UALR Master's Level Professional Writers Receive Tiger Lily

The writers et al at The Tiger Lilies Blog-Spot are currently engaged in an empirical research project at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The following is a summary of that research project.

Methods: Tiger Lilies Blog-Spot Contributors decided to immerse themselves in the Master's Program for Professional and Technical Writing at UALR. They followed 2% of students in the program that write professionally (n=1) and now report on their perception of the degree program. UALR is a four-year university in the heart of Little Rock, Arkansas. Some students live on campus, while a great majority of students commute to campus and work part-time or full-time.

Objective: The survey looks at these "budding" professional writers and seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What are their professional goals to be realized through this degree program? 2. Where are they currently working and where do they plan to work after graduation? 3. Where their goals realized? 4. What does the future hold for this degree program in light of the down-turn in the economy?

Please Note: This survey is on-going and these are just the findings at this stage in the project.

When the students started the degree program in January of 2008, their goals were as follows:

• Learn and master certain writing genres including: Grant writing, HTML/CSS writing, persuasive writing in a business setting-specifically proposal writing, feature-story writing
• Obtain advanced editing skills
• Obtain experience (and most importantly) samples for a portfolio through relevant internships
• Make contacts needed to obtain work as a free-lance writer in a technical or non-fiction capacity

Here are the top observations our Tiger Lily Blog-Spot Contributors made about the UALR Professional and Technical Writing Master's Degree Program: (Some of these observations shed light into the reality of the program that bear a stark contrast to the goals set by the students followed in this study.)

1. Profile of Students in Program:

• Many of the students in this program are unemployed, professional students. Many.
• The majority of the students in this program are teachers-- who plan to teach students to write.
• 2% of the students (the students followed closely in this empirical study) currently write for a living and go to school part-time.

2. Synopsis of Courses Offered:

• The courses offered for the professional students and teachers are offered at night.
• The courses designed to aid the 2% of students that write for a living are offered during regular business hours.
• The required curriculum includes: Rhetorical Theory, Composition Theory, Language Theory and Technical Theory. (All courses on the theory of writing)
• The elective courses that are only offered in limited quantity include: Document Design, HTML/CSS writing and Grant Writing. (All courses on how to actually write)

3. #1 Question asked by Professors to 2% of Students with Writing Careers:

• "If you're not going to teach after you receive your Master's Degree, what are you going to do with your Professional and Technical Writing Degree?"

4. #1 Question asked by Current Employers of 2% of Students with Writing Careers:

• "What is Professional and Technical Writing?"

5. #1 Question asked by 2% of Students with Writing Careers (and answer given by Professor):

• Student: "Can I substitute an "elective" course like -Grant Writing- for one of my "Theory" courses?
• Professor: "Probably not, because you need the theory class in order to teach."

6. The 2% of students who write professionally are actually paying full tuition for this degree.

The writers at the Tiger Lily Blog-Spot admit to the Review Board that they are only 2/3 of the way complete with their investigation. They still have 12 hours of investigation left after the completion of this semester. However, with these preliminary findings, the writers et al have come to the following conclusions:

Conclusions: These observations have led the Tiger Lily Blog-Spot Contributors to believe that, in light of the current economic crisis we are facing in the United States, and in light of the previously mentioned observations, this degree program should be part of Barack Obama's stimulus package. Like many of the other recipient-programs of this stimulus, the Master's Degree in Professional and Technical Writing from UALR, is clearly, based on these findings, an economic stimulus as defined by the President.

And as an added and appropriate bonus, all graduates of this degree should receive a special stimulus Tiger Lily for all of their hard work and money spent.

Notes on the Research: This research study was written during an excruciatingly long and unnecessary session of Composition Theory. These findings may have been exaggerated due to the Tiger Lily Blog-Spot Contributors' close proximity to Complete Insanity.