Credit and my deep appreciation to Dr. Shannon Smyrl, Thompson Rivers University for permission to use these materials. These course materials are largely drawn from draft versions of her open educational resource (OER), which is currently in the revision stage.
Welcome to CMNS 3240: Advanced Professional Writing
In this course we explore a variety of advanced, strategically orientated, forms of professional writing, using theories of rhetoric, analysis of communities of interest, and multimodal design. The course is framed as a progressive project in knowledge mobilization. Students are given a selection of topics to choose from, and then are guided to develop a Proposal, a Policy Brief, and finally a Communication Package with unique visual communications materials, as tools to produce and share knowledge of the topic. You will be supported through this progression by the unit content, journal tasks, and the assignments.
Moodle site for this course (all assignments will be submitted through Moodle)
Navigating the Course
This course encourages students to be active learners. In each Unit, you will learn new concepts and develop practical communication skills, supported by a variety of examples and learning activities. In professional communication, practice matters; you can read all day about how to communicate, but you won’t really get good at it until you develop you own skills. You are encouraged to engage with the activities and project journal tasks throughout the course.
In each unit you will find:
- Topic content. Each topic covers a key concept or skill, with supporting learning material.
- Practice activities. These informal activities help with understanding and developing applied skills. Complete these to develop your skills.
- Unit Journal tasks. These more structured writing tasks are designed to help you prepare for the larger Unit Project.
- Unit Project. Each unit has a final project; once you’ve worked through the unit material, you will be ready to finish the project.