplace. I have indeed been given those looks from people I know when I say I’m an English major (from both friends and family). The question is always “What are you going to do with that?” Sometimes it’s hard to explain just how important writing effectively is, and Darlene’s case really shows how far it can get someone.
At my job with OISS, I do my best to communicate with our scholars and other departments as clearly as possible. Because time is often an issue with our work, we have to make sure that things are communicated right the first time, and that there are no doubts about what we need from people. We don’t want a situation to arise where someone comes to Morgantown to begin work, and then find out they have to go back to their home country because there was confusion over the visa process. I’ve been told by my coworkers that these situations have happened before in the past, and it’s nothing but a huge mess to try and fix the situation.
The reading really showed how important a good writer can be in any organization, and it makes me want to keep improving my own writing so that I can make a bigger impact at my job. I can already see my PWE courses coming into play with my capstone work, and it’s really given me an idea of how useful those skills are and will be in the future. My hope with this capstone then is that I’ll be able to make enough of an impact to help prevent situations like those mentioned earlier.
I intern with a science/health community. They are obviously smart, educated people, but language and rhetoric are not always their strongest points. I made a comment on a poster that was for a De-stress class, which is called “chill out.” and the poster said CHILL OUT! With an exclamation point. I said that maybe it shouldn’t seem like we are ordering them or yelling at them, but rather saying something more mellow to invite them to come de-stress. I feel that moment, as short as it was, I was to use some of the rhetorical skills that I have learned in PWE classes. I felt that I considered the environment and the audience (stressed out healthcare people), and made a good suggestion for the advertisement. I feel that the argument for them to come to the class is a lot more effective if we aren’t yelling at them, when they are already stressed. I love being the English person. I am surprised that they don’t already have someone hired who is specifically in a writing/business field. I really do feel that I am a great addition to their staff temporarily, and I hope they take more people like me to ad diversity.
I agree that the PWE major is so versatile. Most people in the hospital that I work at scoff at my English major, even though I mention my PWE concentration and my advertising minor. I try to explain to them that the skills I have are useful in so many situations. Right now my plan is to go onto an MBA program. I feel that even if we don’t go straight to be technical writers or something of that nature, the skills that we learned would be invaluable to any graduate program or other jobs. English majors are so taken for granted.
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