By Sydnei Wheat
November 13, 2015
It all started with an equipment request from UAB’s Digital Media Commons. Or rather, a failed one, actually.
Several weeks ago, I was in need of a recorder for an interview and like other rampant phone users, I searched numerous app stores to find a quality app that could do the job. However, despite finding several prospects, I still wanted to use the best tech available. The Digital Media Commons equipment checkout service suddenly occurred to me-though I had never used it before.
The Digital Media Commons is “an open resource lab featuring 20 iMac stations loaded with professional-grade creative software, a media classroom designed for collaborative learning, the Soundlab recording booth, and equipment available for checkout” (https://www.uab.edu/cas/digitalmedia/about).
Also known on campus as the DMC, the creative lab is a part of the College of Arts and Sciences and is located in Heritage Hall. It is a great resource for students within digital media courses and majors or any student with immediate digital media needs.
Once at the DMC and the equipment checkout station, I promptly asked for a particular audio recorder.
Two questions ensued from the office manager: Are you a College of Arts and Sciences student? Are you enrolled in a digital media course?
Of course, I answered yes to both questions, explaining that I was an English Major and enrolled in a Professional Writing course. However, while I qualified for the former, the latter presented curious results.
The office manager responded that while I was a College of Arts and Science student, the class I told him of was not listed as a media course.
Really? How can a class titled, Developing Digital Documents, not be listed among other media courses such as: Film Technology, Visual Media, Fundamentals of Broadcasting and even 4D Foundation. It seemed like a natural and obvious fit.
In fact, according to their university website, none of the Professional Writing courses are listed as “media courses.”
Well, that’s a conundrum. How could a concentration steeped in the learning and usage of digital content and software, not be viewed among the other academics as a digital/technical pedagogy?
Suffice to say, I didn’t get the audio recorder.
Media Is Our Forte
My overall experience at the DMC brings into context the larger question of how the field of Professional Writing is viewed among other media disciplines. Despite the discipline’s excessive use of technology and software, it’s not considered a legitimate part of the digital/technology community. Indeed, many people still believe that Professional Writers just write.
But that’s only half of what we do.
Professionals across the field employ skills from multiple disciplines like graphic design, information technology, and publishing and more in their careers.
They create documents, videos, websites, and wide range of other communication acts using a variety of design software. In the EH 340: Developing Digital Documents course alone, students enter a pattern of regular involvement with the creative design software found within Adobe’s Creative Cloud.
So why is it difficult for others to see Professional Writing as both a writing and media discipline?
One answer might come in the fact that Professional Writing-as a field of study- is placed within the context of the English major. However, unlike Professional Writing: Literature, Linguistics and Creative Writing, do not actively use or practice design skills or theory in their pedagogy.
While Professional Writing’s association with these fields is warranted (with its inherent use of writing and rhetoric), it also facilitates a view of PW that confines it to English and writing discourse. This keeps Professional Writing (as a discipline) from being understood in its entirety by professionals and students outside of it.
Another answer could reside in the field of Professional Writing itself.
Despite having the overall objectives of producing content that is clear, concise and practical for users, the field of Professional Writing is still not a well-defined one. In fact, many of its students and practitioners still find it difficult to describe. And it’s not hard to see why.
Professional Writing (in its formal study) is a fairly young field and theories of practice are still developing even in the use of rhetoric. Professional Writers struggle to narrow the field into simple terms whilst also showcasing the wide range of skills that they produce, resulting in a barrier of communication not only with those outside of the field, but those within it as well.
While Professional Writing will continue to stay within the English pedagogy, a tentative definition can be offered for easier understanding by all. Professional Writing is the strategic application of concepts of rhetoric and principles of composition onto multiple media, in order to produce effective and clear communication acts to and across specific social communities using their discourses.
However one wishes to define the field, one thing is clear. Professional Writing is more than just a writing discipline.
