This course combines research, workshop and group experiences, lectures, and presentations from speakers who visit our classroom to survey the options available to those who want to use writing skills as principal credentials for entering professional careers after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. This is not a course specifically in freelance writing, in public relations writing, in public information writing, in business writing, or in technical writing -- even if it is generally about all of these genres of professional writing – most of which you will practice in this class. The underlying focus that unifies the course is our concern for understanding professionalism as it applies to being a writer in the workplace. Five to seven (perhaps more) professional writers will visit our class as speakers. Most will be graduates of UNM’s professional writing program. Our objective in hearing these speakers is to learn how to develop a professional network by listening actively, interacting, and learning from the experiences of others who are working in the professional fields we hope to join. In Fall 2006, the class will be taught in 8 five hour sessions, on Saturdays. The second Saturday we will take an extended field trip to Socorro to visit New Mexico Tech, students there studying technical communication, and several sites where technical writing is done. We may have other field trips related to public and organizational information writing and so on. Much of the five hours of class time will be spent working on assignments, collaborating with fellow students, and researching using the computers that will be readily available to us on Saturdays.