Professional communication

Professional communication encompasses written, oral, and visual communication within a workplace context. This discipline blends together pedagogical principles of rhetoric, technology, and software to improve communication in a variety of settings ranging from technical writing to usability and digital media design. It is a new discipline that focuses on the study of information and the ways it is created, managed, distributed, and consumed. Since no other area of modern society is changing more rapidly than communication, the progress of technologies seems to often outpace the number of expert practitioners available to administer them. This creates a demand for skilled communicators which continues to exceed the supply of trained professionals.MA in Professional Communication, Royal Roads University

The field of professional communication is closely related to that of technical communication though professional communication encompasses a wider variety of skills. Professional communicators use strategies, theories, and technologies to more effectively communicate in the business world.

Successful communication skills are critical to a business because all businesses, though to varying degrees, involve the following: writing, reading, editing, speaking, listening, software applications, computer graphics, and internet research. Job candidates with professional communication backgrounds are more likely to bring to the organization sophisticated perspectives on society, culture, science, and technology.

Professional Communication Theory

Professional communication draws on theories from fields as different as rhetoric and science, psychology and philosophy, sociology and linguistics.

Much of professional communication theory is a practical blend of traditional communication theory, technical writing, rhetorical theory, and ethics. According to Carolyn Miller in What's Practical about Technical Writing? she refers to professional communication as not simply workplace activities but also to writing that concerns "human conduct in those activities that maintain the life of a community." As Nancy Roundy Blyler discusses in her article Research as Ideology in Professional Communication researchers seek to expand professional communication theory to include concerns with praxis and social responsibility.

Studying professional communication

The study of professional communication includes:

the study of rhetoric which serves as a theoretical basis
the study of technical writing which serves as a form of professional communication
the study of visual communication which also uses rhetoric as a theoretical basis for various aspects of creating visuals
the study of various research methods

Other areas of study include global and cross-cultural communication, marketing and public relations, technical editing, digital literacy, composition theory, video production, corporate communication, and publishing. A professional communication program may cater to a very specialized interest or to several different interests. Professional communication can also be closely tied to organizational communication.

Students who pursue graduate degrees in professional communication research discourse and communicative practices in organized contexts, including business, academic, scientific, technical, and non-profit settings to study how communicative practices shape and are shaped by culture, technology, history, and theories of communication.

What professional communication encompasses is broad, embracing a diversity of rhetorical contexts and situations. Areas of study range from the everyday writing of the workplace to writing pedagogy of the nineteenth century, from the implications of new media on communicative practices to the theory and design of online learning, and from oral presentations to the production of websites.

Types of Professional Documents

Short Reports
Proposals
Case Studies
Lab Reports
Memos
Progress / Interim Reports
Writing for Electronic Media

U.S. Colleges and universities with professional communication programs:

"Rhetoric and Professional Communication". Iowa State University.
"Master of Arts in Professional Communication". Clemson University.
"Master of Science in Professional Communication". Clark University.
"Professional Communication". Lasalle University.
"Master of Science in Organizational and Professional Communication". Regis College.
"Master of Arts in Professional Communication". Westminster College.
"Graduate Certificate in Professional Communication". Howe School of Technology Management.

Organizations

"American Communication Association".
"IEEE Professional Communication Society".
"Society for Technical Communication".
"Society of Professional Journalists".
"National Communication Association".
"International Communication Association".
"Association of Professional Communication Consultants".
"The Association for Women in Communications".
"International Association of Business Communicators".

References

Iowa State University- http://eserver.org/courses/s05/506/