Published on February 4, 2014

Writing Commons is seeking web-based articles in the area of professional and technical writing. As a free, global, peer-reviewed, open education resource/textbook for college-level writers, college faculty, and the everyday writer, Writing Commons is devoted to providing readers with a “best strategies” approach in the hopes of enabling writers in a variety of workplace and academic context to further develop communication skills.

Teachers, researchers, and practitioners in professional and technical writing have developed and are privy to effective strategies for writing in and with a multitude of genres and technologies, respectively. These strategies can range anywhere from knowing the conventions of composing professional memos to understanding the principles behind designing clear instructions to gaining the technical expertise required to experiment with new writing applications. The professional and technical writing branch of Writing Commons thus asks potential contributors the following question: How can we help students and technical and professional writers to better understand these situations and genres of writing as skills and strategies for productive participation and critique of workplace communications? In light of this question, we are seeking submissions for web-based articles addressing the following topics/genres (not an exhaustive list):

  • Formatting with graphics
  • Memos
  • Résumés (e.g., online, scannable, paper)
  • Scientific and/or lab reports
  • Posters (e.g., conference)
  • Presentation materials and technologies (e.g., PowerPoint, Prezi)
  • Instructions/manuals
  • Document organization
  • Object (mechanism) descriptions
  • Proposals
  • Grant writing

I encourage those interested in submitting to perhaps first review Dr. Candice A. Welhausen’s article “Creating Scientific Posters” for a glimpse into the type of work we are looking for.

Or, visit the website proper (WritingCommons.org) and peruse the over seven-hundred peer-reviewed articles published to date. Last year alone, the Writing Commons site received over one million visitors, a significant number of which were students and teachers from four schools (Duke University, The Ohio State University, the University of South Florida, and the Georgia Institute of Technology) that have adopted Writing Commons as a required or supplementary writing textbook for their first-year composition courses and MOOCs.

The submission process is ongoing.

Please do not hesitate to contact me (dprichar@odu.edu) with any questions you may have about the submission and/or review processes or the site in general.

Sincerely,
Daniel Richards, Ph.D
Senior Editor (Professional and Technical Writing), Writing Commons
Assistant Professor of English
Old Dominion University
danielrichards.net