Graduate Studies Online Course Services Mini-grant

banner reading Professional Writing-English 220P

ENGL 220P: Professional Writing

Course Description

This course teaches students in the Composition, Rhetoric, and Professional Writing (CRPW) MA the most common professional writing genres used in career fields ranging from business to public relations to nonprofit management. It focuses on how business or technical communication is different from academic styles and introduces students to the current writing challenges and practices in these fields. This course is required for students in the CRPW MA and is an elective for students completing an MA in English. The enrollment capacity is 15.

Motivation for Graduate Studies Online Course Services Mini-grant Participation

I was motivated to participate in the Graduate Studies Online Course Services Mini-Grant program because I was scheduled to teach English 220P during summer 2024. I had previously taught the course in person in spring 2023 and online during the pandemic, and I realized that the course needed more intentional redesign to be an effective online course. In particular, I was concerned with making the course more accessible and providing opportunities for learner-learner engagement during the course. I redesigned the course as I taught it during summer 2024, and I found that participating in the program helped this to be a successful course.

Alignment or Engagement Changes Addressed in Course

Redesigned home page and start here module to meet SRS 1.1 and 1.2 for clear overall design and an introduction to the structure and purpose of the course.
Redesigned overview and to-do pages for each module to make course and module-level objectives clearer (SRS 2.1 and 2.2) and to improve course navigation and ease of use (SRS 8.1)
Developed lesson pages for each module and added instructor videos that had been uploaded to Panopto. The lesson pages are intended to improve course navigation and ease of use (SRS 8.1) and to provide a variety o instructional materials (SRS 4.5). The Panopto videos include alternative means of access for learners through the addition of captions (SRS 8.5).

Evidence of Redesign

Examples of Redesign
Image 1 Redesigned home page for Engl 220P that makes the purpose and structure of the course clearer.	Image 2 Overview pages and to-do lists make course and module-level objectives clear and improve course navigation and ease of use.	Image 3 Lesson pages improve course navigation and ease of use and provide a variety o instructional materials. The Panopto videos added to each lesson page include alternative means of access for learners through the addition of captions.

Plan for Pathway toward QM Certification

I believe that my course is ready for QM review. I completed a self-review of the course as part of the OCS mini-grant program, and I have completed the form to submit the course for internal review. After the internal review, I will be able to submit the course for formal QM review.

Faculty Bio
	I am a faculty member in the English department at Sac State. I teach in the Writing Program, in the areas of digital writing, online writing pedagogy, and professional writing. I have been teaching online courses since 2007. My published work focuses on digital and multimodal literacies and writing response practices, and my work has appeared in Computers and Composition, Assessing Writing, and the Journal of Response to Writing, among others. I have also been certified as a Quality Matters peer reviewer since 2021 and as a master reviewer since Oct. 2024.