Program in Technical and Professional Writing Reaches Out to Community Clients

A new program offered by the English Department in Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is looking for community partners who want to improve writing and communication both within and about their organizations.

The Graduate Certificate in Technical Writing and Public Rhetorics, designed and directed by professor Adam Pope, now includes a service learning initiative that will foster connections with workplaces in Northwest Arkansas and allow students to contribute to real-world projects in the local community.

“As students make their way through their coursework in the certificate program, they are tasked each semester with the creation of a larger-scale project that addresses the topic of their coursework,” Pope said.

“Whenever possible, the certificate program tries to help students work with community clients, especially non-profits, giving the community a chance to have technical writers in training assist them in their work and giving our students a chance to get valuable workplace experience as part of their studies.”

Courses in the certificate program, many of which are fully online, include classes on document design for technical writers, grant and report writing, editing, and writing for the web. Community groups and organizations that have projects that align with the offering of any of these courses are encouraged to contact Pope at arpope@uark.edu to see if their projects would be a good match for students in the course. Suitable projects will be assigned to interested students in the course, and completed as part of coursework for the semester.

More information on service learning opportunities can be found at the program website’s “Service Learning” page, located at fringe.uark.edu/service. The site details the schedule of course offerings in the coming year and provides examples of potential service learning projects. Additional information on the Graduate Certificate Program in Technical Writing and Professional Rhetorics can be found at fringe.uark.edu.