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Five years from now, do you see yourself climbing the corporate ladder? Working as a highly sought-after lawyer, engineer, journalist, or health care professional? Changing the world by leading a nonprofit organization? Running your own business? Or, are you still trying to find your vocational calling—that place that Frederick Buechner described as “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet?”
Regardless of your career path, you will need solid communication to achieve your career goals. Strong communication skills help you do more than achieve your ambitions, though. They help you become a more agile professional. Writing, speaking, and listening skills are valued across departments, companies, and even industries. When you are armed with strong communication skills, you will find it easier to adapt to the times—whatever those times look like.
In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to improve your writing skills. You will create several writing projects (including a memo, proposal, brochure, outline, annotated bibliography, and white paper) and receive ample feedback on these projects from your peers and instructor. We will consider how areas of individual difference—like our generation and culture—influence how we write and expect others to write. We’ll even consider how a government law—the Plain Writing Act of 2010—has changed workplace communication today. Ultimately, by the end of the course, you will be more equipped to present yourself and your (current or future) company in ways that will help you achieve your goals.
This course meets the All-University Core Curriculum (AUCC) requirements for Advanced Writing (Category 2) and is approved under gtPathways in the content area of Advanced Writing (GT-CO3).
Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to:
This course meets the All-University Core Curriculum (AUCC) requirements for Advanced Writing (Category 2) and is approved under gtPathways in the content area of Advanced Writing (GT-CO3).
CO 150 (College Composition) or Seminar
Please check the CSU Bookstore for textbook information. Textbook listings are available at the CSU Bookstore about 3 weeks prior to the start of the term.
Professor Johnson earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Public Communication and Technology in the Department of Journalism and Media Communication (JMC) here at Colorado State University (CSU). She earned her B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication with an emphasis in magazine writing from Iowa State University (ISU). Additionally, she holds a home design and staging certification and runs an interior styling business called The Collected Self.
Dr. Johnson teaches courses in media studies, advertising, strategic writing, and corporate business communication. Her research interests include creativity, consumption, identity, media and cultural studies, environmental communication, and feminism.
Professor Johnson believes in the power of using digital platforms, such as Pinterest and Instagram, to become inspired, fuel your passion, and bring your dreams to life. Her book, Feminism, self-presentation, and Pinterest: The Labor of Wedding Planning, explores these ideas from an academic perspective.
