Professional writing 

as an activity is writing for reward or

as a profession; as a product or object, professional
writing is any form of written communication produced in a
workplace environment or context that enables employees
to, for example, communicate effectively among
themselves, help leadership make informed decisions,
advise clients, comply with federal, state, or local
regulatory bodies, bid for contracts, etc..[1] For example, in
a business office, a memorandum (abbrev. memo) can be
used to provide a solution to a problem, make a
suggestion, or convey information. Other forms of
professional writing commonly generated in the workplace
include email, letters, reports, and instructions. 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.[2]
A professional writer may be freelance, meaning he or she
works 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.[3] Yet even workers who don't necessarily think
of themselves as professional writing practitioners
regularly produce professional documentation regularly in
the course of their work
as lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, engineers, and social
workers.[4] 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."[5]