I’m taking on the role of director of professional writing, following on my colleague David who’s done the job since I’ve been here. Our program is in the midst of some changes. This is our fourth year and we’re steady at 25-30 majors. However, we will be getting an influx of Elementary Education students taking our courses (70-80 a semester), which is going to top out our ability to offer classes. There have also been some changes in our department’s graduate courses that will make it easier for those students to take writing classes.

In any case, we continue to think about our program’s direction:

1. Our main "selling point" is that the degree will give you a competitive advantage over liberal arts majors for pursuing careers in writing, editing, and publishing because the curriculum gives you direct study and practice of a broad range of professional practices while also leaving students enough room to gain a well-rounded liberal arts education as well.

2. Most of our students come in with a primary interest in creative writing. We want to support that interest, but we also want to introduce them to some other writing possibilities, including some more "realistic" career options. That said, we view developing creative abilities as a key part of professional writing.

3. Cortland is a rural NY state college. Most of our students come from rural upstate NY, small upstate cities (like Syracuse or Buffalo), or suburban Long Island. Those from Long Island may be able to commute to NYC for a job, but the others would have to look beyond their homes if they want to pursue a career in writing. This has been some concern for us, as many students express reticence about moving to a "big city."

So we sit at a crossroads. We’ve spent a few years serving multiple masters, working at cross-purposes to some degree.

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The "professionalizing" element of our curriculum has always been a
challenge. The students don’t throw themselves into web design or
technical writing or editing. They don’t want to take serious
internships that require them to live in an urban area. They aren’t
ready to go off after those jobs following graduation either.
Meanwhile, balancing the curriculum with creative writing and
rhetorical theory courses means they don’t get an advanced, intensive
education in technical-professional genres.

I’m beginning to think that we need to change our focus to some degree.
After all, it’s not just our students who go home for a few years after
they graduate. It’s a national trend! You can read about it in Time
it’s so prevalent. As such, I think we need to redefine what
professional means for us. Rather than specific skills that you would
carry directly from the campus to the workplace, we need to think about
developing creativity, rhetorical awareness, and a general proficiency
with writing that comes from writing in a variety of genres (not just
academic discourse).

Right now we have three really professionalizing courses in our core
curriculum: Technical Writing, the Internship, and Senior Seminar.

I’m thinking about eliminating these as requirements and replacing them
with electives. It’s a little strange to not require Technical Writing,
since it’s such a core course of our disciplinary history. However,
nowadays it seems like such a broad genre. Some Tech Writing texts
include basic corporate communications genres like reports and memos
(obviously these can contain technical information). Plus, now one has
to think about visual rhetoric, document design, online help. XML,
databases, etc., etc. We’d have to have an entire degree focused on
Technical Writing, along with a computer science department, to prepare
our students for most jobs in this field (did I mention they don’t want
these jobs anyway?).

So what happens instead? One way of thinking about this is to ask what students will compose.

• short stories, poetry, plays
• web sites, Flash, other multimedia
• newsletters and literary magazines
• blogs, podcasts, vlogs
• memoir, other creative nonfiction
• grants, educational materials, other community service texts
• researched, argumentative analysis for general audiences
• academic essays

Well, can’t think of anything else right now.

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