I’m happy to report that students in my Professional Writing class loved John August’s post, “Professional Writing and the Rise of the Amateur.” Some students thought it should be required reading much earlier in their academic careers because it would hold them to a higher standard of professionalism during their college careers because they are doing “real work” right now in their classes and their instructors and their peers are forming impressions of them based on that work. One student said that it was one of the best articles he has read in college. (Yikes! I hope that sentiment is a bit of hyperbole.)

In the post, which is a transcript of an earlier speech, August argues that everyone will be a professional writer of some kind, and, unfortunately, we don’t get to choose whether we’re a professional or an amateur because all of our public writing gets judged, from emails to blog posts, to newspaper articles. If our name is attached to a document, then it is a reflection of our professionalism, which August measures by the following five factors: presentation, accuracy, consistency, accountability, and meeting peer standards.

So not only does this post help generate discussion about these factors, but it also provides an opportunity to talk about a writer’s use of humor and the benefit of using relevant present day examples, as well as blogging as a type of professional writing.

Needless to say, I’ll use it again.

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