PPW Certificate
Certificate in Public and Professional Writing
The Composition Program of the English department has launched a new undergraduate certificate in public and professional writing (PPW). Students who want to develop their writing skills and who are interested in exploring the ways that writing well can enhance their working lives are invited to apply to the PPW Certificate program.
What is public and professional writing?
Writing plays a crucial role in the lives of people after they leave college as they work, volunteer, attend professional schools, and advocate for themselves and others. The PPW Certificate focuses on writing that serves professional goals or the public interest (or both). We invite students from across the University to focus on writing as a way to develop the critical writing, learning, and thinking skills necessary to all sectors of American professional life—private, nonprofit, and government.
Who should consider the PPW certificate?
Students who know that they will write extensively as professionals in law, medicine, the sciences, social work, public policy, international relations, business, or other fields are good candidates for the PPW Certificate, as are students who are interested in advocacy and activism. Students contemplating graduate work should also find the course of study leading to the PPW Certificate useful. The courses will allow students to work on significant writing projects in a range of venues. Students who have finished the Certificate should have a compelling portfolio of work that they can show to prospective employers.
English majors are likely to find this Certificate very useful, but so are students in the Honors College, Environmental Studies, Information/Computer Sciences, Fine Arts, and other fields where excellent writing skills support and advance professional work.
The PPW Certificate offers many opportunities to students who are interested in influencing public policy related to their field or who want to bring together several different fields to impact the policies that shape our daily lives.
What will I learn as I work on the PPW certificate?
In addition to learning how to use the forms and genres of particular professions or fields, students will consider critical questions in public and professional writing and examine the place and practice of writing in these environments, taking up questions like these:
- How do professionals in fields like law, medicine, public affairs, science, technology, business, and industry use language to represent to other professions and publics the work they do?
- How does writing advance the work of nonprofits, shape public opinion, inform public policy, and create change?
- What ethical responsibilities do writers face when they write for a profession or a public?
- What are the professional, cultural, and political dynamics that writers navigate?
- How do these different dynamics challenge and create opportunities for writers?
Students should expect to undertake rigorous intellectual work that will increase their precision as writers, develop their facility with language and style, and deepen their engagement with writing as a form of social action that has consequences in the world.
What are the academic requirements?
At least 18 credits are required to complete the PPW Certificate;
students must maintain a "B" QPA in the three courses required by the certificate.
Students must take ONE of the following core courses:
- EngCmp 400 Written Professional Communication,
- EngCmp 410 Writing in the Legal Professions, OR
- EngCmp 420 Writing for the Public.
After they have completed one of the core courses with at least
a "B," students must also complete, with at least a "B," a
minimum of TWO approved 1000-level courses (one of which may be
a PPW internship) in the composition program.
The remaining nine credits may come from designated intermediate and advanced
course offerings in the English department. The list of designated courses
that count toward the Certificate will be given to students when they register
for the program; designated courses are also listed
online. Students may petition to have a relevant course count toward the
PPW Certificate by filling out the petition
form, available as a PDF document.