UCLA Daily Bruin
BY JACQUELINE ALVAREZ
Posted: April 7, 2019 at 11:45 pm
UCLA will offer a professional writing minor for students to improve their practical writing skills. The minor offers an array of specialized writing courses in topics including web literacy, entertainment, business, science and technology, nonprofits and public engagement. Students can enroll in the minor after satisfying their Writing II requirement and submitting a brief application essay.
UCLA Writing Programs and the English department began developing the minor in 2015 to address the lack of a coherent, intensive writing program for students across all disciplines, said Lowell Gallagher, the English department chair.
Karen Cunningham, a senior continuing lecturer in the English department, said the minor also came from a desire to teach students practical writing skills they can use in a professional setting after graduating. The minor is designed to help them develop skills specific to their professional aspirations.
“Depending on how they shape the minor, a student may want to become a journalist. On the other hand, they may want to be a model engineer equipped to write a great proposal or public paper,” she said.
Leigh Harris, director of UCLA Writing Programs, said she thinks students have been looking for faculty to share their professional writing expertise.