Public and Professional Writing

The Public and Professional Writing minor is designed to give you the essential tools for performing communication roles in real-world settings that will help you write effectively for any audience, in any situation.

Whether it’s for business, public policy, medicine, or any other field, this minor will help set you up for success as a communications professional. Through the minor, you’ll gain rhetorical and analytical skills to help you harness the power of writing as a way to persuade and inspire people.

Courses You’ll Take

Our courses in areas such as Nonprofit and Advocacy Writing and Writing for Public Policy will help you …

  • Gain critical approaches and techniques to write for multiple genres and media.
  • Learn how to write effectively on behalf of organizations and causes across cultures and contexts.
  • Master various conventions and forms for writing in public, professional, and academic settings.
  • Intern at NYC businesses, nonprofits, and cultural institutions to put your classroom skills into action.

Professors You’ll Learn From

One of the most important factors of the college experience is the mentorship relationship you form with your professors. 

Our faculty are experts in their fields, as well as active professionals in the fields of publishing, journalism, entertainment, and more. 

  • Glenn Hendler, Ph.D., a professor of English and American studies, is the author of Public Sentiments: Structures of Feeling in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (North Carolina, 2001) and David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs (Bloomsbury-33 1/3, 2020).
  • Elizabeth Stone, Ph.D., professor of English, is the founder and former advisor to Lincoln Center's award-winning newspaper, The Observer, and current advisor to its associated literary publication, The Comma.

Career and Postgraduate Opportunities You’ll Explore

The Public and Professional Writing minor prepares students for careers in areas such as …

  • editing and publishing
  • media
  • social work 
  • public policy
  • international relations
  • nonprofits
  • advocacy work

Learn more about our public and professional writing minor at Fordham. 

Ready to apply?