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Course Projects

Students complete two major modules.

The Language of Work: Style, Rhetoric, and Visual Design in Professional Communication

The first course module, The Language of Work: Style, Rhetoric, and Visual Design in Professional Communication, is a twelve week-long assignment sequence with eleven deliverables. Students write a short instruction manual that teaches coworkers in a small business core design principles and the discourse conventions of professional communication (see, particularly, Professional Writing – How to Write for the Professional World). They record a presentation on The Elements of Style, addressing how writers achieve clarity, brevity, coherence, flow, inclusivity, simplicity, and unity  After learning the discourse conventions and rhetorical moves of workplace writing, they sharpen their visual design competencies by creating an infographic that distinguishes academic from professional writing. The final capstone of this module challenges students to apply what they’ve learned to produce an executive summary and a visual summary that translates academic research into a professional writing style.

1. Visual Language in Professional and Technical Communication
2. Ranking Exercise – Designing for Clarity and Authority – Instruction Manual for Coworkers
3. Final Draft – Designing for Clarity and Authority – Instruction Manual for Coworkers
4. Ranking Exercise – Recorded Presentation on The Elements of Style
5. Final Draft – Recorded Presentation on The Elements of Style
6. Ranking Exercise – Infographic Comparison: Academic vs. Professional Writing
7. Self-Evaluation (Using the Rubric + GenAI) – Academic vs. Professional Writing
8. Final Draft – Infographic Comparison: Academic vs. Professional Writing
9. Substantive Draft – Executive Summary
10. Creative Challenge: Executive Summary & Visual Summary – Translating Academic Research into a Professional Style

Workplace Communication, AI, and Career Readiness

In the second course module, Workplace Communication, AI, and Career Readiness: Personal Development Plan, students explore how GenAI is impacting the labor market and the writing processes of knowledge workers. They begin by synthesizing evidence from NACE (2024, 2025) and ETS research (Oliveri et al., 2017)) to identify the competencies that matter most in a career field of their choice and present these findings through an original information visualization. Afterward, students read Tomlinson et al.’s (2025) study on the occupational implications of GenAI and interview two subject-matter experts—faculty, graduate students, or professionals—to learn how these competencies are understood and practiced in real workplaces, including which tasks may be automated and which remain distinctly human. Drawing on this research, students revise their competency visualization, assess their own strengths, and outline the skills they need to develop. The module culminates in a concise recorded presentation in which students explain the competencies required in their field, how GenAI is changing expectations, and the actions they plan to take to prepare for an AI-infused workplace.

1. Future-Proofing Your Career: An Evidence-Based Competency Analysis
2. SME Interviews: Evaluating Career Competencies in an AI-Infused Workplace
3. Peer Feedback on Each Other’s Presentations
4. Professional Development Plan (Recorded, Oral Presentation)

For more details on these assignments, see Professional Writing — Summary of Course Projects – ENC 2251.

Metacognitive Report

If students use GenAI to complete any deliverable, they must submit a Metacognitive Report alongside your assignment. For the exercises, the report can be as concise as 250 words. For the Creative Challenge, the report should be more substantive because it should summarize how you used GenAI across the exercises leading up to it as well as during the Creative Challenge itself, reflect on the key decisions you made independently to preserve your own voice and judgment, and explain how your use of GenAI evolved across the module.

Course Goals – Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of ENC 2251: Professional Writing, students will be able to:

1. Identify and articulate the key differences between professional and academic writing, including shifts in purpose, audience, structure, and style, and apply appropriate writing strategies in workplace-oriented documents.
2. Create and integrate visual representations of information, applying core design principles (proximity, alignment, repetition, contrast) to enhance clarity, usability, and audience engagement.
3. Analyze professional and academic documents by evaluating how effectively they exemplify or violate stylistic principles such as brevity, clarity, coherence, flow, inclusivity, simplicity, and unity, using specific textual evidence.
4. Critically evaluate research and theory on communication, professional competencies, and AI’s impact on workplace practices, synthesizing evidence to explain implications for early-career professionals.
5. Explain how generative AI is transforming workplace communication and expectations for career readiness, identifying tasks exposed to automation and the human competencies that grow in importance as a result.
6. Collaborate effectively by integrating individual research into clear, cohesive team projects that communicate evidence-based insights on workplace writing and AI.
7. Produce effective professional oral communication by delivering clear, concise, visually supported recorded presentations that convey complex information to workplace audiences.
8. Develop an evidence-based professional development plan (PDP) that synthesizes research, competency analysis, and SME insights to articulate career goals and propose realistic strategies for developing key professional skills in an AI-infused workplace.

Course Description

This course is an introduction to professional writing, also known as workplace writing or business writing. Students learn how professionals communicate with clarity, efficiency, and purpose by studying how workplace documents use visual language, information architecture, and stylistic principles to support understanding and guide action. The course emphasizes the differences between academic and professional writing, including their distinct rhetorical purposes, document structures, and expectations for design and usability. Students also examine how GenAI is affecting the labor market and the writing practices of knowledge workers, and they research the communication competencies employers expect. These insights guide the creation of a Personal Development Plan and a concise professional presentation aimed at supporting their long-term career readiness.

Why Does this Course Matter?

A professional writing course prepares students for the evolving demands of the workplace, where communication and adaptability increasingly define employability. Employers consistently identify strong communication as one of the most important competencies for new graduates. According to NACE’s Job Outlook 2025, 88.3 percent of employers rated written communication as “very” or “extremely” important, and close to 90 percent emphasized problem-solving as a core expectation. Professionals who can write with clarity, structure information effectively, and adapt messages for diverse audiences are more likely to succeed and advance in contemporary workplaces.

At the same time, work is being redefined by generative AI. According to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index report, 75 percent of knowledge workers globally now use generative AI at work, and many adopted these tools independently rather than waiting for organizational rollout. This pattern signals that employers not only value communication and critical thinking, but increasingly expect professionals to engage with intelligent tools, prompt and refine outputs, and shape the narrative around data and automation.

Findings from Tomlinson, Jaffe, Wang, Counts, and Suri (2025) illustrate how this shift affects occupations. Their analysis of 200,000 Copilot conversations shows that the tasks AI most often completes—information gathering, writing, and explaining information—map onto the core activities of a wide range of white-collar roles. Occupations with the highest AI applicability scores include sales; computer and mathematical jobs; office and administrative support; business and financial operations; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; community and social service; and educational instruction and library work. Because these roles depend on tasks that AI can already perform successfully, the authors note that automation could lower wages or lead to job loss, depending on how organizations reorganize work after productivity increases. Their findings suggest that the future of many communication-centered occupations will depend on a worker’s ability to use AI effectively and guide it responsibly.

Indeed, a recent survey by Gotham Ghostwriters and WOBS LLC (2025) of 1,190 professional writers indicates that generative AI is diminishing employment opportunities for many writers, especially those who do not use AI tools in their work. Nearly half of freelancers report reduced demand for their services, and four in ten report income losses attributed to AI (Gotham Ghostwriters & WOBS LLC, 2025, p. 20). The survey also shows that 43 percent of writing professionals personally know someone who has lost a job because of AI-driven automation (Gotham Ghostwriters & WOBS LLC, 2025, p. 21). Nonusers express the strongest concerns: 89 percent fear that corporate leaders will replace writers with AI (Gotham Ghostwriters & WOBS LLC, 2025, p. 4), and three out of four expect overall writing opportunities to decline in the next five years (Gotham Ghostwriters & WOBS LLC, 2025, pp. 21–22). Writers who use AI more frequently report greater productivity and, in some cases, higher incomes, which suggests that the ability to work effectively with generative tools is becoming a differentiator within the profession (Gotham Ghostwriters & WOBS LLC, 2025, p. 5).

These findings may reinforce the belief that learning to write well matters less in an age when machines draft text instantly. But the data point in a different direction. As generative systems take over routine writing tasks, the value of human judgment, rhetorical reasoning, and audience awareness rises. Writers who understand how to guide AI tools, evaluate their outputs, and maintain accuracy gain an advantage in a market where employers expect workers to use these systems responsibly. In this sense, learning to write with clarity and purpose—and learning how to direct AI in support of that work—has become a practical literacy. It shapes employability, supports career mobility, and helps professionals produce writing that meets workplace expectations even as the tools of writing continue to change.

At a time when generative AI tools can produce competent prose in seconds, it may seem as though the role of human writing is diminished. Yet scholars such as Ong (2002) and Bolter (2001) remind us that writing is not merely a medium for delivering information. Humans use writing to externalize thought, test assumptions, and revise understanding. This act of putting ideas into language encourages us to clarify our reasoning, confront ambiguity, and reflect on what we believe. Writing enables abstraction and complex problem-solving, and it strengthens our ability to evaluate competing claims. When people write for personal, academic, or professional purposes, they practice habits of attention and inquiry that shape how they perceive the world and how they make decisions. In this way, writing contributes to human development by cultivating the cognitive, ethical, and imaginative capacities that no machine can supply on our behalf.

FAQs

In order to critically assess information claims or to create knowledge claims that particular research communities deep autoitative, you need to understand the following research terms/concepts.

What is Professional Writing?

Professional Writing—a term used synonymously with business writing or workplace writing or technical writing—may also refer to

1. communication that accomplishes job-related tasks
2. a style of writing that emphasizes information visualizations, visual language, design thinking, scanability, information design and architecture, deductive organization and reasoning, as well as clarity in communications and the practice of   brevity, coherence, flow, inclusivity, simplicity, and unity
3. an academic discipline, a community of practice (aka discourse community), concerned with the study of writing, document design, the usability of documents and products, and project management in workplace contexts. It is
4. an undergraduate writing course at the University of South Florida, ENC 2251.

Who Are Professional and Technical Communicators?

Professional and technical writers are subject matter experts in writing, design, usability, information architecture, documentation, project management, and digital writing — including, e.g., remediating texts in multiple media, printed posters to Tweets.

They are practitioners, theorists, and researchers who investigate, create, and deliver clear, accessible content for diverse audiences across industries such as technology, healthcare, finance, and government. As researchers, professional and technical writers may investigate user behaviors, analyze document effectiveness, conduct literature reviews, or explore new communication technologies. They often collaborate with subject matter experts outside of their field, serving as writing coaches, editors, and project managers who engage in research to enhance communication strategies and outcomes.

Professional writers may do the equivalent work of technical writers — and vice versa — but traditionally there are a few distinctions between these roles:

• Professional Writers are typically skilled writers, public speakers, and researchers. They often hold undergraduate or graduate degrees in fields such as rhetoric, composition, communication, design, and product management, though some acquire these competencies through on-the-job experience. These professionals may serve as writers or spokespersons on teams, bringing their communication expertise to various subject areas. Their work can be job-related or extend to public spaces, including social media platforms like Reddit, blogs, newspaper and magazine articles, and books.
• Technical Writers share many of the skills and credentials of Professional Communicators but tend to focus on complex, technical subjects in fields like technology, engineering, and science. While they may have similar academic backgrounds to professional writers, their work is typically more specialized. Unlike Professional Communicators who often address broad public audiences, Technical Writers primarily create content for specific, often specialized audiences in workplace settings. Their outputs include instructional materials, user manuals, product documentation, and technical reports, with an emphasis on clarity, accuracy, and usability of information.