During the Professional Writing Resources Archive project, you and your team will work as a research team seeking out web- and print-based resources. From these searches, you and your team should collect 15 significant resources related to professional writing. In terms of the archive, you are looking for resources that are of benefit to other professional writing majors like yourself. That is, you should envision other students both here and at other institutions studying professional writing, and then should consider what resources are most valuable to this audience. You also can think about the many professional writing teachers who might see your resources as means to convey important issues to students in their classes. Lastly, an audience of other professional writers might browse your resource list to check out "hot" issues or emerging trends in professional writing. It will be important for you and your team to make your searches relevant to your primary audience but acknowledge that such a resource list could have broader implications. You and your team members will work to search for materials, organize those materials under broader categories, and develop annotation for these resources. Then, as a class, we will work to develop a web page or several pages if necessary to make our resources accessible to the target audience.

In this project, you and your team should work to refine your research skills, develop a strong collaborative environment, and work at understand some of the values of professional writers by making judgements on the kinds and types of resources that are significant to your area of interest. As a class, we will discuss and refine topic areas and categories for the resources, and we will cover conducting web and library searches for resources, evaluating resources, creating annotations, and dabble in publishing web materials. My hope is that this project will prompt further engagement with your area(s) of interest in professional writing and motivate you to explore ideas, concepts, and theories of professional writing that you might not have considered up until this point in your education and career.

searching for resources

Consider some of the skills, language, and jobs that you discovered during your search for job ads in project 1. What could you begin searching for? What would you like to know more about in the field of professional writing? Copyright and intelletual property issues? Usability testing? Web design and develpment? Or maybe, you are interested in a particular job title like technical editor, techincal writer, web design coordinator, etc.? You might want to explore different professional organizations for professional writers? Or different professional writing conferences and research forums? online chat spaces for professional writers?

The possiblities are constrained only by where and how you approach your search. I have noted that you should be doing web research, but you also should be seeking out print-based resources. What kinds of print publications might you explore? What articles, essays, and books help professional writers shape their work?

defining the components of this project

To make this project more manageable, it is broken down into the following units:

Unit 1: Resources gathered from Search 20%
Unit 2: Annotations and Categorizations of Resources 50%
Unit 3: Designing our Archive 30%

During Unit 1, you will develop a scannable resume, seek out three job advertisements for professional writing jobs that appeal to you, and complete a resume and job advertisement analysis. Also, concurrent with your development of these deliverables, you will be making client contacts ideally looking for a non-for-profit or not-for-profit organization. This unit will stress contextual analysis and ask you to develop your web research skills. Additionally, you will gain a deeper understanding of documents as heuristic tools rather than as static products.

In Unit 2, you will use your resume and job advertisement analysis to complete a "Professional Writing Inventory." This inventory is designed to identify issues, areas, and skills that you would like to develop as a professional writer. Along with your inventory development, you gain the commitment of a client in the university and local community. As noted, you should strive to find a not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization as your client. From field research into your client's commination needs, you will develop a proposal that outlines the details of a professional writing project and denotes the contractual agreement between you and your client. Another important consideration of this project is learning to build consulting relationships where you and the client are stakeholders in the project. This unit will enhance your field research abilities and help to develop your consulting skills. You will need to work closely to identify and understand your clients needs and translate those needs into an acceptable proposal.

As part of Unit 3, you will complete the deliverable(s) for the client and submit it to me in draft and final forms. You will receive feedback from your peers, me, and your client. Additionally, you will need to deliver email or in-class progress reports on your work with your client. You also should feel free to raise significant issues about your consultating experience. This unit will prove your abilities to meet deadlines and goals in your work as a professional writer.

Then, with Unit 4, you will draft a reflective essay on your experiences as a professional writer during this project. This unit is the most significant of the project--it will ask you to analyze your own project development and reflect on how the project has shaped your understanding of professional writing and your place as a professional writer.

locating a client for this project

This project relies on your ability to develop a strong consulting relationship with a client in the unversity or local community. Preferably, you will work with a not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization. Your work with this client will continue throughout the rest of the semester, and thus, you should begin the relationship with a strong commitment to doing good work not only in terms of the deliverables but also in terms of developing a mutually respectful relationship with your client. Guidelines for client criteria can be found on the client criteria page.

Please review these online documents that discuss consultant-client relationships:

http://www.jrctrainingsolutions.com/freebie2.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/directaccess/channelbiz/valueadded/2000/0731/relationships.asp

You should begin brainstorming a list of potential clients as soon as possible, and you also should begin making client contacts as soon as possible. You need to explain the project to the clients, especially the field research component, and ask them if the project sounds feasible for them in terms of time and resources. Remember you are looking for a client that wants and needs your expertise, and you should acknowledge that they would be helping you to build that expertise. You also should allow the client time to consider participating in the project and provide the client with my contact information in case they have further questions. Remember your deadline for providing client contact information is by Tuesday, January 23rd.