INTRODUCTION 

This paper was presented for the first time on 2 April 1998 in Chicago, Illinois at the Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention. The theme that year was Ideas, Historias y Cuentos: Breaking with Precedent. I, along with four other graduate students, was chosen to be a part of a roundtable discussion. Our proposal dealt with how practicing professionals acclimate themselves to the academy. Each one of us was required to explain in detail how our professional lives were shaped and changed by the intersection between our workplace and the academy. This is my narrative into how the program has changed me. 

THE BEGINNING 

I am a composition and rhetoric student; however, I didn’t start out that way. Originally, because of the work I do – document design and layout - my interest was in the applied writing area of the program. I would like to tell you about this transition from applied writing to the study of composition and rhetoric, and how that coincided with my professional life and the choices I am making about my future. 

After I wrote this and presented it to our group, I realized that this was the first time I had consciously reflected on the direct impact this program has had on my professional life. Although in my journal writing, I might lament about frustrations or celebrate triumphs I have experienced in this program, I had never cohesively and linearly written about the path I have taken. The change will be obvious to you, I hope, but it was amazing to me, to see the last two years of my life on paper and see the progress and enrichment I have gained. 

My work structure and duties have evolved much over the past few years and most of that has to do with discovering professional writing through this program. When I began the program over two years ago, I was working as an administrative assistant at the company I am with now - a group tour and travel company in Atlanta. Our clientele is mostly senior citizens. I was doing your basic run-of-the-mill, secretarial work: typing, answering calls and whatever else was necessary. We are a small company of only five people. I really was not interested in doing secretarial work my entire life, but a B.A. in French doesn’t offer many opportunities except for more schooling. So, I was looking for possible avenues that I could take for advancement - which at my company aren’t much since we are so small. So, in thinking about what area I might want to advance, I started with what I enjoyed doing. I enjoyed helping with writing the tours and designing marketing materials - flyers, brochures, etc. Actually, secretly I loved that but didn’t realize I could make a career out of it. 

In the summer of 1995, I heard about a graduate program at my alma mater, Kennesaw State. I had been toying around with the concept of graduate school ever since I finished my undergraduate degree in 1993. What piqued my interest about this degree was that it was purely a writing program. This news was good for many reasons. First of all, I derived much satisfaction and pleasure from writing poetry, my academic writing endeavors, and the little bit of writing I had done at work. Secondly, I was at a point in my life where I had abandoned the concept of teaching high school French. I felt that I was moving towards a different type of profession, one that, I was still hoping, would allow me to attempt teaching again, if I decided to do that. I thought, "Why not apply?" Never before, except with the concept of having a child, had such a whim changed my life. 

Immediately I honed in on the applied writing because of the kind of work I did. I was looking to improve my skills so that my company would see me as a viable document designer or writer. My first two quarters, I took applied courses, which seemed logical to me - Computers and Communication and Business and Commercial Writing. The first class had a significant impact on me because it introduced me to web page development - a major part of the work I do now - and the impact of technology on writing. The next course I took helped me to start thinking of my writing in a different way. Business and Commercial writing was the course, and through this course I started to consider changing my concentration, but in a sort of backwards way. 

THE TRANSITION 

All of the courses in our program are based on the concept of the "theory behind the practice" and this class was no different. And actually I was very surprised at how much theory there was in business writing. Instantly, I was very attracted to that. However, throughout the course, I was left with wanting more theory - more of an understanding of "how" and "why" people write - primarily at this point to understand my own writing in order to make it better. I wanted my work to be grounded in something bigger than the flyer I would produce or the catalogue I would help to design and write. I wanted to be able to justify the choices I made and to make my writing and design more effective to the reader. For the first time, I was consciously aware of my audience in my work. This too has had an important impact on my writing. I also realized by studying business and commercial writing concepts, how important written communication is and how that affects the culture of an organization. Words can cage us or set us free. I think I had always known these things. However, now in front of me, there were theories and theorists who made these concepts come to life and define them for me. 

The next course I took also changed my view of the writing and the design I did at my company and that was our core course - Issues in Professional Writing. The main two things I was introduced to in this course were the excitement of the ambiguity of this discipline - professional writing and the concept of collaboration. In exploring professional writing as an actual discipline, I began to take my writing more seriously. I began to trust my judgment with regard to my professional and academic work. I felt this was a big turning point for me - trusting my ability and intuition about my writing. 

In reading about and studying collaboration in the Issues class, I started to see how much where I was and who I worked with affected my writing and others writing. This is where I began really feeding this desire I mentioned before about wanting to be grounded in theory. Although we talked about "corporate culture" in the business and commercial writing course, one of the many theories behind that concept is collaboration. Finally I realized that indeed there were bigger concepts and I knew that that was what I wanted to spend my time studying. At this point, I also began to see huge holes in the communication, either written or oral, in my company. I have tried through the writing process to change a very resistant workplace culture. I did this through examining and changing policy forms, reservation forms, our newsletter and now, most recently, our web site. Yet, this desire for change drove me to want to study, not just the very tangible techniques and skills of document design and writing, but the theories that support them. 

By that summer, I had changed my concentration and "got" through my last core course - the research methods course. That fall I was ready to take on The Composing Process - my first composition and rhetoric course. At this time, I was still doing the work for the travel company but had moved from being an administrative assistant to a production specialist and was working out of my home a couple of days a week - a big change for me, professionally. Telecommuting just seemed like a natural progression for me with regards to the type of work I produced. I had gained much confidence by now in my design and writing ability and was working more independently. Also, I had taken on many web page assignments where I could hone my writing, design and computer skills. With this new sense of assurance of my abilities and exploring the many different ways people compose, I started thinking seriously about teaching writing. I found myself at a place where I wanted to help students find their way through the writing process by constructing knowledge and understanding. And I also hoped I could pass on the skills I have learned in the business world to my students - to show them the business world applications and how knowing the theory behind the practice can help them move in and out of different writing or communication tasks, confidently and effectively. 

Another important concept I took from the composing class, was the importance of the review process. Although I used to shun and detest that part of writing, I found that it was essential to an effective piece of communication. I also realized that the composing process is an on-going practice where review is very much an important part. But mostly understanding the review process has helped me to stand back from my writing, either academic or business, and take comments and suggestions openly. This shift has really enhanced my writing because my aim has become to be understood as opposed to "guarding my sacred words." 

THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 

My transition from a purely skills-driven focus to a focus rich in composition and rhetoric theory took many quarters. I wasn’t so convinced in the beginning, but by the time I had finished the composing process course, I knew that I needed the theory more than the skills. Leaning techniques merely scratch the surface. I also had crossed a line in deciding that I wanted to teach writing. It took me a while to fully embrace that possibility because I thought I would have to give up my business writing – the tours, the document design and the web site construction - which I enjoy very much. But what I realized is that the two do not conflict with each other and that actually my experience might prove to be very beneficial to my students. 

Today, I am still working for the tour and travel company and now have taken on the position as web master. This has turned out to be a huge communications and marketing endeavor. I am still learning about how much I need to learn through the process of advertising and constructing the site. Because of going through this program, I feel as if I understand the theories to creating an atmosphere where good writing and document design can occur. I am not so concerned with the "skills" anymore. I am much more confident that I will be able to move in and out of new writing tasks and take on new projects in the future. I can take a big picture view of a situation, because of the theory I have learned, and then I can decide which "skills" or approach might be best suited for a particular writing assignment. 

Finally, as I finish this degree, my main focus is composition and rhetoric theory and practice. The study of composition and rhetoric has led me down a path to study and explore the history of rhetoric, primarily focusing on medieval rhetoric and women’s writing. When I first started the program, I might have thought that business writing and medieval women writers conflicted and that I could not explore both. But I don’t feel that way at all anymore. Any study in to the rhetoric employed at that time, the composing process of medieval women writers and the education used to pass on these concepts, is valid and useful in understanding how and why we compose and teach composition today.