I just realized I posted this to my WRT site and not this one :-/

It is strange that Writing Arts is not a more common major. Given all the career options such as journalism, copyediting, advertising, and speech writing to name a few, it seems that the major would be more popular. And considering that writing is a prevalent skill even in careers not related to writing arts, one would think that more colleges would offer it. While there are so many career choices that involve writing there is one that prefaces the other. That is the occupation of a writing professor.

Without writing professors, it would be difficult, if not almost impossible, for writers to really perfect their skills and hone their craft. While Professor Sanford Tweedie, a Writing Arts Professor at Rowan University, claims that the journey toward becoming a writing professor is long and arduous, it also has many benefits.

The RU Career Management Center has an online database for hundreds of professions and what they entail. Unfortunately, because Writing Arts is a rare major, the closest professor information offered is for communications. While this isn’t exactly the same, the information is still fairly relevant.

According to the site there are eight skills necessary for the job. These skills are helping, listening, managing time, reading comprehension, listening, speaking, teaching, writing and authoring. These are all skills that Professor Tweedie lists in his interview.

                A graph under the interest profile tab displays the interests of communications professors and to what degree the level of interest is. For a communication professor, in order from highest to lowest, their interests are artistic, social, investigative, enterprising, convential, and realistic.

                There are also several conditions that apply to being a communications professor. These involve having the authority to make decisions, having and maintaining an E-mail account, having face to face communication, leading others, having good public speak skills, being organized and structured, working with others, and often times working inside.


Outline

I.                    Intro

II.                  Skills/values/interests necessary

A.      Compare CAP center database info with interview

III.                Pros and cons of being a writer/comm professor

A.      Compare with interview

B.      Incorporate US Gov data charts

IV.                What is needed to be a Comm/WA Professor

A.      Interview

B.      How to website

C.      Additional advice from Prof Tweedie

V.                  Conclusion

I dropped the ball this week....I need my day off tomorrow to shake it off and get back in the game. That was pretty cliche. my apologies.



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