The Minor in Professional Writing, offered by the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & Discourse (WRD), is available to any undergraduate student in the university. The department understands the term professional writing to refer broadly to the kinds of literate activities taken up by well-educated individuals whose work is creative, intellectually challenging, and ethically grounded. Core courses in the program are designed to prepare students as effective writers for any context in which writing is a key competency. Because nearly all professional writing today takes place in digital environments, digital writing—the combination of alphabetic text with other modes, such as sound and image—is central to the program core and an element of many electives.
The breadth of choices within the Minor in Professional Writing makes it an excellent complement to any major and a fine choice for students pursuing graduate school in any discipline, including law. The Professional Writing Minor allows a wide range of choices: you may take courses in which your own writing—in various genres and contexts—is the focus, or you may study theories of language, rhetoric (how to make effective choices as writers), and discourse (the way writing structures human activity) to develop an understanding of the role of the individual writer within communities of writers.
The program comprises two required core courses and sixteen hours of electives, which may be chosen from among all of the department's undergraduate offerings numbered 203-205 and 207-399.
Course Requirements
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| WRD 201 | DIGITAL WRITING | 4 |
| WRD 206 | PROFESSIONAL WRITING | 4 |
| Select 16 additional credit hours from WRD courses 203-205, 207-399: | 16 | |
| STYLE FOR WRITERS | ||
| PROFESSIONAL WRITING FOR BUSINESS (FOR NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS) | ||
| TECHNICAL WRITING | ||
| HISTORY OF LITERACIES AND WRITING | ||
| INTRODUCTION TO WRITING AND RHETORIC | ||
| INTRODUCTION TO REASONED DISCOURSE | ||
| GENRE AND DISCOURSE | ||
| CULTURAL RHETORICS | ||
| HOW LANGUAGE WORKS | ||
| WRITING RESEARCH WITH IDENTITY | ||
| WRITING AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||
| WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW | ||
| GOOGLING GOD: RELIGIOUS PRACTICES IN DIGITAL CULTURE | ||
| THE LANGUAGE OF DISABILITY | ||
| ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING | ||
| THE ESSAY FROM PRINT TO NEW MEDIA | ||
| WRITING WITH AI | ||
| RHETORICAL ANALYSIS | ||
| DIGITAL CULTURE | ||
| THE RHETORIC OF EVERYDAY TEXTS | ||
| READING BETWEEN THE GROOVES: THE RHETORICAL POWER OF POPULAR MUSIC | ||
| LANGUAGE, SELF AND SOCIETY | ||
| SOCIAL MOVEMENT, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND AMERICAN IDENTITIES | ||
| LEVELING UP: THE SOCIAL RHETORIC OF VIDEO GAMES | ||
| ACADEMIC READING FOR INTERNATIONAL/MULTILINGUAL STUDENTS | ||
| WRITING IN THE SCIENCES | ||
| WRITING CENSORSHIP | ||
| ETHICS OF PUBLIC AND PROFESSIONAL WRITING | ||
| ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING | ||
| SPORTS WRITING IN AMERICA: MYTHS, MEMORIES, HEROES AND VILLAINS | ||
| TRUTH IN DISGUISE: THE RHETORIC OF SATIRE | ||
| WRITING WITH PHOTOGRAPHS | ||
| THE COMIC BOOK AS VISUAL ARGUMENT | ||
| RHETORIC AND POPULAR CULTURE | ||
| WRITING ABOUT RIGHTS | ||
| WRITER'S TOOLS WORKSHOP | ||
| THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH POSTER | ||
| COMPOSITION AND STYLE | ||
| WORKPLACE WRITING: THEORY AND PRACTICE | ||
| RHETORICAL TRADITIONS | ||
| TOPICS IN WRITING, RHETORIC AND DISCOURSE: WRITING WITH AI | ||
| TOPICS IN PROFESSIONAL WRITING | ||
| WRITING IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION | ||
| WRITING AND METADATA | ||
| EDITING | ||
| WRITING FOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE | ||
| RHETORIC IN CRISIS CONTEXTS | ||
| CONTENT WRITING | ||
| LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS | ||
| WRITING AND REVISING | ||
| GHOSTWRITING | ||
| TOPICS IN RHETORIC | ||
| TOPICS IN ALTERNATIVE RHETORICS | ||
| SEMIOTICS | ||
| VISUAL RHETORIC | ||
| CHICAGO WOMEN RHETORS | ||
| GLOBAL ENGLISHES | ||
| MENTORING YOUTH IN COMMUNITY WRITING GROUPS | ||
| DIGITAL STORYTELLING | ||
| FIELDWORK IN ARTS WRITING | ||
| WRITING AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT | ||
| TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN CHICAGO | ||
| RHETORIC AND PUBLIC WRITING | ||
| WRITING CENTER THEORY & PEDAGOGY | ||
| WRITING FELLOWS THEORY AND PRACTICE | ||
| INTERNSHIP | ||
| INDEPENDENT STUDY | ||
Students majoring in Writing and Rhetoric (BA) are restricted from earning this minor.
Professional Writing Minor Online
The required courses in the Professional Writing minor and many WRD electives are also offered online. Interested students may therefore complete the Professional Writing minor entirely online.