RPW Minor Requirements

18 total RPW credit hours, plus major in another subject

The 18 credit hours include one required course (3 credit hours), two “depth” courses (6 credit hours), and three elective courses (9 credit hours).

Required Course (3 credit hour):

RPW 215W Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing

In this course students have intensive practice writing individual and collaborative documents for business and industry, including instructions, proposals, reports, procedures, descriptions, research designs, and basic web sites.

Depth Courses (6 credit hours):

RPW 245W Critical Literacy

This course teaches students to think critically about literacy itself and examines the implications of changing definitions of reading and writing by placing literacy in a historical context.

RPW 370W Foundations of Rhetoric

The aim of this course is to introduce key historical figures who made, and the current central scholars who are making, contributions to the study of rhetoric.

Elective Courses (9 credit hours):

RPW 211W Introduction to Business and Management Communication

Learning and performing business communication functions in a workshop setting, students build on a range of existing and new problem-solving, communication, management, and collaboration skills.

RPW 251W/GS251W Rhetorics of Gender Activism

This course applies rhetorical analysis to essays, speeches, documentary films, visual media, and artifacts from activist organizations, all in an effort to understand better the techniques that gender activists use to mobilize, to challenge, and to create change.

RPW 290, 291, 390, 391, 490, 491, 590, 591 Special Topics in Rhetoric and Professional Writing (topics vary)

RPW 312 Grant and Proposal Writing

In addition to preparing a major formal report, students in this intermediate-level course engage in shorter projects that support the major project, including writing memos and letters, preparing proposals for receiving supervisory feedback, analyzing sample reports, preparing and conducting interviews and surveys, summarizing research findings, making oral presentations, and editing others’ work.

RPW 316W Collaborative Writing in the Workplace

This course examines professional and technical writing as a collaborative, rather than an individual, process. Students lead, as well as engage in, collaborative writing teams on such topics as employee assessment, procedural guidelines, product design, and project proposals. 

RPW 340W/GS340W Writing in Gender-Based Activist Organizations

Focusing on issues such as reproductive rights, health care, and domestic violence, students examine the ways in which activist organizations that are focused on issues of gender and sexuality write about controversial issues for a range of audiences and in response to a variety of situations.

RPW 375 Professional Editing

This course focuses on print and online editing, including the use of traditional proofreading marks and online techniques, document layout and design, principles of copywriting, and the study of style manuals.

OR

RPW 359/ENG 359 Contemporary English Grammar

Grammatical structures and application of grammar to prose writing, with emphasis on stylistic study, syntactic arrangement, and semantic meaning.

RPW 470 Reading and Writing: Contemporary Theory and Practice

This course introduces students to a variety of contemporary theoretical approaches to the study and teaching of reading and writing, including cognitive, hermeneutic, expressivistic, social-cultural, and neo-Aristotelian.

RPW 472 Professional Writing-Capstone Course: Portfolio Presentation

In this capstone course students work individually with faculty advisors to present a portfolio of work submitted, revised, and represented within the Rhetoric and Professional Writing minor.

RPW 480 Internship in Rhetoric and Professional Writing

Internships allow RPW majors and minors to supplement their classroom work with on-the-job experience in professional writing.

RPW 481, 482, 483 Independent Study in Rhetoric and Professional Writing Individual work in rhetoric and professional writing with faculty supervision.

For detailed major requirements, please Click Here