Undergraduate ProgramsProfessional Writing Minor

Emphasis on writing for digital environments such as websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media. Common professional settings for these skills include journalism, political campaigns, Internet marketing, and corporate communication.

Development of ability to write persuasively and effectively in both nonprofit and public sectors. Writing genres include mission and vision statements, grant proposals, public service announcements, and outreach campaigns.

Emphasis on the ability to write professionally about creative material and performances in areas such as film, television, theater, music, art/design, podcasts, and video games. Writing genres include critical reviews, recaps, promotional materials, treatments, and profiles.

Advanced writing course designed to help students develop stylistic, formal, and argumentative sophistication in various rhetorical contexts, including different sections that emphasize rhetorical values of major professions and research areas.

Advanced writing course designed to help students develop stylistic, formal, and argumentative sophistication in various rhetorical contexts, including different sections that emphasize rhetorical values of major professions and research areas.

Advanced writing course designed to help students develop stylistic, formal, and argumentative sophistication in various rhetorical contexts, including different sections that emphasize rhetorical values of major professions and research areas.

Special topics in professional writing exploring current issues, developments, or debates within specific field of science or technology.

Focus on developing grammatical precision and rhetorical range in professional writing, combined with experience proofreading and editing one’s own writing as well as that of others.

Emphasis on careful preparation, rehearsal, and delivery of professional presentations including design of effective visuals in variety of multimodal forms. Student performances videorecorded for extensive self, peer, and instructor feedback.

Introductory workshop in genre(s) of instructor choice, that may include mixed genres, playwriting, screenwriting, literary nonfiction, or others. Enrollment in more than one section per term not permitted. May be repeated for maximum of 15 units.

This writing-intensive course will focus on the literary essay. Students will study examples of the essay across the history of literature in English, and we will practice writing essays in a variety of styles and genres, from personal and reflective to moral, descriptive, social, and political.

 

The course requisite is ENGL 4W. Students in the Professional Writing minor who have completed alternate Writing II credit may contact the English undergraduate advising office to enroll.

In this writing-intensive course, students will consider the art and craft of memoir writing, with a specific focus on memoirs about reading and writing. What happens when authors use their own lives as readers and writers as a frame for larger stories about being human?  Who gets to tell these stories, and how? Students will engage with 20th- and 21st-century examples of the form by reading them critically, writing about them analytically, and using them as models for their own work. Constructive participation in peer workshops, substantial revision of their own work, and active consideration of the writing process will all be important aspects of the class. Authors may include Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Mary Karr, Annie Dillard, Carmen Maria Machado, Alison Bechdel, Maggie Nelson, Joan Didion, Hilary Mantel, Elif Batuman, Alberto Manguel, Haruki Murakami, and Margo Jefferson.

 

The course requisite is ENGL 4W. Students in the Professional Writing minor who have completed alternate Writing II credit may contact the English undergraduate advising office to enroll.

Course Description:

 We will study short samples of narrative nonfiction, and students will write their own pieces to be shared and discussed in the workshop. Forms and genres may include description, chronology, cause and effect, analysis and argument, memoir, interview and the research article.

Enrollment by instructor consent (PTE).

How to Apply:

Interested students should submit a 250-word personal statement about their writing goals, a list of writing and literature courses taken so far, and a 5-10 page double-spaced nonfiction writing sample.  Please submit all applications via email to <ejager@humnet.ucla.edu>.

Acceptance Notifications:

Accepted applicants will be notified by email before the start of classes.

Unfortunately, due to the volume of submissions, the professor will be unable to provide feedback or suggestions on the students’ submitted work.

 

This class is an eligible non-fiction topic for the Professional Writing minor.

 

Course Description:

 This course, intended for writers and musicians of all levels, focuses on the essentials of songwriting — lyrics, melody, chord progressions, rhythmic elements, and so forth. Students are required to complete a series of writing / composing assignments each week. Some training in basic music theory and in digital audio workstations (such as GarageBand) will be provided. The student’s final portfolio will be three complete songs derived from the assignments.

Enrollment by instructor consent (PTE).

How to Apply:

To submit, send a cover letter describing your experience with writing and/or music and samples of your writing and/or music to stefans@humnet.ucla.edu. Be sure to include your student ID number.

 

Acceptance Notifications:

Accepted applicants will be notified by email before the start of classes.

Unfortunately, due to the volume of submissions, the professor will be unable to provide feedback or suggestions on the students’ submitted work.

 

This class is an eligible non-fiction topic for the Professional Writing minor.