College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professional Writing
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
What story do you have to tell? Here in Woodbury’s innovative Professional Writing program, we help students develop their creative voices while introducing them to the technologies and professional environments that can help them earn a living doing what they love.
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You won’t be alone here in Woodbury’s Profession Writing program. During your time as a student, you’ll participate in publishing an actual magazine and meet and network with writers from across LA, California, the US, and even the world.
Over your years at Woodbury, you’ll work on a manuscript and have the opportunity to be a published author by the time you graduate. These manuscripts can be poems, fiction, scripts, nonfiction, or something more research-oriented. Either way, they’ll demonstrate your scholarship and professional style that will help you pave the way to being a freelance author, a contracted writer for or within a business or organization, or a graduate student in a reputable MFA/MA program to further hone and practice your craft.
Internships & Careers
Internship Opportunities
- Disney/ABC
- Nickelodeon
- Cartoon Network
- Los Angeles Times
- Study Breaks Magazine
- Flaunt Magazine
- Pasadena Magazine
- NASA/JPL
- Snap
- Lockheed Martin
Internships are a required component of the BA degree in Professional Writing.
Career Opportunities
- Publisher
- Editor
- Freelance Author
- Copywriter
- Proofreader
- Journalist
- Technical Writer
- Business Writer
- Speech Writer
- Grant Writer
- Medical Writer
Other Professional Opportunities
Housed in the Writing Department, MORIA is a national literary magazine with an all-student editorial board. We review submissions of poetry, stories, and essays from emerging and established writers. The undergraduates who serve as editors and managers of the magazine participate in a Professional Writing course, Digital Publication, where they learn the fundamentals of producing an online literary journal with a professional focus.
The Writing Center, a part of the Writing Department, employs peer tutors who offer feedback to students on any writing project—academic or otherwise—and offer feedback at any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming to the final revision. Our one-on-one collaborative approach can benefit all writers, from beginners to polished professionals.
Professional Writing Courses
The Professional Writing degree bridges disciplinary considerations to create new forms of practical knowledge and builds a sequence of course experiences that culminate in an internship and a capstone thesis project in the final year of study. Students put their knowledge into practice by designing a project that connects their interests with their post-graduation career or educational goals.
WRIT 1702: Introduction to Professional Writing
An overview of the study of professional writing, its disciplinary bounds and its connections to other disciplines. Includes introductory focused experience in specific modes of professional writing, written, digital, and multimodal.
WRIT 121: Rhetorical Theory and Practice
An introduction to the theory, practice, and social, intercultural and ethical implications of rhetoric as an art and craft of persuasion and consensus building.
WRIT 200: Technical Writing
An introduction to technical writing focused on the practice of communicating complex and specific information, including reports and documentation in workplace contexts.
WRIT 201: Digital Composition
An introduction to complex, digital composition based on transdisciplinary theory, rhetorical analysis and applied experience and exploring the relationship between orality, writing and visual elements.
WRIT 220: Legal and Policy Writing
An introduction to research and writing in the context of the law and government, including appropriate interpretive and rhetorical methodologies and the associated and appropriate professional ethics.
WRIT 221: Proposal and Grant Writing
An exploration of the theory of proposition in the specific context of the mechanics, audience orientation and research considerations of grant writing.
WRIT 230: Periodical Writing
An introduction to popular periodical (magazine) writing, both short and long (feature) forms, based on rhetorical concerns such as purpose, audience, situation, arrangement, delivery, and exploring point of view and ͞objectivity.
WRIT 231: Writing in the Health Sciences
An introduction to technical writing skills in the field of health sciences that examines different types of written communication, established patterns of communication, and ethical aspects of writing in health-related contexts. Audiences such as other professionals, patients and clients, and the public will be considered.
WRIT 240: Writing and Civic Engagement
An examination and practice in the application of writing to community-based initiatives, including not-for-profit ventures, advocacy and activism.
WRIT 241: Professional Blogging and Social Media
An exploration of the essentials of blogging and social media communication with a focus on different rhetorical purposes and audiences and practices of creating, managing and distributing social content.
WRIT 300: Web Authoring: Theory and Practice
An inquiry into the concept, theory and position of Web authorship, auteur theory, corporate authorship, and open access in technologically and otherwise dynamic contexts.
WRIT 301: Writing across Cultures
An examination of how writing and ideas translate across cultures, with attention to the differences between ethnographic, auto-ethnographic and autochthonous texts.
WRIT 310: Information and Interactive Design
A collaborative project-based approach to designing effective, integrated experiences for users built on conducting activity analysis of everyday practices, on using object-oriented modeling techniques to represent and plan transformations to those practices, and on doing UI prototyping to specify implementation plans.
WRIT 311: Textuality and Intertextuality
An investigation of the notion and production of texts and their relationship to other texts, based on ideas of commentary, engagement, dependence and providing composition practice exploring those relationships and bridging media.
WRIT 320: Collaboration and Editing
A project-based exposure to text production and revision, improvement, restructuring and fact-checking in a variety of mediated contexts bridging between collaborative and unilateral models of revision and involving multimodal and multimedia platforms and textual repurposing.
WRIT 321: Online Journalism
This course is cognate to Contemporary Journalism. The Communication and Writing Departments alternate teaching these courses.
WRIT 400: Digital Publication
A practicum-based experience in online magazine publication that provides experience managing, editing and producing a professional online periodical.
WRIT 401: Freelance Writing
A practical workshop in writing and repurposing research for multiple freelance markets and an examination of the evolving role of the writer in contemporary multimedia contexts.
WRIT 420: Topics in Writing
An advanced-level focused examination of specific issues and topics of contemporary or historical relevance to professional writing. Examples of possible topics:
- Rhetoric of Science
- Rhetoric of Economics
- Ethics in Technical and Professional Writing
- Nature, Environment and Travel Writing
- Advanced Visual Rhetoric
- Writing Center Theory and Practice
- Writing LA: Place and Mobilities
WRIT 490: Internship
Practical workplace, career-oriented and field-based experience applying writing theory and practice in practical and accountable contexts.
WRIT 491: Senior Project I
The planning and research phase of a capstone thesis project culminating the degree that results in an original monograph or monograph-equivalent work of creative professional writing.
WRIT 492: Senior Project II
The writing phase of a capstone thesis project that results in an original monograph or monograph equivalent of creative professional writing and represents each student’s vision of professional writing.
Faculty Directory
Woodbury faculty are accomplished, caring academics and professionals dedicated to supporting the success of students throughout their academic journey. They bring their professional expertise to students and work closely with them to teach the skills and theory required to enter professional practice or pursue advanced study. Through this individual attention, Woodbury fosters close mentoring relationships between faculty and students in a supportive and encouraging environment.
University accredited by:
WSCUC: Senior College and University Commission (formerly WASC)