Writing for Organizational Change

A Programmatic Assessment of an On-Campus Service-Learning Partnership

Abstract

This program showcase draws on the long history of client-based service-learning scholarship in professional and technical communication. The authors add to this conversation by focusing on two underexplored areas: writing toward workplace change and partnering with on-campus organizations. The authors argue that, when fully integrated into a professional writing program, course partnerships with evolving on-campus organizations may allow students to study and practice writing for change, perhaps more fully than they can when their client is an off-campus organization that may be less accessible physically and conceptually. To illustrate their argument, the authors describe a multiyear partnership between their university’s writing center and professional writing program.