TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL WRITING
College of Humanities
(See Technical and Professional Writing in the Academic Programs section for information on the degree)
Undergraduate Courses
400 Fundamentals of Technical and Professional Writing (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 214 or equivalent and passing score on diagnostic writing test to be administered during first week of class. Practice in expository and analytical writing for a variety of professional fields. Emphasis on writing for specific audiences. Editing for style and clarity; copy-editing for accuracy.
402 Advanced Professional Editing (3)
Prerequisites: TPW 400 with a grade of B– or better. Enrollment limited to TPW majors, minors, and certificate students; or consent of instructor. Advanced training in professional editing. Practice in editorial decision-making and use of standard copyediting and proofreading symbols.
460 Grantwriting (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 214 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to TPW majors, minors, and certificate students; or consent of instructor. Practice in grant proposal writing. Focus on requests from private non-profit organizations to various funding agencies (e.g., government agencies, community/private/corporate foundations).
500 Desktop Publishing for Professional Writers (3)
Prerequisite: TPW 400 with a grade of B– or better; basic skills with Macintosh. Recommended: DAI 626. Enrollment limited to TPW majors, minors, and certificate students; consent of instructor. Synthesis of written and graphic skills to produce publications for business and other organizations. Students use computers to design, edit, and print works of their own in a workshop setting.
510 Introduction to Writing for Computers (3)
Prerequisites: TPW 400 with a grade of B– or better, or consent of instructor; familiarity with any word processing program. Introduction to writing and presentation techniques which make computer applications easily understandable: user manuals, program documentation, help systems, menus, tutorials, etc.
520 Advanced Technical and Professional Writing (3)
Prerequisite: TPW 400 and TPW 402 with grades of B– or better. Competence in word processing. Enrollment limited to TPW majors, minors, and certificate students; or consent of instructor. Recommended: familiarity with basic computer graphic techniques. Training in a variety of documentation used in business, science, computer, and other settings. Students prepare portfolio pieces such as a white paper, book proposal, query letter, and style guide.
530 Software Documentation (3)
Prerequisite: TPW 510 with a grade of B– or better, or consent of instructor. Writing user manuals for software application. Training in easy-to-read manuals, including on-line help and job aids.
550 Advanced Desktop Publishing (3)
Prerequisite: TPW 400, TPW 402, and TPW 500 with grades of B– or better. Enrollment limited to TPW majors, minors, and certificate students; or consent of instructor. Thorough training in Framemaker, to prepare students to write, design, revise, publish, and distribute a wide variety of documents from newsletters to multi-chapter books.
600 Individual and Team Writing Projects (3)
Prerequisites: TPW 402 and 500 with grades of B– or better. Students design and complete two advanced writing projects, one individual and one in a team, on subjects dictated by their area of professional interest.
695 Internship in Technical and Professional Writing (3)
Prerequisites: TPW 402 with grade of B– or better and completion of at least 36 units in TPW major. Supervised internship placement in a cooperating business, agency, or setting which provides writing, editing, or publishing work experience matched to student's career goals. Student must consult first with TPW coordinator. May be repeated once for credit.
698 Culminating Minor/Certificate Project in Technical and Professional Writing (3)
Prerequisites: TPW 400, 402, DAI 423, and consent of TPW coordinator. An independent writing project which completes the Technical and Professional Writing Minor/Certificate program. Must be undertaken after consultation with and under the supervision of the TPW coordinator. May be repeated once for credit.