Master of Arts in Professional Writing at Kennesaw State University

All Courses Listed by Course Number

PRWR 6000: Issues and Research in Professional Writing (3 Credit Hours)

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director. (Students must complete this core course their first semester in the MAPW program.)

This course introduces students to the three program concentrations - applied writing, composition and rhetoric, and creative writing - by focusing on key issues, theories, and research methods specific to each field as well as those that cut across all three concentrations. The course provides the necessary foundation of knowledge, skills, and practice - through a variety of readings on contemporary issues and through discussion, critique, and application of research methodologies - for students to complete MAPW requirements and coursework within their concentration and support areas. NOTE: All degree-seeking students (not those seeking a graduate certificate) must take PRWR 6000 their first semester on campus.

PRWR 6100: Readings for Writers (Repeatable)

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The study of writers describing their ways of writing and/or how others' writing has influenced writers. This course studies the works listed as influential and then examines the application of such influence in later texts. Readings will vary, but will include literature, drama, poetry, essays, journalism, and scientific and professional texts.

PRWR 6150: Context, Style, and Audience in Professional Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

p>A study of the ways context, stylistic choices, and audience influence all areas of writing in action, whether in the workplace, on the Internet, in publishing, or in the classroom. Course will focus on the creation of specific texts, many by the students themselves, with attention to the rhetorical traditions behind all spoken and written acts.

PRWR 6240: Technical Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

An intensive workshop focused on creating technical documents for clients, consumers, and the general public. Topics addressed will include the history, function, theory, and ethical practice of technical writing. Students will become more capable and informed technical writers and potential leaders in their organizations.

PRWR 6260: Managing Writing in Organizations

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

A foundational course introducing students to organizational writing and the planning that informs it. Students will learn to think creatively and systematically about the writing needs of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. They will analyze the missions, constituencies, structures, and cultures of existing organizations to identify the most appropriate rhetorical strategies and products for organizations in their real-world contexts. Next, stuents will draft a plan for an organization, which may include a mission statement, key messages, organizational branding, a list of essential (print, electronic, audio, and video)documents, a yearly calendar of events and document releases, a budget and production plan, and a distribution plan for key documents. In addition, students will study how professional writers face situations that require ethical analysis and action to guard an organization's mission and reputation. The course will also inform students about careers available to organizational writers and the technologies they use in performing their work.

PRWR 6280: Business and Technical Editing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The study and practice of business and technical editing in texts found in corporate, engineering, government, high-tech, and scientific settings, including reports, proposals, manuals, company newsletters, and Internet web pages. Editorial responsibilities for document development, copyediting, and proofreading will be explored. Practice of electronic editing and hard copy editing will be stressed.

PRWR 6300: Understanding Writing as Process

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The study of the concept of writing as a process and its implications for professional writers in various creative, workplace, and instructional situations. This course will focus on such questions as What happens when we write? Can the processes by which individuals shape written texts be observed, documented, and theorized? How does social context affect writing processes? How does understanding writing as process affect the teaching of writing? NOTE: All Teaching Assistants (TAs) must enroll in PRWR 6300 in the fall of their first year in the program.

PRWR 6410: Feature Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The study of the principles and processes of news reporting and feature writing techniques, including editorial writing, promotional communications, and informative newspaper and magazine article writing.

PRWR 6440: Professional and Academic Editing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The study and practice of professional and academic (trade, professional, educational, and scholarly) editing for magazines, journals, books, and textbooks. Editorial divisions of labor and approaches and responsibilities of editors, along with the introduction to text development, acquisition, and line editing.

PRWR 6455: The Genres of Creative Writing (Prerequisite to ALL Creative Writing courses)

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The Genres of Creative Writing introduces students to the basic principles and building blocks of creative writing. As such, it is required of all students whose concentration or whose support area or whose elective is creative writing, making it a prerequisite to all creative writing courses offered in the MAPW Program. This course will be especially valuable to students whose concentration is not creative writing but who have selected it as their support area. Students with appropriate expertise in creative writing may petition the director of the MAPW Program for a waiver of this course and enroll in the next one. The course focuses on the theory behind creative writing as well as the practice of it, making it a combination of seminar and workshop. Students must pass it with at least a B in order to enroll in PRWR 6460: Fiction Writing, PRWR 6470: Poetry Writing, PRWR 6480: Play Writing, PRWR 6490: Screen and Television Writing, and PRWR 6520: Creative Nonfiction. NOTE: Students earn 3 semester hours for this course, which will be included in the hours toward graduation. Students admitted into the Program with a concentration in creative writing do not have to enroll in The Genres of Creative Writing.

Students will earn 3 semester hours for this course, which will be included in their hours toward graduation. Students who have been admitted into the creative writing concentration will not be required to take it. However, even creative writing students who intend to focus on, for example, fiction may find The Genres of Creative Writing helpful to them when they begin taking creative writing courses other than fiction.

Students with appropriate expertise in creative writing may petition the director of the MAPW Program, Jim Elledge at 678-797-2039 or via e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for a waiver of this course.

PRWR 6460: Fiction Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director. Those outside of the creative writing track must have taken PRWR 6455 before enrolling in this course.

Workshop course in the writing of fiction. Short stories and novellas may be studied. Small-group critique, one-to-one conferences, and peer revision techniques may be used.

PRWR 6470: Poetry Writing

Workshop course in the writing of poetry. Study of traditional, free verse, haiku, and experimental forms by means of small-group critique, one-to-one conferences, and peer revision.

PRWR 6480: Play Writing

Workshop course in the writing of drama. Study and practice in writing monologues and dialogues, presenting stage directions, and the production of one-act and multi-act dramatic works.

PRWR 6490: Screen and Television Writing

Workshop course in writing for cinema, radio, and television. Study and practice in effective screenplay writing techniques, on-air report writing, on-screen news writing, and the principles of script writing, evaluation, and promotion will be examined.

PRWR 6500: Teaching Writing in High Schools and Colleges

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

An investigation into the theories and practices that have shaped writing instruction over the past thirty years. Students will examine student-centered instruction, writing process theories, current methods of assessment, technologies of writing, and other important advances in order to produce curricular design for high school and college writing classes. NOTE: All Teaching Assistants (TAs) must enroll in PRWR 6500 in the spring of their first year in the program.

PRWR 6520: Creative Nonfiction

Readings from and writing in creative or literary nonfiction, including the personal essay, biography, travel writing, the research essay, and the nonfiction novel. Attention to the history and development of the genre and its subdivisions and to the markets for its manuscripts.

PRWR 6550: Document Design and Desktop Publishing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

Principles and practice in computer-aided publishing. Examine word processing and desktop publishing capabilities, develop graphic and text design experience, explore the skills needed to produce professional quality newsletters, brochures, reports, pamphlets, and books.

PRWR 6650: Introduction to Literacy Studies

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

An overview of approaches for studying and shaping literacy in a range of social contexts, including workplaces, instructional settings, and the literary marketplace. This course will explore competing definitions of literacy and their implications for professional writers with students learning to use research about literacy to enhance their work as professional writers.

PRWR 6750: Teaching Writing to Speakers of Other Languages

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the International Audiences Certificate program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The study of the theories and practices in the teaching writing to ESL writers. Emphasis will be placed on second language acquisition of writing skills and ESL composition techniques and principles for various ESL writing situations.

PRWR 6760: World Englishes

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the International Audiences Certificate program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

A study of the unprecedented growth of English on a global scale. Course will examine the current state of English in the world and the cultural/social factors that have given rise to a number of different varieties of English in the world. These varieties, attitudes towards them, and implications for various written media of communication will be explored.

PRWR 6800: Careers in the Literary Arts

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

The first half of the course will survey components that make up the literature field and introduce the student to the management concerns in selected components. The survey will inform the student about professional and organization infrastructures that support the literary arts in the United States and give the student theoretical and practical knowledge concerning arts management. The second half of the course will focus on the writer's personal management. Grantsmanship and fellowship writing as well as submissions-and-publications procedures, literary promotions, and time management will be discussed.

PRWR 6850: Web Content Development

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

Study and practice in writing and development of Web content for multiple, diverse audiences in commercial areas, such as e-business, public relations, and advertising; in public service organizations, including nonprofit and government organizations; and in the area of personal and career development. Students will create their own professional e-portfolio and develop Web content for commercial, nonprofit, or public organization. Course topics will include site architecture, visual rhetoric, audience analysis, collaboration with graphic designers to create Web pages, ethics, accessibility for disabled users, corporate intranet design, and international considerations.

PRWR 6860: Intercultural Communication in Contexts

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

A study of written communication across cultures. Course will use a case-studies format to explore principles for effectively communicating in English across different cultures. Topics will include document design for international audiences, rhetorically sensitive strategies, issues of translation and contrastive rhetoric. Students will be able to study a specific type of written communication in a specific region or regions of the world according to their interests and need.

PRWR 7460: Advanced Fiction Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director, and PRWR 6460.

This is an advanced course in the writing of fiction. Short stories and novellas may be studied. Small-group critique, one-on-one conferences, and peer revision techniques may be used. May be repeated with permission of the program director.

PRWR 7470: Advanced Poetry Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director, and PRWR 6470.

This is an advanced course in the writing of poetry. Various types of poems, from free verse to formal verse and prose poems, may be studied. Small-group critique, one-oon-one conferences, and peer revision techniques may be used. May be repeated with permission of the program director.

PRWR 7480: Advanced Play Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director, and PRWR 6480.

This is an advanced course in the writing of plays. One-act and full-length plays may be studied. Small-group critique, one-on-one conferences, and peer revision techniques may be use. May be repeated with permission of the program director.

PRWR 7490: Advanced Screen and Television Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director, and PRWR 6490.

This is an advanced course in the writing of scripts. Scripts for both film and TV may be studied. Small-group critique, one-on-one conferences, and peer revision techniques may be used. May be repeated with permission of the program director.

PRWR 7520: Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director, and PRWR 6520.

This is an advanced course in the writing of creative nonfiction. Memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, poetic essays, and other types of creative nonfiction may be studied. small-group critique, one-on-one conferences, and peer revision techniques may be used. May be repeated with permission of the program director.

PRWR 7550: Advanced Applied Writing

3-0-3.Repeatable Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director; PRWR 6260 or permission of instructor.

This advanced applied writing course builds on the lessons of PRWR 6260 and is intended for students studying applied writing. Focusing each semester on a significant topic in applied writing, the course will offer students advanced, in-depth study of subjects critical to organizational writers such as grant and proposal writing, organizational writing for external audiences, organizational writing for internal audiences, and instruction in multimedia writing. The course will involve substantial service-learning writing assignments to prepare students for careers as professional writers in corporate, nonprofit, and governmental organizations. Students will collaborate with clients and classmates as they plan, draft, and finalize short, long, and electronic texts. In addition to reading and critiquing written texts, each course will include appearances by guest speakers whose current and previous employment experiences provide insights into the careers of those who write for organizations.

PRWR 7600: MAPW Practical Internship (Up to six hours may be used to satisfy MAPW degree requirements)

1-6. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program and permission of Graduate Program Director and/or faculty supervisor.

Guided and supervised practical experience in one concentration of the MAPW Program.

PRWR 7900: Special Topics (Repeatable)

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director.

Exploration of a specifically designed topic.

PRWR 7950: MAPW Directed Study (Repeatable once)

3-0-3. Prerequisite: Admission to the MAPW program, or permission of the Graduate Program Director, PRWR 6000, and a graduate course in the field of the directed study.

An intensive, advanced investigation of selected topics deriving from individual course of study. The content will be determined jointly by the instructor, the student, and the student's advisor. The proposed course of study must be submitted to the Graduate Director by a deadline published each term for MAPW Committee approval.