WRIT300 Professional Writing (PW)

WRIT300 Professional Writing

Professional Writing will expand and deepen students’ ability to write effectively in civic and corporate contexts. Such writing skills emerge in leaders who not only know how to analyze and articulate complex problems but also know how to envision and express written solutions that reveal solid decision-making on public policy, and business and societal trends.

While the Writing & Reasoning course, taken by most SMU students in their first year, focuses on breadth, here the students will be deepening their skills by exploring and writing about more complex issues in society and business. Students will engage with the need for deeper research, better audience analysis, and more structured writing, with a more nuanced adaptation to the context appropriate to their intended publications.

Students will consider and respond to meaningful real-world issues and situations in each of the written projects. They will explore not only what other people have said about the issues that they confront, but also develop and communicate their own responses. The finished pieces will form the basis of a portfolio of written work to showcase their ability to think critically, conduct appropriate literature research, analyse their findings, argue their case, and produce professional communication outcomes. This portfolio will be a valuable addition to their resumes when they graduate.

The final project will be an in-depth feature piece written for either:

• Rice Media (https://www.ricemedia.co/). Rice Media editors advise the students during the Week 10 presentations, and students will have the chance to have their work published by Rice Media after the term finishes.
• The Skeptic Magazine (https://www.skeptic.org.uk/). The editor of the Skeptic advises the students during the Week 10 presentations, and students will have the chance to have their work published by The Skeptic after the term finishes.

Students will need to have either completed COR1100 Writing & Reasoning, WRIT001 Programme in Writing and Reasoning or LAW106 Legal Research and Writing I, or to have been exempted from it. Exchange students are not expected to have completed the pre-requisites.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

● Write and communicate persuasively in professional contexts

● Write to effectively communicate to different, sometimes competing stakeholders

● Think and inquire critically

● Apply theoretical and analytical frameworks to solve complex real-world problems

● Apply cross-disciplinary knowledge to their writing

● Work in multi-disciplinary teams

● Apply ethical decision making principles to writing