Students Establish Professional Writing and Editing Association

Morgantown, WV, April 10, 2007: West Virginia University graduate students are pleased to announce the establishment of the Professional Writing and Editing Graduate Student Association (PWEGSA).

The PWEGSA is open to students enrolled in the Master’s of Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) program in the Department of English in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

“The mission of our organization is to build a community of Professional Writing and Editing Master’s degree students focused on enhancing education through professional development and outreach activities. We are a new organization, and I am excited to see how we will grow over the next year,” said Weslie Boyd, a graduate student in the PWE program and president of the PWEGSA.

The PWEGSA will work to enhance its members’ graphic design, document packaging, and desktop packaging skills. The association will also provide members with a sharper perspective on the range of employment opportunities in the field.

The association will serve others in the University by bringing professional writers and editors to campus for lectures and conducting a resume writing/revising workshop. Members of the PWEGSA will also serve as adjudicators for the Jon Scott Nelson writing contest for undergraduate students and for the PWE Internship/Capstone Poster Exhibit. This fall, the PWEGSA hopes to organize computer workshops tailored specifically to the field of professional writing and editing.

“Drs. Laura Brady, Catherine Gouge, Brian Ballentine, and I are all impressed by the efforts of the PWE students in forming this group. We feel that this group shows the students’ claiming ownership of their education,” said Dr. Scott Wible, assistant professor of English and PWEGSA advisor.

“We believe that PWEGSA will add significant intellectual energy to our program as it continues to grow, make the Master’s program even more inviting to prospective students, and help these students to enter the PWE community once they arrive here at WVU,” said Wible.

The Professional Writing and Editing major enables students to take courses that sharpen the writing skills necessary for working in areas of business, industry, public relations, journalism, science, medicine, and government. The concentration also focuses on developing students’ graphic and textual skills for the production of reports, manuals, grants, research proposals, and other business and technical documents.

For more information please contact Dr. Scott Wible, Department of English, at 304-293-3107 ext. 33436 or Scott.Wible@mail.wvu.edu.

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