Program Overview

Certificate in Professional and Public Writing

The Undergraduate Certificate in Professional and Public Writing is an 18-hour program open to all FIU undergraduate students. Firmly grounded in rhetoric, the certificate provides an opportunity for students interested in improving their written, oral, and digital communications skills in preparation for their professional careers and civic responsibilities.

Program Overview

Students will be advised to select courses based upon their professional interests. They might focus the certificate in areas such as technical writing, scientific and environmental writing, or community-based writing.

Requirements

To receive a Writing Certificate, a student must complete the required 18 credit hours with an average grade of "B" or better. Up to six credit hours of course work may be transferred from other institutions.

Professional Writing

Professional Writing courses offer students the opportunity to write in genres they will use in their working lives. Students will receive instruction in business, technical, and professional writing; web writing, editing, document design, and more.

Public Writing

Public Writing courses teach students to use rhetoric, traditional, and multimedia forms of writing to effect changes in the world. Public writing enables people to make interventions on all kinds of contemporary issues--social, political, cultural, and economic. In a society whose primary means of communication are evolving rapidly, students will benefit from gaining both theoretical and practical knowledge about how to engage different audiences in different ways on matters of real importance.

Courses

• Prerequisites: ENC 1101 and 1102 or equivalent or ENC 2304. Transfer students who take ENC 2304 and an additional 3000 level ENC class (either ENC 3311 or 3213) to fulfill core curriculum ENC requirements must take an additional 18 hours above core requirements to earn the certificate.
• Students choose 6 courses from the selections below.
  • Required Course: (3 credits)
    • ENC 3371 Rhetorical Theory and Practice
  • Digital Literacy (3 credits)
    • CGS 2060 Introduction to Microcomputers
    • CGS 2518 Computer Data Analysis
    • COP 3835 Designing Web Pages
  • Writing Electives (12 credits)
    • ENC 3204 Advanced Business Writing
    • ENC 3213 Professional and Technical Writing
    • ENC 3311 Advanced Writing and Research
    • ENC 3334 Introduction to Writing Studies
    • ENC 3354 Writing as Social Action
    • ENC 3363 Writing about the Environment
    • ENC 3378 Writing Across Borders
    • ENC 3416 Writing & New Media
    • ENC 3491 The Processes of Writing
    • ENC 4241 Scientific Writing
    • ENC 4260 Advanced Professional Writing
    • ENC 4331 Writing, Rhetoric, and Community
    • ENC 4355 Writing about Film
    • ENC 4357 How to Go Public
    • ENC 4373 Alternative Writing and Rhetorics
    • ENC 4405 Queer Rhetorics
    • CRW 4211 Writing Creative Non-Fiction
    • LIN 4680 Modern English Grammar
    • ENC 4930 Special Topics in Composition
    • SPN 3440 Spanish Business Composition/Correspondence

Note

Due to accreditation requirements, the certificate is not currently offered on a stand-alone or post-baccalaureate basis. Only currently enrolled FIU undergraduate students may apply.