Writing for Global Audiences

0.25 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Professional writing skills are paramount for success in any academic or business environment. This course is designed to equip graduate students in the School of Foreign Service with the critical writing skills needed for their academic and post-academic careers. Students will learn to analyze their audience, understand reader expectations and adapt their writing accordingly—empowering them to take their writing to the next level and become flexible, effective communicators in academia and beyond. Writing for Global Audiences approaches writing from both the macro and micro level simultaneously, helping students conceptualize, organize, and structure their writing as well as improve their sentence-level understanding of grammar, syntax, and composition. Students will also learn to read critically and think about an author’s rhetorical purpose for writing. By looking at writing examples from their own academic disciplines, their readings from other courses, and their peers, students will learn to identify elements of effective writing and to apply these techniques in their own coursework and future writing. Short weekly exercises provide the opportunity to implement the specific concepts discussed in class and to receive detailed feedback. Students in the course also have the opportunity throughout the semester to meet with the professor during office hours to discuss the papers they are writing and revising for other classes. By the end of this course, students should be able to articulate a clear argument in their writing and support it with evidence that is appropriately documented and cited; structure their writing in a logical and clear way; make effective rhetorical choices regarding word choice and tone; and apply the rules of English grammar and be able to utilize tools for self-editing and revision. Throughout the course, we will reinforce ways that these skills can be applied across audiences, platforms, and genres of writing—from research papers, capstone projects, and journal articles to response papers, policy memos and briefs, digital publications, and professional correspondence.