Professional Writing Online is not a book, but an instructional website. It is the first course material intended for applied writing courses that makes full use of the dynamic capabilities of the World Wide Web.

The flexibility afforded by the Web provides important advantages as a teaching tool over conventional textbooks. A short handbook functions as a guide to using the site, but the website itself is completely autonomous, intended to be used on its own as an instructional resource for professional writing.

PWO offers four primary points of entry, which correspond to the four major sections of the site: Projects, Documents, Principles, and Resources. The Projects provide activities and exercises for inside and outside of the classroom. The Documents section provides a wealth of real-world examples of a variety of document types. The Principles section offers explanations of the topics that are integral to an applied writing course. The Resources section provides teachers and students additional materials that will be useful in the teaching and practicing of writing on the job. These sections, of course, are interlinked so students can move back and forth among the sections to find what they need in focusing on a particular topic.

Overall, Professional Writing Online provides far more material than a conventional textbook, and provides additional links to an abundance of related material on the World Wide Web.