After the AWR

If you have completed the Academic Writing Requirement, maybe by entering UVic with a high test score or transfer credit or possibly by passing an AWR-designated class, what should you do if you want to keep working to develop your writing skills?

Know that you can take more than one AWR-designated course as an elective. Check out our Which course is right for me page to help you decide.

Some intermediate courses focused on writing in different disciplines are available across campus. Check out the program planning guide for your major to help find a course suitable for you.

Note that some examples of these courses include the following:

For Engineering majors, ENGR 120: Design and Communication 2
For Engineering and Computer Science majors, ENGR 240: Technical Writing
For Economics majors, ECON 225: Writing for Economics

Students in any major who want to learn more about writing in professional situations should check out ENSH 202: Technical Communication, Written and Verbal as well as the Professional Communication program.

Graduate students who want to work on academic writing skills while preparing to publish their research should enrol in HUMA 500: Professional Academic Writing.

And watch this space for announcements of new courses we are developing and offering to suit your academic and technical writing needs!

ENGR 120: Design and Communications 2 (2.5 credits)

ENGR 120 will be of particular interest to students who

Are enrolled in the Engineering program
Want to develop strong professional communications skills in a realistic and relevant context.

ENGR 120 builds on the academic writing skills you learned in ENGR 110 (or other transferable first-year academic writing course). It has been especially designed to help you develop the writing proficiencies you need to do well in your program, your ENGR Co-oop Work Term, and your future career as technical experts. Like ENGR 110, the course uniquely integrates a Communications section (1.5 credit; taught in the computer labs by instructors from the Academic and Technical Writing Program) with a Design lab (1 credit; taught by Engineering faculty).

On the Communications side, you’ll write about the hands-on projects you’re tasked with completing in the Design Labs. You’ll learn how to produce technical communication genres such as problem definition, proposals, reports, presentations, and workplace correspondence, all of which are directly transferable to your engineering program and the technical workplace. Effective teamwork is integral to the engineering profession, so many of your Communications assignments will be team based: you’ll develop essential skills in collaborative writing, while also gaining practice in public speaking, both highly valued workplace competencies.

See sample ENGR 120 Syllabus here.

Prerequisites

To enroll in ENGR 120, you must have completed the following:

One of ENGR 110, ENGR 111, ENGR 112, ATWP 135, or ENGL 135
ELEC 199
CSE 110
CSE 111

ENGR 240: Technical Writing (1.5 credits)

ENGR 240 will be of particular interest to students who

Need to fulfill a technical writing requirement for their program
Want to develop their professional communications and teamwork skills
Enjoy learning in a real-world context

ENGR 240 is designed to provide you with a rich and rewarding real-world context in which to learn the team and communications skills you need to succeed in your program, your ENGR Co-op Work Term, and your future technical workplace. The course offers an exciting opportunity for you to work with a course client tackling a real-world, open-ended problem. Working mainly in teams, you’ll learn how to write collaboratively, an essential workplace skill, as well as conduct ethics-based research to find, assess, and evaluate potential solutions to the client’s problem, helping them make evidence-based decisions based on your findings. Along the way, you’ll develop the ability to write for different audiences, contexts, and purposes, applying plain language principles to produce a clear, professional, accessible style. As well, you’ll learn how to write standard technical communication genres such as problem definition, proposals, reports, and correspondence, plus develop proficiency in public speaking, all of which are directly transferable to your program of study and the twenty-first century technical workplace.

See sample Course Outline here.

Prerequisites:

To enroll in the course, you need to have completed one of the following:

ENGR 110. ENGR 111, ATWP 135, ENGL 135, ENGL 146, ENGL 147

Note: Credit will be granted for only one of ENGR 240, ENGR 120, ENGL 225, ENGL 226, ENGL 240.