Certificate in Writing: Public and Professional Writing

The Certificate in Writing: Public and Professional Writing prepares students for professional, workplace, and public writing and editing in print and online contexts. Core certificate classes offer theoretical and rhetorical foundations for learning and engaging with central concepts and practices in public and professional writing. Elective classes in the certificate allow students to select writing classes that complement their academic majors and align with their professional goals. Students who plan to pursue writing-oriented or writing-intensive careers will benefit from both the core and elective classes, which are designed to prepare students for a variety of writerly possibilities, from professional writers to professionals who write, and prepare students to write confidently and successfully in a wide range of professions, genres, and contexts.

Certificates may be earned by regularly matriculated or extended learning students and denote successful completion of a prescribed program of study designed to:

  1. impart specified professional/vocational/career competencies; or
  2. produce mastery of the content of a sub-field of an academic major (discipline); or
  3. provide exposure to the range of materials in a traditional or emerging interdisciplinary field.

Certain certificate programs contain 6000-level courses as requirements and/or electives. These 6000-level courses may not be taken by undergraduate students. Candidates must receive two-thirds of their certificate-applicable credit from the university. The transferring of credit or the substitution of courses may occur only after application to the appropriate campus authority.

Certificates may be earned by regularly matriculated or extended learning students and denote successful completion of a prescribed program of study designed to:

  1. impart specified professional/vocational/career competencies; or
  2. produce mastery of the content of a sub-field of an academic major (discipline); or
  3. provide exposure to the range of materials in a traditional or emerging interdisciplinary field.

Certain certificate programs contain 6000-level courses as requirements and/or electives. These 6000-level courses may not be taken by undergraduate students. Candidates must receive two-thirds of their certificate-applicable credit from the university. The transferring of credit or the substitution of courses may occur only after application to the appropriate campus authority.

Certificate Requirements (18 units)

Lower-division requirements (3)3
Writing in the Public Sphere
Upper-division requirements (6)6
Theories of Public and Professional Writing
Studies in Writing
Nine units chosen from: (9)9
Art Writing
Topics and Themes of Art History and Exhibitions
Art History Seminar
Art History Capstone Research Seminar
Art History Capstone Research Methodology
Newswriting and Reporting
Fundamentals of Screenwriting
Business and Professional Communication
Multimedia Journalism
Publication Design
Writing for Public Relations
Communication Research Methodology
Studies in Writing
Community Service Project
Community Service Project
Community Service Project
Media Performance Practicum
Creative Nonfiction
Internship in English
Internship in English
Internship in English
Seminar in Public and Professional Discourses
Philosophy of Language
Playwriting
Criticism of Plays in Performance
Total Units18