The following is the introduction and course description from Professor Williams’ syllabus for this class:

 

Professional Engagement: Writing With, To, and For Our Peers:

 

If you’re sitting in this classroom, you’ve either made or are about to make a decision that could dictate how you communicate for the next 20 years of your life. Declaring a major is more than choosing a career path—it’s choosing what you’ll spend a great deal of your professional and personal time reading, thinking, and writing about after you graduate. This course is designed to help prepare you for that commitment.

 

Including emails, reports, presentations, LinkedIn posts, Twitter threads, cover letters, group chat vent sessions with friends, “what do you do?” icebreakers on dating apps, and so many more genres and rhetorical situations, some weeks, you’ll find yourself reading and writing more about your profession than just about anything else in your life. This isn’t as depressing as it sounds! This sort of communication can be cathartic, informative, exploratory, and whatever else you decide to make it. Engaging your industry this way can help you better understand and be understood by your peers, develop your ability to think critically about what you wish to contribute to your field, and, ultimately, find out whether the thing you think is your calling is interesting enough to be your passion.