Professional Writing Minor Program Learning Outcomes
The educational objectives of the Professional Writing minor are operationalized in the following program learning outcomes:
Textual Design & Production
Analyze and evaluate how communication technologies (e.g., generative AI, social media, design software) influence technical and multimodal writing processes and products.
Write, design, and edit effectively in multiple forms for specific purposes, contexts, and audiences.
Produce digital processes, strategies, and texts to influence how content is produced, presented, managed, and delivered ethically and responsibly.
Develop and apply rhetorical agility to situational decision making across communication ecologies.
Applied Theory & Research
Analyze written communications and communication contexts using appropriate theories and research methodologies.
Gather and analyze written communication data in rhetorically and ethically motivated ways through multiple appropriate research approaches.
Apply strategies to professional writing scenarios via experiential learning in class projects and internships.
Develop new knowledge for the field of professional writing in response to exigencies, using reflective practice and invention. Proposal for Undergraduate Major in Professional Writing University Writing Program, UC Davis
Collaboration & Project Management
Understand how writing and editing processes require coordination and cooperation among multiple participants.
Engage in productive collaborative writing processes and create project plans and procedures for keeping track of project progress, participant roles and responsibilities, and deadlines.
Design and implement writing projects that meet audience expectations by drawing on adaptive writing strategies and professional writing genres.
Global Citizenship & Cultural Competencies
Understand the cultural nature of written communication.
Identify the socio-cultural and economic structures that professional writing projects respond to and impact, engaging in ethical decision making as a professional writer as a result.
Design ethically responsive texts inclusive of global audiences.
Engage in productive self-assessment and self-directed professional development planning within the field of professional writing.
General Education Program Learning Outcomes (UWP 7, 1, 101, 102, and 104)
Writing Process
1.1 Deploy various strategies for engaging in writing as an iterative and social process that involves self-reflection, metacognition, and respectful collaboration
Rhetorical Situation
2.1 Compose texts in a variety of modes (print, visual, digital, multimodal) driven by the exigencies and constraints of rhetorical situations and in response to the demands of public, private, and academic contexts
Information Literacy
3.1 Gather and use information in rhetorically and ethically motivated ways through various mechanisms such as: identifying, analyzing, and contextualizing scholarly resources; interpreting visual and physical texts; activating schema; collaborating with peers or experts; conducting qualitative and quantitative primary research
Critical Thinking
4.1 Compose texts that demonstrate students’ abilities to read, contextualize, analyze, and synthesize diverse and increasingly complex texts and ideas
Engaging with Theory
5.1 Compose texts that demonstrate an understanding of significant generic and theoretical framework
Knowledge of Conventions
6.1 Compose texts that demonstrate an understanding of and meet the expectations of form, language, and format that are shaped by discourse communities, genres, and composers