Blogging for professional purposes: A curricular and pedagogical approach

Technical writing curricula and pedagogy have traditionally emphasized blogging´s practical and supplemental role in technical writing contexts. In contrast to such disciplinary conceptions, this paper examines how blogging offers technical writing curricula and pedagogy a more advantageous rhetorical and social genre of workplace writing. Following social media´s influence on industry writing conventions and contexts, this paper first describes how blogging emphasizes the social and rhetorical purposes of technical writing. It then outlines and describes a curricular implementation and pedagogical example of a professional blogging course at a regional American university. The paper concludes by analyzing best practices for teaching professional blogging skills and suggesting areas for future curricular research and practice.