Certificate in Professional Writing

The goal of the certificate program is to produce highly skilled professional writers who will be valued for their skills throughout their professional lives. The high academic standards of the program are established in recognition of the fact that good writing is difficult to produce. The program requires students to advance beyond mere competence and strives to enable them to perform well in professional settings, where the ability to plan and execute work independently is sometimes crucial.

(All courses are 3 cr. unless otherwise designated.)

Total Hours Required

Completion of the certificate program requires 18 credit hours of course work from the following list of approved courses. (Note that students have the option of counting one 3-hour practicum/internship in fulfillment of their 18 hours of course work.)

Course Requirements

The courses below are offered on a regular basis. Additional courses may be developed for the program over time.

Students may count as many of these courses as they wish:

ENG-W 231 Professional Writing Skills
ENG-W 234 Technical Report Writing
ENG-W 250 Writing in Context (Variable topics)
ENG-W 315 Writing for the Web
ENG-W 350 Advanced Expository Writing
ENG-W 553 Theory and Practice of Exposition
ENG-W 495 Independent Study

Students may count up to two of the following courses:

JOUR-J 200 Reporting, Writing, and Editing
JOUR-J 341 Newspaper Reporting
TEL-T 211 Writing for the Electronic Media
JOUR-J 401 Depth Reporting and Editing

Students may count one of the following courses:

ENG-W 203 Creative Writing
ENG-W 260 Film Criticism
ENG-W 301 Writing Fiction
ENG-W 302 Screenwriting
ENG-W 303 Writing Poetry
TEL-T 331 Scriptwriting
ENG-W 401 Advanced Fiction Writing
ENG-W 511 Writing Fiction (4 cr.)
ENG-W 513 Writing Poetry (4 cr.)

Students must complete the following course:

ENG-W 490 Writing Seminar

Practicum/Internship Option

Students may, with permission of the Writing Certificate Committee, enroll in one supervised writing internship (W398) or practicum after they have completed at least 12 of their 18 hours of course work in the program. Approval of an internship or practicum will be based on the strength of the proposal and the value of the proposed work experience.

Approval of Substitute Courses

Certificate students may petition (only once, and in advance) to have an unlisted second-level writing course from another department counted toward their certificate.

Academic Standards

A candidate for the certificate must earn a grade of B or higher in any course for which he or she seeks credit within the certificate program.

Means of Enrollment in the Program

At the time of enrollment in the certificate program, each candidate for the certificate must submit to the Writing Certificate Committee a brief formal declaration of intention, including a statement of professional goals and an explanation of how the certificate program will aid in the achievement of those goals.

Enrollment Eligibility for Undergraduate Students

A grade of B or higher in W131 or in any IU South Bend course approved for the certificate is the prerequisite for enrolling in the program. Because the Certificate in Professional Writing is a directed program and not merely a collection of writing courses, candidates for the program must officially enroll and be assigned an advisor prior to receiving credit for any course beyond the first 6 credit hours that are eligible to be counted toward completion of the certificate. A student may initiate an appeal of this rule by submitting a portfolio of writing from the previous courses he or she wishes to have counted toward the certificate, along with a cover letter in which the student makes a persuasive case for the coherence of his or her previous course work in the context of specific career or educational goals.

Enrollment Eligibility for Returning IU South Bend Graduates

Returning IU South Bend graduates seeking to enroll in the certificate program must submit to the Writing Certificate Committee a brief formal declaration of intention, including a statement of professional goals and an explanation of how the certificate program will aid in the achievement of those goals, no later than the end of the second week of classes in the semester or session in which the student is taking his or her first class in the program.

Returning IU South Bend graduates may petition to have up to 6 credit hours of prior eligible course work at IU South Bend (for which they received a grade of B or higher) counted toward the certificate if the course work in question was completed no more than two (calendar) years prior to the date of enrollment in the certificate program. Enrollment may be granted to such students when the declaration of intention is accompanied by a successful petition. Any returning IU South Bend graduate may count 3 credit hours of prior eligible course work at IU South Bend (at a grade of B or higher) toward completion of the certificate, but enrollment will be considered probationary until the student has successfully completed 6 credit hours within the program.

Enrollment Eligibility for OtherGraduate Students

Students who have at least a bachelor's degree from another accredited university may enroll in the certificate program on a probationary basis. To qualify for probationary enrollment, the candidate must submit to the Writing Certificate Committee a brief formal declaration of intention, including a statement of professional goals and an explanation of how the certificate program will aid in the achievement of those goals. Enrollment will be considered probationary until the student has successfully completed 6 credit hours within the program. ( Note: MATH M014 is a prerequisite for all certificate programs in Liberal Arts and Sciences at IU South Bend .)

Transfer Credits

Students may, with committee approval, transfer one course of no more than four hours credit from another university. They will need to present the committee with copies of the course syllabus and their papers written for the course. Such course credit may not serve as the prerequisite for enrollment in the program.