Professional & Strategic Writing (PSW)

In this hands-on course, students develop their knowledge of how to shape narrative and experience through forms of creative written expression such as poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Students read and analyze published creative writing; experiment with these forms through drafts and revisions; and develop critiquing skills in a supportive workshop environment. Students showcase their work in a final portfolio and a reading or similar presentation.

Students will develop an understanding of the different subfields that make up the field, history of the field, and methods of research and practice. Students will engage with professionals in the field through participant observation, draft academic arguments related to the history of professional and strategic writing, and provide peer feedback. Students will be introduced to basic theoretical concepts in the field, including actor-network theory, stasis theory, and genre theory.

This course will explore the history and contemporary landscape of technical communication, with a particular focus on how technical communication processes can guide organizations to become more inclusive. While technical communication is often understood as a neutral transmission of information, the strategies embedded in technical communication processes in fact define an organization’s culture and audience ability to engage with, and even believe, organizational values. Students will explore historical approaches to technical communication; map the communication practices of one organizational unit; and create a scope of work, including one sample document, for the organizational unit. Students will gain experience with activity systems, genre, and the technical writing process.

The ability to help others produce effective written communication is a sought-after professional skill. In this course, students examine the role of the writing center and writing tutoring as a university resource, giving students practical experience that can help them develop a tutoring repertoire, or a wealth of resources to grow their tutoring practice. Through a series of reflective assignments and course readings, students will learn about tutoring and the writing process. Students are encouraged but not required to apply to become peer writing tutors at the Academic Success Center at the end of the course. To be considered a successful peer tutoring applicant, students must complete the course with an A or A-, get a letter of recommendation from the instructor teaching the course, and have taken at least one of the two Writing courses on campus: WRIT-201 or WRIT-202.

In this hands-on course, students will develop advanced composition skills and experience with elements of expository and argumentative writing such as storytelling through production and analysis of long-form, journalistic non-fiction written for publication. Students will explore the history and contemporary landscape of creative nonfiction while also focusing on reporting, interviewing, and composition. Students will write their own long-form essays, analyze published works from a variety of sources, and participate in peer review of classmates’ work. While choice of writing subject is open to students, areas of focus may include sports, technology, fashion, and/or health and wellness.

In this hands-on course, students will explore poetry as a subject of discussion and scholarship as well as an expressive form of communication. We will focus on the relationship between a poem’s structural and compositional choices and its content or subject. Students will explore poetry by reading published works in journals, anthologies, and online, writing and reading their own poems, and participating in peer review. Students will be expected to participate in a final anthology of poems and/or a final reading of student work.