Students in any major at DePaul can enroll in the WRD department’s Minor in Professional Writing, which can be completed in fully online, in-person, and hybrid formats. This minor offers students opportunities to hone their workplace writing skills through real-world writing tasks that emphasize clear communication, strategic efficiency, and authentic collaboration.
Read on to explore how a Minor in Professional Writing may be the perfect complement to your degree!
Why minor in Professional Writing?
With only two required courses and four electives, the Professional Writing Minor allows you the flexibility to cater the coursework to your interests. While it draws on ideas from rhetoric (the “R” in “WRD”) like genre and audience, it allows students to practice these ideas in contexts that emulate workplace writing tasks.
According to Professor Alan Ackmann, who teaches courses including WRD 202 Professional Writing for Business and WRD 204 Technical Writing, “Besides the ‘hard skills’ a student will gain from professional writing courses, this minor is also meaningful because the format and processes of writing in the workplace are very much in flux right now. This minor engages students with ways that workplace writing is often community-oriented, involves teamwork, and, now, deals with the use of generative AI (like ChatGPT).”
In addition, workplace writing is often multimodal, blending written text with images, audio, and video, requiring formatting considerations often unaddressed by traditional academic writing.
The Minor in Professional Writing encourages students to include contemporary writing strategies in their writing practice in realistic and compelling ways.
Can I minor in Professional Writing without majoring in the humanities?
Yes! The professional writing minor has been completed by students with majors in management, marketing, education, health sciences, and more.
As Professor Ackmann also shared, “Workplace writing is a skill that’s in demand regardless of your primary area of expertise, and the Minor in Professional Writing allows students to cultivate a natural interest in writing that can serve them in whatever profession they go into.”
Enroll today!
The Minor in Professional Writing requires 24 credit hours–including two required courses and four electives that allow students to tailor the minor to their interests.
Check out the full list of course options here, as well as some highlighted electives below.
The two required courses are available as online sections at least once per year.
- WRD 201 Digital Writing
- WRD 206 Professional Writing
Other courses you can choose include:
- Argumentative Writing
- Visual Rhetoric
- Style for Writers
- Legal Writing
- Editing
- Environmental Writing
- Social Rhetoric of Video Games
- Sports Writing
- Rhetoric of Satire
- . . . .and many more!
Use the class search tool on DePaul’s main website to find out what courses are available online in any given quarter. See the DePaul Course Catalog for descriptions of courses and to see what other courses can be applied toward the minor (all WRD courses numbered 203-399).
If the Minor in Professional Writing sounds like it’s for you, you can declare the minor through Campus Connect, or contact WRD Department Chair Julie Bokser for more information.
Earn your Minor in Professional Writing to become a more effective communicator in whatever professional field you choose.