Alice L Batt

Do you feel passionately about a cause—such as protecting the environment, ending world hunger, or ensuring civil rights for all people living in Texas? Can you see yourself working for an organization whose main purpose is to raise awareness about that issue and make a difference in people’s lives? If so, Writing for Nonprofits is for you.

Nonprofits do a lot of good in their communities, but their survival depends on how well they do two things: 1) promote their mission and 2) create opportunities for people to support it.  In this class, you’ll learn about the crucial role writing plays in achieving these goals. Our objectives are to:

1)    understand the rhetorical situation inherent in nonprofit work

2)    think critically about the way various nonprofit messages are constructed and become adept at creating them

3)    learn how to research and assess potential donors, using Internet and print sources

4)     develop the knowledge and skills necessary to write a compelling grant proposal

5)    develop collaboration skills

 This service-learning course provides you with the unique opportunity to work directly with local non-profit agencies and create materials their directors can use for publicity and fundraising. The materials you’ll write for class will be the kind that employees of nonprofits create on a daily basis. Each of you will write a feature article and work with a group to research and write a grant directed at a particular foundation. You will also design a project of your own that meets the needs of one of our partner organizations or another local nonprofit.

We will have several guest speakers in class this semester. Some have specific writing needs and would like your help; others will simply be here to share some of their hard-won experience in the nonprofit realm and field your questions about nonprofit careers. 

Texts:

Readings about rhetorical principles (UT Library’s Electronic Reserves)

Public Relations Writing by Thomas Bivens

Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age by Victoria Mikelonis, et. al.

Feature Writing in the 21st Century by Carla Johnson

Grades:

To track the progress of your learning, we’ll be using the Learning Record (LR), a portfolio-based system fully described on the web at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr. Grades in this course are determined on the basis of the LR, which you will prepare and submit with a portfolio of work at midterm and at the end of the course. Your portfolio will include a selection of the work (both formal and informal) you’ve completed during the semester; ongoing observations about your learning, and an interpretation of the work that shows your development across five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflection. This development will occur in the major strands of work in the course, which are available—along with grading criteria—at https://lro.cwrl.utexas.edu/.

NOTE: All assigned work, including informal writing, proposals, rough drafts, finished projects, peer critiques, the midterm LR and final LR must be completed and submitted on time to receive a C in this course. Except under extraordinary circumstances, there will be no incompletes in this class.

Do you feel passionately about a cause—such as protecting the environment, ending world hunger, or ensuring civil rights for all people living in Texas? Can you see yourself working for an organization whose main purpose is to raise awareness about that issue and make a difference in people’s lives? If so, Writing for Nonprofits is for you.

Nonprofits do a lot of good in their communities, but their survival depends on how well they do two things: 1) promote their mission and 2) create opportunities for people to support it.  In this class, you’ll learn about the crucial role writing plays in achieving these goals. Our objectives are to:
1)    understand the rhetorical situation inherent in nonprofit work
2)    think critically about the way various nonprofit messages are constructed and become adept at creating them
3)    learn how to research and assess potential donors, using Internet and print sources
4)    develop the knowledge and skills necessary to write a compelling grant proposal
5)    develop collaboration skills

This service-learning course provides you with the unique opportunity to work directly with local non-profit agencies and create materials their directors can use for publicity and fundraising. The materials you’ll write for class will be the kind that employees of nonprofits create on a daily basis. Each of you will write a feature article and work with a group to research and write a grant directed at a particular foundation. You will also design a project of your own that meets the needs of one of our partner organizations or another local nonprofit.

We will have several guest speakers in class this semester. Some have specific writing needs and would like your help; others will simply be here to share some of their hard-won experience in the nonprofit realm and field your questions about nonprofit careers.  

Texts:
Readings about rhetorical principles (UT Library’s Electronic Reserves)
Public Relations Writing by Thomas Bivens
Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age by Victoria Mikelonis, et. al.
Feature Writing in the 21st Century by Carla Johnson

Grades:
To track the progress of your learning, we’ll be using the Learning Record (LR), a portfolio-based system fully described on the web at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr. Grades in this course are determined on the basis of the LR, which you will prepare and submit with a portfolio of work at midterm and at the end of the course. Your portfolio will include a selection of the work (both formal and informal) you’ve completed during the semester; ongoing observations about your learning, and an interpretation of the work that shows your development across five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflection. This development will occur in the major strands of work in the course, which are available—along with grading criteria—at https://lro.cwrl.utexas.edu/.

NOTE: All assigned work, including informal writing, proposals, rough drafts, finished projects, peer critiques, the midterm LR and final LR must be completed and submitted on time to receive a C in this course. Except under extraordinary circumstances, there will be no incompletes in this class.

Do you feel passionately about a cause—such as protecting the environment, ending world hunger, or ensuring civil rights for all people living in Texas? Can you see yourself working for an organization whose main purpose is to raise awareness about that issue and make a difference in people’s lives? If so, Writing for Nonprofits is for you.

Nonprofits do a lot of good in their communities, but their survival depends on how well they do two things: 1) promote their mission and 2) create opportunities for people to support it.  In this class, you’ll learn about the crucial role writing plays in achieving these goals. Our objectives are to:
1)    understand the rhetorical situation inherent in nonprofit work
2)    think critically about the way various nonprofit messages are constructed and become adept at creating them
3)    learn how to research and assess potential donors, using Internet and print sources
4)    develop the knowledge and skills necessary to write a compelling grant proposal
5)    develop collaboration skills

This service-learning course provides you with the unique opportunity to work directly with local non-profit agencies and create materials their directors can use for publicity and fundraising. The materials you’ll write for class will be the kind that employees of nonprofits create on a daily basis. Each of you will write a feature article and work with a group to research and write a grant directed at a particular foundation. You will also design a project of your own that meets the needs of one of our partner organizations or another local nonprofit.

We will have several guest speakers in class this semester. Some have specific writing needs and would like your help; others will simply be here to share some of their hard-won experience in the nonprofit realm and field your questions about nonprofit careers.  

Texts:
Readings about rhetorical principles (UT Library’s Electronic Reserves)
Public Relations Writing by Thomas Bivens (McGraw Hill, 2005)
Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age by Victoria Mikelonis, et. al. (Allyn & Bacon-Pearson, 2004)
Feature Writing in the 21st Century by Carla Johnson (Allyn & Bacon, 2005)

Grades:
To track the progress of your learning, we’ll be using the Learning Record (LR), a portfolio-based system fully described on the web at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr. Grades in this course are determined on the basis of the LR, which you will prepare and submit with a portfolio of work at midterm and at the end of the course. Your portfolio will include a selection of the work (both formal and informal) you’ve completed during the semester; ongoing observations about your learning, and an interpretation of the work that shows your development across five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflection. This development will occur in the major strands of work in the course, which are available—along with grading criteria—at https://lro.cwrl.utexas.edu/.

NOTE: All assigned work, including informal writing, proposals, rough drafts, finished projects, peer critiques, the midterm LR and final LR must be completed and submitted on time to receive a C in this course. Except under extraordinary circumstances, there will be no incompletes in this class.

This course provides an academic foundation and practical support for upper-division students working in DRW-approved internships.

It is designed to help students 1) recognize how rhetoric is applied in the workplace environments, and 2) apply their training and skills in rhetoric and writing professionally.

To meet these objectives, students will participate in a variety of activities: assigned readings, class discussions (in class and online), journal reflections on their workplace experience, university-sponsored workshops about job searching and workplace protocol, and in-class workshops and peer critique sessions designed to further develop their writing skills.

Students will produce 20 pages of writing (which may include Discussion Board assignments and journal entries at an instructor’s discretion) by the end of the semester. Because the amount of on-the-job writing students do will vary per internship, students will consult with the instructor at the beginning of the semester to determine the types of writing they will produce.

This course is offered on a pass/fail basis. It does not count toward the rhetoric major.

It may be repeated once for credit when the internships vary.

Prerequisites

Consent of supervising instructor must be obtained. Upper-division standing and twelve semester hours of work in Rhetoric & Writing are required.

Texts

A course packet

Others TBA

This course provides an academic foundation and practical support for upper-division students working in DRW-approved internships.

It is designed to help students 1) recognize how rhetoric is applied in the workplace environments, and 2) apply their training and skills in rhetoric and writing professionally.

To meet these objectives, students will participate in a variety of activities: assigned readings, class discussions (in class and online), journal reflections on their workplace experience, university-sponsored workshops about job searching and workplace protocol, and in-class workshops and peer critique sessions designed to further develop their writing skills.

Students will produce 20 pages of writing (which may include Discussion Board assignments and journal entries at an instructor’s discretion) by the end of the semester. Because the amount of on-the-job writing students do will vary per internship, students will consult with the instructor at the beginning of the semester to determine the types of writing they will produce.

This course is offered on a pass/fail basis. It does not count toward the rhetoric major.

It may be repeated once for credit when the internships vary.

Prerequisites

Consent of supervising instructor must be obtained. Upper-division standing and twelve semester hours of work in Rhetoric & Writing are required.

Texts

A course packet

Others TBA