Public and Professional Writing Certificate

Return to: Academic Programs

Writing plays a crucial role in the lives of people after they leave college, as students go on to work, volunteer, attend professional schools, and advocate for themselves and others. The PPW certificate focuses on writing that serves professional goals and/or the public interest. We invite students from across the University to focus on writing as a way to develop the critical writing, learning, and thinking skills necessary to all sectors of American professional life-private, nonprofit, and government.

Students who know that they will write extensively as professionals in law, medicine, the sciences, social work, public policy, international relations, business, or other fields are good candidates for the PPW certificate, as are students who are interested in advocacy and activism. Students contemplating graduate work should also find the course of study leading to the PPW certificate useful. The courses will allow students to work on significant writing projects in a range of venues. Students who have finished the certificate should have a compelling portfolio of work that they can show to prospective employers.

Students should expect to undertake rigorous intellectual work that will increase their precision as writers, deepen their facility with language and style, and deepen their engagement with writing as a form of social action that has consequences in the world. For more information, see www.composition.pitt.edu/ppw/.

All students who wish to enroll in the certificate program must submit a letter of intent (this would be the equivalent of an admission essay), a resume, and a writing sample. Please submit this information via campus mail or U.S. mail to Department of English, Public and Professional Writing Certificate, 526 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.