Abstract

Most discussions of disciplinarity start by claiming an emerging group as constituting a discipline or a profession and authorizing that group by locating appropriate research foci, programs for graduate education and undergraduate certification, professional societies, and central professional meetings. Our discussion examines the field of professional writing, focusing not so much on defining it as a discipline as on working out its curricular geography, an activity that will affect its status in both academy and industry. To that end, we explore the status of professional writing within the department of English by (a) briefly examining the problem of defining professional writing; (b) reviewing several theoretical positions within English that have provided a status for professional writing—literature, rhetoric/composition, business and technical writing—to expose the competition for control of the term and to surface the implications of accepting these various groups on their own terms; and (c) considering the curricular status to which professional writing might aspire by sketching a geography that positions professional writing in a new space within English.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1993-10-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651993007004001
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (29)

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 29 →
  1. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  2. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  6. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  7. Computers and Composition
  8. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  9. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  10. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  11. Technical Communication Quarterly
  12. Technical Communication Quarterly
  13. Computers and Composition
  14. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  15. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  16. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  17. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  18. Computers and Composition
  19. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  20. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  21. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  22. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  23. Technical Communication Quarterly
  24. Technical Communication Quarterly

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