PRDV002: Professional Writing

Welcome to PRDV002: Professional Writing

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

Course Description

Learn how to perfect your professional writing skills to promote clear, organized, and engaging messages for print, social media, and digital environments.

Course Introduction

This short course provides adult learners with the skills they need to write effectively in digital and print-based business environments. Writing is a daily and integral part of professional life. The demand for professionals who can communicate clearly and effectively to various audiences remains high and presents a recipe for success in nearly every profession.

Here, we examine how to identify the purpose or goals of the messages we wish to convey, analyze our audience to keep them engaged, and write clear and persuasive prose. In most workplaces, we are likely to write in a collaborative team environment. Here, we explore how to use available communication channels – blogs, contracts, emails, reports, presentations, press releases, social media posts, and more – for maximum impact. We also learn how to edit and proofread documents so they are presented in a polished, competent, and professional way.

This course includes the following units:

• Unit 1: Know Your Purpose
• Unit 2: Know Your Audience and Communication Channel
• Unit 3: Drafting Your Message
• Unit 4: Polishing Your Writing

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• identify the purpose of your writing among the major genres of professional writing;
• adapt your message to reach different contexts and audiences;
• combine your understanding of your audience and purpose to write effectively through a chosen channel;
• explain how to avoid common ethical problems in professional writing; and
• explain editorial strategies for revising and improving documents.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

Course Materials

This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course by clicking on Resources in the navigation bar.

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.

Tips for Success

PRDV002: Professional Writing is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 12 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a comfortable pace that allows you to make regular progress. It's also a good idea to schedule your study time in advance and try to stick to that schedule as best as you can.

Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:

• Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
• As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

• To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access the course materials without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.

For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.