ENGL5939: Seminar in Professional Writing
Seminar Paper Guidelines and Possible Topics

 NOTE: You can consider this an addendum to the DSL handout, in that those topics are also potential foci for your seminar papers.

Paper Guidelines
Length: 10+ pages
Format: MLA standard
Due Date: Last class

Discursive List of Possible Topics

  1. Current trends in professional writing. Discuss/research the various requirements for employment in professional/technical writing. Thoroughly describe these requirements, and outline the means by which professionals in this field can meet them. For example, academia does not generally fulfill the “experience” requirements; however, some programs offer options that (at least partially) provide some experience to advanced students. Also, using ETSU as a standard, note that many of the required software packages/programs aren’t available in academia. How do professionals learn to use this software?
  2. Local options in professional/technical writing. This topic requires some leg-work. Contact area businesses that employ technical writers, or meet with technical writers from several of these concerns. Be very specific here—what do these jobs entail? How much on-site training is provided? What is the “ball park” starting salary? What are the job responsibilities?
  3. A creative expository writing project. Using existing models (available via the Internet from other universities) create a graduate and/or undergraduate program in technical and professional writing. Here, you must be thorough in your rationale for requiring each class or curriculum, and I want to see an evaluation of the various non-ETSU professional and technical writing programs you survey. Which are best, in your opinion? Why? You may also explore the “class vs. workshop” controversy: some academicians/professionals/corporations prefer series of brief workshops on specific topics in professional writing, while others prefer a more comprehensive approach.
  4. A longer project, but one that might prove satisfying, relative to your textbook. Rewrite one of the chapters you have been (or will be) assigned as reading for this course. By “rewrite,” I mean that you should completely revise the chapter, so that it does what you want it to do. You may not use any text or graphics from the existing chapter—only the topic and, perhaps, the methodology. Be thorough, and aim at upper-level (junior or senior) undergraduates.
  5. Ethics in professional and technical writing. For paper, analyze some ethical issue in technical and professional communication. Do not analyze a particular case; instead, look at some larger trend or question and make an argument about the ethical questions involved and how to approach them. Papers must somehow deal with the question, "What is good" or "What is right?" and must somehow connect to technical or professional communication. Your argument should be narrow and focused, preferably addressing the issue through the lens of one theorist or concept. Possible areas: pedagogy (of technical communication or another field); ethical codes; visual communication; environmental communication; privacy; style; quality; cultural sensitivity; social responsibility; international and global communication; advertising; marketing; research; safety; intellectual property; conflicts of interest; professionalism and professionalization; liability and ethics; corporate/institutional ethos; management; science and/or technology.
  6. Visualization and professional/technical writing. Computer graphics programs and integrated writing packages have facilitated the creation of a plethora of visually stimulating (though sometimes content-poor) technical and professional documents. In this paper, you’ll examine the advent of computer-generated graphics in this field, and you’ll present cogent, thorough material supporting various authors’ ideas as to how much visual information is necessary/important to the reader. You’ll also consider arguments involving document design (not graphics, but use of “white space,” for example, and types of paper).
  7. User friendliness of technical manuals. For this paper you will research opinion forums, discussion lists, and other materials that may occur to you, to garner information about the “user friendliness” of technical manuals. What obstructs the reader? What helps the reader? What specific complaints have you seen most frequently, and which specific programs/packages/manuals? I expect you to conclude this paper with some recommendations for improving the user friendliness of technical manuals.
  8. “So you want to be a technical writer?” Examine several of the Internet or print-based technical and professional writers’ discussion lists or journals. What is the “hottest topic” among contributors to these journals? How is this material relevant to the field of professional and technical writing? Are the discussion lists or opinion-area journals worthwhile? You must use several lists and/or journals in your research—and there are plenty of them out there.
  9. How to get started in professional/technical writing. Consult the experts, readily available in journals such as IEEE and SPJ, or via the internet. What are the most commonly offered items in list of “preparation” for this field? How does this advice vary from professional firms (i.e., employers or other non-academics) to colleges and university sources/representatives? I expect this paper to conclude with a synthesis of your research—what do YOU recommend?
  10. Audience and professional/technical writing. Explore issues of audience in the field. What recommendations can you find for directing technical documents to specific audiences? What is the rationale behind these recommendations? Can you find groups who appear to be “out of the loop” as far as audience is concerned?
  11. Another creative expository writing project: A Handbook of Resources for Technical Writers. I expect this paper will also exceed the minimum paper length—perhaps considerably. In this paper you will prepare a printed manual of resources for technical writers (such as a manual that we’d make available to tech writing students in the EDCL). Include Internet resources, texts that can be ordered and that are currently in print, and resources available on-campus (i.e., The Writing Center and/or Sherrod Library). I expect this to be CURRENT INFORMATION—I should be able to access all your Internet links, or find the texts in the library database. Though this is more a technical writing project than a seminar paper, it is “creative expository writing” in that you will evaluate the sites/texts/etc. For more information on preparing a “discursive bibliography,” refer to your MLA Handbook (which has a section on this topic).
  12. Collaborative writing in professional/technical fields. This is a challenging research paper; however, there is a lot of information available on group-writing in the field. How do various firms deal with collaboration among technical writers? Is collaborative writing addressed in the journals or electronic media? What theories/theorists are used?
  13. The email generations. A lot has been written over the past six to ten years about the ways in which email and other synchronous and asynchronous discussion modes have changed the tone of business communications and technical/professional writing. In this paper, you will provide an overview of this research and will conclude with your own opinions and observations.

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