Program in Professional Writing

Teaches students to apply the principles of successful professional communication to workplace writing tasks. Students will also practice editing and supervising the writing of others. Assignments replicate typical business cases and situations, including a report that requires students to compile and interpret research. Credit is not given for both BTW 250 and either BTW 261 or BTW 263.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and completion of campus Composition I requirement.
This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for: Advanced Composition.

BTW 250 serves around 1500 students per year, making it our most popular course. The course teaches students to consider audience and situation in composing texts to meet professional needs. While the course centers professional writing for business contexts, it lends students flexible communication skills useful across a wide variety of situations. This is probably why so many students across campus find this to be a helpful advanced composition general education course.

After completing BTW 250, students will be able to:

1. Compose effective business communication in written and/or multimodal forms.
2. Adapt content and form to specific professional conventions, audiences, and situations.
3. Take part in collaborative work to compose effective professional communication.
4. Identify and make use of resources to compose goal-oriented texts.
5. Develop and follow a recursive process of investigation, task definition, drafting, feedback, revision, and editing.

Teaches students to apply the principles of successful professional writing to a range of realistic cases in technical communication. Emphasizes flexible problem-solving skills and a clear style for communicating technical information to a range of readers. Assignments will include correspondence, instructions, proposals, and a technical report or similar project. Credit is not given for both BTW 261 and BTW 250 or BTW 263.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and completion of campus Composition I requirement.
This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for: Advanced Composition.

This course emphasizes flexible problem-solving skills and a clear style for communicating technical information to a range of readers. About 150 students take this course per year. While it's historically been popular with students from the College of Engineering, we plan in the coming year to recruit students from across campus interested in developing their technical communication skills for a variety of situations. 

Teaches students to apply principles of professional communication to the writing tasks typical of specific disciplines or professions. Assignments will vary, depending on the focus of the course, but will include a substantial report or project. Credit is not given for both BTW 263 and either BTW 250 or BTW 261.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and completion of campus Composition I requirement.
This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for: Advanced Composition.

As a topics course, BTW 263 has multiple curricular options that are constantly expanding based on the skills and talents of our instructors and the needs of our students. Recent varieties include:

Global Business Communication

In this class, students investigate international cultures and businesses, learning to solve real problems that organizations face. With a strong focus on written communication, this course helps students to develop insights and business plans for businesses who want to expand their operations to international markets. First developed by Andrew Moss several years ago, Global Business Communication has attracted students interested in international business, students working in international scientific teams, and students planning on studying or working abroad. We're excited to announce that Global Business Communication has been approved by the College of LAS and the General Education Board to be offered as its own course, BTW 280, starting spring 2022.

Writing a Web Presence 

In this course, students build a professional online web presence and familiarize themselves with social media management. At the core of this course are the principles of effective composition and writing, which students learn and apply to digital media genres. In addition to hands-on activities and practice with digital design and web development techniques, students create social media campaigns, write reports that visualize data, and analyze the diverse audiences that make up the internet. We have run this course many times as a 263 topics course, and we're in the process of making it a permanent course. 

Game Writing & Design 

We were excited to launch this course in spring 2021. Designed by Lecturer in English Daniel Roche, Game Writing & Design teaches students to take their video game concepts from outline to launch in a single semester. Using Unity 3D game engine, students develop skills in the artistry of storytelling and world building. Students design an original game, and write proposals, game manuals, and instructional guides, learning principles of technical writing applicable across a range of contexts.

Students will study principles of persuasion as applied to writing and designing written communications for business and the professions. Included are ads, direct-mail campaigns, argumentative essays, proposals, and other types of writing designed to move readers to action.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and completion of Composition I requirement.

In this course, students apply proven methods of persuasive argument to the production of marketing-focused writing in a variety of genres. Around 45 students take this course per year, and they mostly come from the marketing major in the College of Media. In the next year, we hope to attract more students interested in professional persuasion.

Topics course that varies each semester and by section. The topics offered each semester will be listed in the Class Schedule. Approved for letter and S/U grading. May be repeated.

We offer this 1-credit, half-semester online course every year to help students prepare cover letters, resumes, and other job application-related documents. The course teaches students the audience awareness, investigation, and style skills to tailor their job application materials effectively. We run 1-2 sections per year of this course.