Writing is essential to many professional careers but can also be a career itself. Most freelance writers of fiction, drama, or poetry must support their work with secondary jobs unless they have produced a bestseller or achieved an outstanding— and long-standing—reputation. Other types of writing are financially viable in commercial or academic settings. These include journalism; research in science, social science, and the humanities; literary criticism; philosophical essays and commentary; reviewing; scriptwriting in both film and television; and advertising and marketing. The importance of writing has increased as the Internet—with its various forms of e-mail, listservs, Usenet newsgroups, online publishing, and Web forums—increasingly dominates communications and extends the verbal mobility of an individual.

Some writers approach their craft as an art form and practice it in strict isolation; others approach it as a product, using teamwork strategies to brainstorm and articulate ideas into a final...