Writing Studies Minor

The Writing Studies minor focuses on giving students advanced instruction in rhetoric and writing in both creative and professional contexts; students can choose from a variety of courses including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, journalism, play-writing, visual rhetoric, ethnography and online writing. The minor emphasizes the use of a variety of technologies to help students sharpen their rhetorical, information literacy and document design and production skills. Students are strongly encouraged to complete a writing internship. Many writing classes entail some service learning where students do writing in real-world settings and work for social justice.

Objectives of Writing Studies Minor

The Writing Studies minor:

1. Fosters students' development as writers and leads to recognition of excellent writing ability.
2. Strengthens writing instruction across the disciplines.
3. Prepares students for the steadily increasing number of specialized professional, technical and medical writing positions in governmental agencies, industry and nonprofit organizations.
4. Helps students gain experience writing in technologically intensive and collaborative settings.

The minor emphasizes the use of computer technologies to produce professional texts: memos, letters, reports, oral presentations, websites and multimedia documents. Students are also strongly encouraged to complete a writing internship. Most writing classes also contain a service learning component where students put their writing skills to work for local organizations.

Requirements

• You must take three core courses (CMS 120; CMS 222; ENG [also WRT] 231) and three elective courses (see the list later on this page) to complete a minor in Writing Studies.
• You must take at least three courses outside of your major department.
  For example, if you're an English major, you have to take at least three courses which aren't ENG courses (such as CMS courses or THR courses). If you're a CMS major, you have to take at least three courses which aren't CMS courses (such as ENG courses or THR courses). ENG courses may also be cross-listed as WRT courses; if this is the case, sign up for the WRT prefixed version of the course if you are an English major.
• You must file a minor application form with the College of Arts and Sciences via myNU so that the minor will appear on your transcript.

Core Courses

You have to take all of these:

Elective courses

You can take any three (3) of these:

Writing 100 is a pre-requisite for all upper-level writing courses offered by the Department of English; CMS 120 is a pre-requisite for most of the upper level courses offered by Communication Studies. Students are strongly encouraged to take Creative Writing (ENG/WRT 221) before taking Poetry Writing (ENG/WRT 321).

Courses not on this list can be approved by coordinator of the writing minor; please see Dr. Karper before you register for a course not on this list.