Cmty Dev & Apld Econ: SL:Strategic Writing for PCOM

Students learn to write standard messages and documents including e-mail, memos, letters to the editor, fundraising letters, news releases, brochures, and feature stories. Prerequisites: CDAE 1240, ENGL 1001, or ENGL 1740; Public Communication majors/minors only.

Prereqs enforced by the system: CDAE 1240 or ENGL 1001 or ENGL 1740; COM majors and minors only Open to Degree and PACE Students

Strategic writing is goal-oriented writing, whether you are using it to help an organization achieve its goals, or writing a persuasive cover letter to convince a recruiter to hire you. This course introduces the essential skills needed to write strategically, concisely and vibrantly in any format: Identifying and targeting messages and story ideas, planning and organizing a story, interviewing, writing feature stories and press releases, newsletters, blogs, social media posts, advertising copy, and opinion pieces. We will also cover strategic writing for *you,* including cover letters and Linked In profiles. This section is offered as a service-learning course that provides opportunities to apply academic learning in a community and professional context. The work with off-campus community partners enables you to gain applied experience as if you were serving a client in a communications or marketing agency, while also growing as an individual through community engagement and critical reflection. Learning Objectives: 1) Recognize various forms of strategic writing and analyze their effectiveness. 2) Demonstrate ability to plan and organize a piece of writing, including identification of key messages, audience, and rationale for specific writing deliverable. 3) Compose various types of writing deliverables (e.g. memos/emails, press release, media pitch, op-ed) using clear, concise, and vibrant language with appropriate delivery and tone. 4) Practice giving and responding to feedback in a writing context using editing software and online collaboration tools. 5) Apply strategic writing principles to produce written communications for a community organization in response to their specific organizational goal(s). 6) Develop and demonstrate ethical, community-engaged communication skills through collaboration and reflect on the impact of your work as a practitioner. 7) Evaluate the impact of generative AI tools on strategic writing for public audiences and discuss the ethical and practical implications for public communication professionals.

Weekly attendance, in-class participation and engagement, completion of weekly homework, writing assignments and/or discussion board posts. This is writing-intensive course. Students are expected to turn in polished, professional work on deadline. Students will work in groups on service-learning projects. Some class time will be allocated for SL project work, but some group and client meeting outside of class will be required. SL partners may include nonprofits, small businesses, advocacy or community organizations, or on-campus partners, and will be introduced at the start of the semester. Students will work on a main writing-oriented deliverable throughout the semester and present their final projects in the final class.

Grades are based on attendance and participation, weekly assignments, and a semester-long service-learning project.