Minor in Writing & Public Engagement

Learn valuable skills, practices and tools that are crucial for communication, work and civic engagement in the 21st century.

The minor in writing and public engagement is designed to help students hone the arts of persuasive writing and storytelling in diverse public-facing genres and media. Through a curriculum offered by the Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) and the Department of English, you’ll learn how to write for various purposes and public audiences; leverage a wide variety of digital technologies to design, produce and distribute multimodal compositions; write in professional settings and with community partners; and write collaboratively for social change.

  • Synthesize and apply theories of writing, rhetoric and publics with critical race, decolonial, queer and other critical theories to a variety of rhetorical situations central to public life
  • Understand and control how writing and information circulates and gets taken up in an era of misinformation, data overload, intense political division, racial intensity and algorithmic injustice
  • Design, create and deliver persuasive compositions in a variety of genres, modes and media for diverse public audiences and rhetorical goals such as argument, advocacy, activism, policy change, community organizing, productive dialogue, networking and awareness raising

19:1 student-faculty ratio

Free one–hour consultations with our professional staff at PWR’s Writing Center

PWR integrates current research and best practices to help students apply rhetorical skills in their academic, civic, and professional lives as writers and active thinkers

Be successful.

Be prepared to meet the needs of our 21st-century society by applying your rhetorical skills in a range of fields and media.

 

$73,150

Median annual pay for writers and authors

(, 2023)

 

Put writing into practice with a variety of other strategic tactics to engage effectively in political and nonpolitical actions central to public life

 

Use a wide range of research methods to investigate and address a variety of complex contemporary cultural, political and environmental issues on local, national and transnational scales

Academic Plan & Requirements

  1. Earn 18 credits in ENGL and WRTG courses with grades of C- or better. At least 12 credits must be in upper division, and at least 9 credits must be ENGL designated courses.
  2. Students may apply no more than 9 credit hours of transfer work, including no more than 6 upper-division credit hours, toward a minor. This is a college residency rule for an 18-credit minor.
  3. Students may apply one lower- or upper-division Creative Writing or Literature ENGL course of their choice to count toward the minor.
  4. Students must maintain at least a 2.00 (C) GPA in all courses counting toward the minor.
  5. All courses applied to the Writing and Public Engagement minor must be from the Department of English (ENGL) or the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (WRTG).
  6. English majors (Creative Writing or Literature and Cultural Studies) are not eligible to declare/earn this minor.
  7. Must have completed the 3-­credit lower-­division Written Communication requirement as required by all schools and colleges at CU Boulder prior to declaring the minor.

Community & Involvement

We offer students many opportunities to network with peers and faculty, further their studies, and get the most out of their undergraduate experience.

Some opportunities include: