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The Graduate School

Writing Certificate At a Glance

Participants can earn the Graduate Writing Certificate through engaging in 100 activity hours, mostly based on “seat time,” or the amount of time that a workshop, series, or other event meets. This page lists all eligible activities. Click the links below to expand and learn more about each activity.

Workshops and Engineering Cafes are one and two-meeting interactive sessions focused on specific writing genres and skills. You may take as many workshops and Cafes as you would like to count towards the Writing Certificate.

How to Document: Upload completion certificates from REPORTER to Moodle Dropbox
Number of Hours: The number of hours for each workshop depends on the duration/number of meetings and is listed in each link below.

Workshop

Engineering Cafes

Ahead Of The Pack is a comprehensive development series that supports first-year graduate students in their adjustment to graduate school with a focus on wellness, time-management, communication, writing, and career management. Learn more about “Ahead” here.

How to Document: Upload completion certificate from REPORTER to Moodle Dropbox
Number of Hours: 20

The Writing Retreat is an immersive, week-long session where you can make progress on a writing project in a supportive, collegial environment. It features a mixture of working productivity sessions, accountability meetings, and optional information sessions focused on writing-related campus resources. The writing retreat takes place at the end of every fall (December) and spring semester (May). 

Learn more about the writing retreat here.

How to Document: Upload completion certificate from REPORTER to Moodle Dropbox

Number of Hours: 30 Note: You may attend the Writing Retreat as many times as you’d like but you can only count it towards the certificate one time.

Development series are multiweek non-credit courses that take a deeper dive into a writing genre or topic. These series meet for multiple weeks and may require pre-work, or preparation outside of class time, in addition to hands-on activities during meetings.

You may take as many workshops and Cafes as you would like to count towards the Writing Certificate.

How to Document: Upload completion certificates from REPORTER to Moodle Dropbox
Number of Hours: The number of hours for each workshop depends on the duration/number of meetings and prework, and is listed in each link below.

  • Early Stage Journal Article Development Series (10)
  • Late Stage Journal Article Development Series (8)
  • Grant & Fellowship Application Series (8)
  • Professional Portfolios (44)

Make progress on your writing project and join a virtual writing group. Or, start your own online writing group. Learn more about Gradpack Slack here and sign up here.

How to Document: Write a 250-word reflection statement and submit to Moodle Dropbox

Number of Hours:12 hours as a member and 20 hours as an organizer

You may participate in the writing groups as long as you would like, but you can only count 12 hours as a member, OR 18 hours as an organizer towards the certificate (the equivalents of participating for one semester as a member or leader).   

Earn certificate hours by participating in relevant, writing-related programming from campus partners. For example, the libraries often offer workshops on writing topics. 

How to Document: Write a 250-word reflection statement and submit to Moodle Dropbox
Number of Hours: You may count campus partner programming for no more than 6 hours towards the Writing Certificate. This is the equivalent of six one-hour workshops, three two-hour workshops, or three three hour workshops not facilitated by the Graduate School’s Professional Development Team

You must be currently employed as a graduate writing consultant at the writing center to attend this training.  This training consists of four paid training sessions in the first four weeks during the first semester of employment. To apply for a writing consultant position and learn more visit their website.

How to Document: Write a 250-word reflection statement and submit to Moodle Dropbox
Number of Hours: 10

This is the capstone project for the Writing Certificate. It consists of building an effectively organized, visually appealing professional webpage for an employer audience of your choice. Your portfolio webpage should showcase a collection of artifacts, or documents, that represent your best work for an academic or industry employer audience. Learn more about portfolio requirements here. 

For best practices in creating a portfolio, you can join the Professional Portfolio development series and submit your portfolio during the semester when you want to finish the certificate.
How to Document: Upload the link to your portfolio site to the Moodle Dropbox during the semester that you want to finish the certificate.

Questions?

For questions or to learn more about the writing certificate, contact Katie Homar, Director of Academic and Engineering Writing Support.