Cover: A Guide to Professional Writing, 1st Edition by Stephen Bernhardt; Nancy Sommers

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A Guide to Professional Writing

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First  Edition©2019  Stephen Bernhardt; Nancy Sommers

ISBN:9781319230739

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Table of Contents

Introduction: A Guide to Professional Writing
Thinking like a professional writer
Questions professional writers ask
Kinds of evidence professional writers use
Ethics in professional communication

Researching professional writing
Strategies for researching professional writing
Distinguishing primary and secondary sources
Reading journals and online sources
Using databases to find sources
Finding books and other resources
Evaluating online resources

Reading the professional communication literature
Active reading
Evaluating the strength of claims
Reading theoretical articles
Reading research articles
Reading practice articles

The process of writing papers, projects, and presentations
Considering your purpose
Understanding your audience and their needs
Designing texts
Using in-house and organizational style guides

Writing conventions in professional writing
Writing style in professional communication
Phrasing for clarity, concision, and directness
Sentence structure
Preparing visuals
Vocabulary

Integrating, citing, and documenting sources in professional writing
Avoiding plagiarism and recognizing intellectual property
Quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing sources
In-text citations in APA style
Reference list in APA style

Genres of professional writing
Technical and scientific report
Literature review
Manual or help system
Procedural document
Proposal
Abstract and summary
Memo or other correspondence
Presentation or poster
Website or multimodal document

Glossary of vocabulary in professional writing
References
Additional resources for professional writing
Practice activities
Practice activity: Thinking about the ethics of professional writing
Practice activity: Considering the rhetorical situation
Practice activity: Learning about the field
Practice activity: A day in the life of professional writers
Practice activity: Reading the professional communication literature
Practice activity: Analyzing the rhetoric of a research study
Practice activity: Evaluating sources in professional writing
Practice activity: Finding sources in professional writing
Practice activity: Using Google Scholar
Practice activity: Writing technical instructions

Sample student writing: Professional writing
Instructions: How to Draw a Human Eye: A Tutorial
Recommendation report: Usability on a Budget: An Eye Tracker Recommendation Report
Research proposal: Implementing Rain Gardens to Reduce Flooding in Newark, DE
Procedural document: How to Propagate a Succulent

More help with documentation: APA style
APA-style reference list: Additional examples

Editing strategies
Subject-verb agreement
Pronoun agreement, reference, and case
Strong verbs
Sentence fragments
Run-on sentences
Distracting shifts
Parallel structure
Clear, uncluttered sentences
Sentence emphasis
Commas
Apostrophes
Quotation marks

Stephen A. Bernhardt

Stephen A. Bernhardt is Professor of English and the Andrew B. Kirkpatrick Chair in Writing at the University of Delaware, where he teaches composition, grammar, and technical writing. His professional interests include computers in composition/distance education, writing across the curriculum, professional and technical communication, and visual rhetoric. He has also taught at New Mexico State University and at Southern Illinois University. The author of many journal articles and technical reports, Bernhardt is also the author of Writing at Work (1997) and coeditor of Expanding Literacies: English Teaching and the New Workplace (1998). Bernhardt designed the research plan and reworked content for Writers Help.

Nancy Sommers

Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard's Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard's WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and editor of Tiny Teaching Stories on Macmillan Learning's Bits Blog.