Course Search Results

  • 3.00 Credits

    This course teaches the craft of writing song lyrics. Students will learn the process of lyric writing through the study and practice of creative writing techniques. Students will read, analyze, discuss, and write about notable song lyrics, poetry, and prose by a diverse group of writers to better understand the form. With a combination of peer and instructor feedback, classroom discussions, and careful analysis of written content, students will sharpen their skills as lyric writers.
  • 3.00 Credits

    This course will offer students a comprehensive understanding of story analysis and screenplay development and will give them pragmatic tools used by the professional reader and development executive in the motion picture and television industry today. Students will learn and practice coverage skills while gaining an understanding of the elements of story. Class topics will include various types of coverage; how to compose story notes; and character breakdowns, treatments and outlines. Upon completion of the course, students will have written at least three pieces of full coverage that can be used as a part of a professional portfolio or to interview for a job as a reader or development assistant.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Students will learn theories and practices associated with using a variety of social media platforms for public relations purposes. A "working" class, this experience will require students to maintain a social media presence for a specific, real client. This is an elective course for all undergraduate students enrolled in the Professional Writing major and Public Relations minor.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Flash Fiction (also called micro, nano, sudden, or lightning fiction) incorporates literary principles of both fiction and poetry, and we will be exploring this form by reading and writing short-short stories of 1,000 words or less. Individual classes will focus on analyzing the various poetic and narrative elements such as rhythm, figurative language, characterization, voice, etc. Students will also participate in regular workshops during which their writing will be critiqued by their peers. Additional attention will be given to researching literary markets (both in print and online) and the submission process for publication. This is an elective course intended for new writers to experiment and to develop control of their language, as well as more experienced writers seeking to refine their skills.
  • 3.00 Credits

    This course focuses on helping students create effective end user documentation in a variety of forms. Students will learn user-centered approaches for crafting technical communication documents such as user manuals and training materials through both written and visual means, and special attention will be paid to hands-on application and usability workshops. Students will learn how to create user documentation that is clear, accurate, and compelling.
  • 3.00 Credits

    WRI 303 Investigative Journalism concerns the strategies and techniques of in-depth reporting. Students critically analyze professional investigative and public affairs reportage. In pursuit of their own stories, students learn how to acquire original and electronic documentation at the local, county, state and federal levels.
  • 3.00 Credits

    WRI 304 Literary Journalism concerns the relationship between mass media journalism and literature, focusing on strategies and techniques of significant works and movements in American journalistic literature that students may apply to their own writing.
  • 3.00 Credits

    WRI 305 Freelance Journalism provides guidance in the preparation and writing of news and feature material for the student newspaper and a variety of external publications. It also examines issues facing freelance writers, as well as the student press.
  • 3.00 Credits

    This advanced course teaches students of magazine journalism how to develop a specialty. Students continue to study what constitutes magazine style writing by reading magazine articles from a wide range of publications and studying how their own specialty manifests in different publications. Students research and write magazine articles and study the process by which articles may be sold to appropriate publications.
  • 3.00 Credits

    This course focuses on established and developing rhetorical and stylistic theories which form the conceptual base of the practice and study of writing and stresses the students' application of these theories.