What is Professional Writing?
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Professional Writing is a genre of written communication that emphasizes clarity, audience, and rhetorical strategy in the professional workplace. Professional Writing includes a broad range of genres including media studies, digital humanities, publishing, editing, and technical writing. In UIC’s Professional Writing Program, students develop their craft in support of their individual academic and professional goals.
Students in any major may take Professional Writing courses as electives. (Only the 400-level courses are restricted to students pursuing the Professional Writing Concentration or Minor). Visit the English Department’s website to find the current course schedule.
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Minor
The Professional Writing minor provides students of all disciplines with a strong background in rhetorical analysis and written communication. This minor prepares students to write, analyze, and edit professional documents used in the workplace. The Professional Writing minor complements studies in a wide range of fields including the sciences, communication, law, the social sciences, public health, urban planning, business, and engineering. Every industry values the strong written and verbal communication skills developed in this program.
Required Courses:
• ENGL 280
• ENGL 153 ~or~ ENGL 154
• Two 300-Level Courses
• One 400-Level Course
Concentration
Students majoring in English may select a concentration in Professional Writing and Publishing. Writers leave the program with a strong foundation in professional writing that applies to different careers. Every student creates an online portfolio of professional writing that may be shared when applying for jobs and internships.
English majors must complete one concentration, but may complete up to three.
Required Courses:
• ENGL 280
• Two 300-Level Courses
• One 400-Level Course
Courses
ENGL 280: Media and Professional Writing
In this course, students learn skills in media and communication that are used in the professional workplace. Students will research and write a Press Release, a Profile, a Feature Story, and other professional written communications. These are presented on a WordPress site; this professional portfolio can be used for other professional writing classes and shared with potential employers. Every student in the Professional Writing Program completes ENGL 280.
ENGL 154: Understanding Rhetoric
This course teaches students about rhetoric as a practical art of persuasion and as an intellectual force shaping discourse in both academic and public domains. Recommended for students interested in public policy, law, marketing, copywriting, political science, and social media communication.
ENGL 153: Understanding Grammar and Style
Introduction to effective written communication, with a focus on clarity and grammatical techniques. Recommended for students who wish to refine writing skills, learn what makes writing more effective, and experiment with grammatical forms so that better writing comes naturally. Highly recommended for students interested in law, education, communication, public relations, business, and STEM fields.
ENGL 380: Advanced Professional Writing
This course explores the ethics and argumentation of workplace writing in three sectors: Public Sector (public policy): Students advise on an issue in public policy. Private Sector: Students write internal and external messages for a business and develop social media strategies and crisis management solutions. Third Sector (proposal and grant writing): This unit teaches formal document design for nonprofit organizations.
ENGL 382: Editing and Publishing
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of editing and publishing, specifically for the academic press. Students will engage in peer-discussions, whole group discussions, and in-class assignments related to a variety of writing and editing prompts. Additionally, students critically analyze academic journals for their purposes and publishing processes. These tasks are curated to focus your skills on the editing and publishing of scholarly texts.
ENGL 383: Writing Digital and New Media
Writers increasingly rely on digital media to conduct their work, and the definition of “writing” is evolving to include visual communication, audio and video editing, content management, and social media. This course familiarizes students with these topics through theoretical exploration of digital media and practical training. The goal of this course is to increase your “digital literacies.” Topics will include media theory, accessibility, document design, generative artificial intelligence, and social media. While no advanced technological knowledge is required, you will be experimenting with and exploring new programs, platforms, and technologies in this class.
ENGL 384: Technical Writing
In this course, we examine genres of writing required of professionals in business, STEM, medicine, science, technology, and law, from the extremely basic to the more complex. Knowledge students have gained in science and technology courses will be integrated into the course; students learn skills in analysis, organization, graphic design, and in writing instructions, proposals and reports. Non-English STEM majors are encouraged to take this course to build writing skills directly applicable to major coursework and projects.
ENGL 388: Writing for the Health Professions
Medical journalism and creative non-fiction are two of the most exciting and popular developments in professional writing. This course is focused on how to write and edit articles for the health professions, with a particular focus on mental illness. Students in this course will investigate how structural racism, social inequities, and medical biases perpetuate health disparities, and the different ways that writing can advocate for health justice. We will read texts ranging from patient narratives, memoirs, and journalism to creative non-fiction to consider how the formal and rhetorical choices across these genres can inform our own writing about these topics.
ENGL 389: Writing for Community Advocacy and Activism
In this course, students research and write a variety of documents related to local nonprofit organizations, advocacy, and activism. For the grant writing project, students develop a grant proposal for an organization of their choice. Other assignments include an Op-Ed, a newsletter, a fundraising letter, and a service-learning project about a Chicago non-profit organization.
ENGL 493: Internship in Nonfiction Writing
Students earn course credit while working at an internship with a writing focus. This once-a-week seminar combines academic and professional development with an emphasis on initiative, planning, and meeting deadlines. Both the instructor and internship supervisor mentor students during the course.
To register, contact jckessle@uic.edu
ENGL 496: Portfolio Practicum
English 496 is a capstone course in UIC’s undergraduate program in Professional Writing designed to assist our students in landing their first post-degree position as a writing professional. The major focus of this seminar is creating and revising a writing portfolio that not only represents each student’s unique talents as a writer of specialized genres but also showcases their ability to expand upon their proven academic skill sets in new professional writing situations.
Professional Writing Faculty Spotlight
Phil Hayek
PhD Virginia Tech
Phil Hayek has expertise in many areas of Professional Writing. He teaches three classes in the Professional Writing sequence: ENGL 380: Advanced Professional Writing, ENGL 383: Writing Digital and New Media, and ENGL 384: Technical Writing. Professor Hayek wants students to learn how to “broaden horizons, literacies, and understanding” using rhetoric and analysis to explore the capabilities of professional writing in his courses.
One of Professor Hayek’s personal research interests is National Security Strategy. He teaches a course in the Honor’s College on “National Security and Just War Theory,” and has published an article about “The National Security Strategy as an Object of Business Communication.”
If you have questions about any of these courses, feel free to reach out to Professor Hayek at phayek2@uic.edu.