In seeking to inform, persuade, instruct, stimulate debate, or encourage action from recipients, skilled professional writers make adjustments to different degrees of shared context, e.g., from a relatively accessible style useful for unsolicited contact letter to prospective clients to a technical report that relies on a highly specialized in-house vocabulary.
[3] A professional writer may be freelance, meaning they work on a self-employed basis, or fully employed in an occupation where their primary responsibility is the production of specialized documentation, such as journalism, marketing, advertising, public relations, or the military.
[5] Moreover, as Anne Beaufort observes, writing skills have become increasingly important to so-called "blue collar" occupations since "technologies have driven more record keeping and decision making to those who are directly involved in manufacturing, information-processing, and care-giving activities.
In contrast, professional writing is applied to a business or setting (a hospital, a company, or a factory) and is meant to facilitate work through communication.
For example, a general audience with little knowledge of a document's subject would be unable to read it if it contained specific, technical jargon.
[8] Persuasive professional writing is connected to the concept of rhetoric, which focuses on informing or persuading and relies upon stimulating the interest of the audience through creating authoritative arguments.
A professional writer uses research, rhetoric and persuasion when creating a document that is intended to suggest a solution to a problem or encourage action.
Clear and concise professional writing is vital in many fields where a misunderstanding could have serious consequences, such as in law, engineering, technical manuals, and product labels.
[10] Such is the importance of professional writing in the modern world, many academic institutions offer courses up to degree level on the subject, with some tailored to specific professions such as social work.