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Writing Professional Certificate Program with Externship

Program includes National Certification & an Externship Opportunity

The Writing Professional

Successful writing encompasses comprehension, instruction, persuasion, entertainment, problem-resolution, evaluation, investigation, explanation and refutation – all various ends at which writing is aimed. Professional and academic writing requires students to be able to bring in a multitude of facts, points of view, opinions and studies that can inform the writing they’re pulling together, illuminate the message their trying to convey or support the position they’re aiming to take. Effective writing is a critical function for any profession making these skills highly desirable in any type of job where writing reports, writing customer-facing collateral or submitting written proposals is a common task. Additionally, students interested in pursuing professions based in writing would benefit tremendously from these skills.

The Writing Professional Program

The Writing Professional program develops written communication skills with an emphasis on understanding the writing process, analyzing readings, and practicing writing for personal and professional applications. Students will have the opportunity to really break down the writing process and see how it is useful in constructing and finally writing their own work. Students will discover various styles and sentence structures that can alter the meaning and impact of their writing and ensure they have the tools necessary to convey the meaning they intend, communicate their thoughts effectively and clearly and ensure their writing is presented professionally in terms of grammar, spelling and other issues that can otherwise inhibit successful writing. Students will learn the various techniques appropriate to different writing purposes as well as the different tones and styles applicable to particular contexts (professional, academic, clinical, etc.)

Program Objectives

At the conclusion of this program, students will be able to:

  • Apply the steps of the writing process and identify essay components
  • Write effective and grammatically correct paragraphs
  • Analyze the role of reading and writing in your academic and professional career
  • Write effective and grammatically correct essays
  • Apply strategies to achieve clarity and effective style in writing
  • Differentiate between the writing pattern types, sentence types and parts of sentences
  • Discriminate between proper and improper use of punctuation in writing
  • Apply the proper use of punctuation and spelling in writing
  • Examine strategies and guidelines for writing an effective research paper
  • Write an effective and grammatically correct research paper
  • Apply research strategies and methods for finding information
  • Apply the steps of the writing process and appropriate research and citation methods to write essays, literary analyses, and research papers
  • Critique writing samples in terms of style, substance, research and citation methods
  • Differentiate between the MLA, APA, and Chicago style guides
  • Use Microsoft Office

THE WRITING PROCESS

  • Identify the steps of the writing process
  • Describe the purpose of each step of the writing process
  • Identify steps of the writing process in examples of writing
  • Complete a practice writing exercise using the steps of the writing process
  • Describe the different parts of speech

PARAGRAPHS

  • Identify misplaced and dangling modifiers
  • Identify sentence errors
  • Recognize sentence types in sample writing
  • Describe the different types of sentences
  • Define parallelism
  • Use parallelism in writing
  • Define a body paragraph
  • Explain the importance of thesis statements
  • List the characteristics of effective body paragraphs
  • Compose the topic sentence of a body paragraph
  • Describe the importance of the topic sentence of a paragraph
  • Recognize effective body paragraphs
  • Write an effective body paragraph
  • Identify transitions within paragraphs

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

  • List the critical thinking skills necessary to the writing process
  • Describe how reading for comprehension contributes to effective writing
  • Describe how critical thinking and analysis contribute to effective writing
  • Analyze the use of visual images in a variety of texts
  • Describe the elements of an argument
  • State the rules for comma use in the English language

INTRODUCTION TO COLLEGE WRITING

  • Compare features of academic writing and professional writing
  • Describe characteristics of academic writing
  • Compare and contrast writing from different media
  • State the rules for end mark use in the English language,/

INTRODUCTION TO ESSAYS

  • List characteristics of effective essay writing
  • Describe the key elements of an essay
  • Describe different types of introductions
  • Write an effective and grammatically correct essay
  • Identify the characteristics of effective body paragraphs
  • Describe different types of conclusions
  • Identify common structural errors and flaws in logical reasoning in essays
  • State the rules of colon and semicolon use
  • Discriminate between proper and improper use of commas, end marks, colons, and semicolons in writing samples
  • Edit sentences to correct improper use of punctuation
  • Apply punctuation rules to compose correctly punctuated sentences
  • Describe other common punctuation marks used in writing

WRITING A SUMMARY

  • Define summary
  • Describe five steps for writing a summary
  • Define paraphrasing
  • Describe the role of paraphrasing in writing a summary
  • Identify summaries in writing samples
  • Define quotation marks
  • Explain when to use quotation marks in writing
  • Recognize effective use of quotations in writing samples

RESEARCH WRITING

  • Describe the characteristics of a research paper
  • List strategies for writing an effective research paper
  • Identify the steps for writing a research paper
  • Apply the steps for writing a research paper
  • List potential resources for writing a research paper
  • Describe a bibliography and its appropriate use and style

WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES

  • Explain how writing styles and formats change among academic disciplines
  • List the different formats and styles for research papers
  • Describe APA style and when it should be used
  • Describe MLA style and when it should be used
  • Describe Chicago style and when it should be used
  • Differentiate between the APA, MLA, and Chicago styles
  • Identify whether a style guide has been applied to a writing sample

CLARITY AND STYLE IN WRITING

  • Describe emphatic writing
  • Apply strategies to achieve emphasis in writing
  • Describe ways to include details and varied word choice in writing
  • Explain appropriate language use for different purposes and audiences in writing
  • Explain the importance of clear and concise writing
  • Identify clear and effective writing styles in writing samples
  • Identify typical spelling problems
  • List common spelling rules
  • Identify incorrect spelling in writing samples
  • Apply the rules of spelling to correct spelling issues in writing samples

PATTERNS OF WRITING: DESCRIPTION AND NARRATION

  • Describe different writing patterns and their uses
  • Define descriptive writing
  • Use description appropriately in writing based on purpose and intended audience
  • List guidelines for using description
  • Define narration
  • Use narration appropriately in writing based on purpose and intended audience
  • List guidelines for using narration
  • Use the hyphen correctly in spelling
  • Describe the proper use of hyphens

PATTERS OF WRITING: CLASSIFICATION

  • Define classification
  • Use classification appropriately in writing based on purpose and intended audience
  • List guidelines for using classification
  • State the rules for capitalization, titles, and subtitles
  • Describe the use of italics and underlines

PATTERNS OF WRITING: COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

  • Define comparison and contrast
  • Use comparison and contrast in writing based on purpose and intended audience
  • List guidelines for using comparison and contrast
  • Categorize sample writings by patterns type
  • List the rules for abbreviating

UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH

  • Explain the purpose of research
  • Identify how to narrow ideas through research
  • Identify strategies for comprehending research materials

RESEACH STRATEGY

  • Explain how to develop a research strategy
  • Describe how to use appropriate research sources
  • Apply research methods to locate information on a given topic
  • Describe different search languages
  • Explain how search engines are used
  • Describe Internet research strategies

LIVE SOURCES

  • Describe how to find experts
  • Explain how to arrange and conduct interviews
  • Describe how to create interview questions
  • Describe how to take notes during the interview session
  • Explain how to incorporate survey results into research papers

WORKING WITH SOURCES

  • Identify strategies for evaluating resources
  • List different methods for gathering information
  • Explain how to integrate resources into research writing
  • Describe different ways to document sources

TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

  • Describe note-taking strategies
  • Define plagiarism
  • Explain how to use journal entries in note taking
  • Describe the consequences of plagiarism

ORGANIZING AN ESSAY

  • Describe each step of the writing process
  • Explain how to create an outline
  • Describe the steps for writing the first draft
  • Identify transitional expressions to use between sentences and paragraphs
  • Describe the purpose of introductory, supporting, and concluding paragraphs
  • Write introductory, supporting, and concluding paragraphs
  • Critique writing samples in terms of organization

REVISING AND EDITING STRATEGIES

  • Discuss the five strategies for revising
  • Describe the importance of structure in an essay
  • State the purpose for revising and editing
  • Describe methods for improving word choice
  • Explain how to improve sentences in a paragraph
  • Draft an essay
  • Revise an essay
  • Edit an essay

MLA, APA, AND CHICAGO DOCUMENTATION STYLES

  • Describe the formatting of the MLA style guide
  • Describe the MLA citation format
  • Differentiate between MLA, APA, and Chicago formatting

WRITING STYLES AND FORMATS

  • Differentiate the appropriate documentation in sample writings for different disciplines
  • Differentiate the language, style, and format in sample writings for different disciplines
  • Describe strategies for writing in the different disciplines

WRITING IN THE HUMANITIES

  • Describe how to narrow the focus of a topic in the humanities
  • Discuss the various methods of performing research
  • Describe how to create a thesis with a topic
  • Explain the process of presenting a thesis
  • Describe the style of writing needed for the humanities
  • Explain the type of documentation styles needed for the humanities

WRITING IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

  • Describe how to narrow the focus of a topic in the social sciences
  • Discuss the various methods of collecting data
  • Describe how to create a thesis with a topic
  • Explain the process of presenting a thesis
  • Describe the style of writing needed for the social sciences
  • Explain the type of documentation styles needed for the social sciences

WRITING IN THE APPLIED SCIENCES

  • Describe the importance of methodology in the applied sciences
  • Describe the strategies used for writing in the applied sciences
  • Describe the components needed for an applied science paper
  • Explain the type of documentation styles for the applied sciences

Note: This program can be completed in 6 months. However, students will have online access to this program for a 24-month period.

Education and National Certifications

  • Students should have or be pursuing a high school diploma or GED.
  • There are no state approval and/or state requirements associated with this program.
  • There is a National Certification exam available to students who successfully complete this program:
    • Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification Exam.

National Certification

Upon successful completion of this Auburn University program, students would be eligible to sit for the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exam. Although there are no state approval, state registration or other state requirements for this program, students who complete this program at Auburn University will be prepared and are eligible to sit for this national certification exam. Students who complete this program are encouraged to complete the externship option with their program. Students who complete this program can and do sit for the MOS national certification exams and are qualified, eligible and prepared to do so. Auburn University works with each student to complete the exam application and register the student to take their national certification exam.

Externship / Hands on Training / Practicum

Although not a requirement, once students complete the program, they have the ability to participate in an externship and/or hands on practicum so as to practice the skills necessary to perform the job requirements of a professional in this field. Students will be assisted with completing a resume and/or other requirements necessary to work in this field. All students who complete this program are eligible to participate in an externship and will be placed with a participating organization near their location. Auburn University works with national organizations and has the ability to place students in externship opportunities nationwide.

Note: No refunds can be issued after the start date published in your Financial Award document.

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