What Do Professional Writers Do?
Professional writers transform scientific and technical information into easily understandable language. For instance, they prepare scientific and technical reports, operating and maintenance manuals, sales promotion materials, and project proposals. Professional communicators often acquire a broad range of valuable (and transferable) skills, which they apply in many different areas of the workforce. professional communicators work in areas such as public relations, non-profit organizations, technology companies, marketing departments, the medical industry, and government.
1) Attendance: You must attend class regularly. A good deal of work in this class will happen in the classroom, and whatever you miss cannot be made up. For every absence beyond three, your final grade may be lowered by a full letter grade. The Convocations performance will count as an attendance. (We will have one cancelled class to compensate for your Convocations attendance.) 2) Assignments: Your work must be presentable. If you hand in sloppy or poorly proofread documents, they will be returned to you for correction. 3) Late Work: You must submit your work on time. Late work will only be accepted if you consult with me before the class period in which the work is due according to the assignment deadlines. 4) Incompletes: As a general rule, I will not give grades of incomplete. If you ask for one, you should bring your armor. Only extreme extenuating circumstances will get you an incomplete. Just plan on completing the class and turning in your portfolio on time. Your life will be m
The term professional writer is open to interpretation. Some exclusively define professional writers as those people who author books. Others are more inclusive in their definition and define professional writers as those people who make their living by writing. This would include a much larger group of people including the following: screenwriters, playwrights, print journalists, columnists, freelance writers of articles, short stories, or poetry, sales copy and advertising writers, bloggers who make money sufficient to cover their monthly expenses, writers of articles for encyclopedias, and those who pen articles for various professional journals. The key to being a professional writer, as opposed to being a writer, in the more loosely constructed definition, is that you get paid for your work. You can publish works in vanity presses, on free online sites, or in exchange for a couple of magazines, but you aren’t getting paid to do so. You may be just as skilled as the professional wr
When they turn in a manuscript (whether book or magazine), they offer in their cover letter to rewrite. It’s no shame to rewrite and follow the editor’s rewrite instructions. When I prepared a series of questions for my bestselling nonfiction writer, he immediately responded with the positive statement, “Terry, you are making me a better writer.” He understood the process. It’s the mark of a professional in this publishing business.
