Writing for Birth Professionals (online)

(no classes scheduled at this time)

Overview
Who Should Attend
Course Description
Credit Hours
Schedule
Required Texts
Computer Requirements
Instructor

Overview

This 3-credit course includes interactive tools, online resources, and opportunities to discuss and critique your writing with classmates in a supportive environment.  It fulfills the Advanced Writing prerequisite for the SMS Midwifery Education Program.  Class limit is 8 students.

Who Should Attend?

• Birth professionals, including midwives and doulas, who seek to sharpen their writing skills for:
• Client handouts
• Editorials
• Articles
• Presentations
• Career or educational development
• Potential applicants to the SMS Midwifery Education Program

English 101 is a prerequisite for this course.  Students will need basic skills in typing, computer use, and use of the Internet.

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Course Description

Topics include:

• Planning and drafting your writing
• Providing useful feedback on other writers’ drafts
• Using feedback on drafts to revise them
• Identifying and avoiding argument fallacies
• Writing critically about writing or other media
• Conducting research to support your thesis
• Documenting sources in your writing
• Identifying and correcting impediments to good paragraphs and strong sentences

Activities include:

• five writing assignments (each will go through three stages: one draft your classmates will review, one draft the instructor will review, and a final you will turn in for grading)
  • Persuasive Essay
  • Brochure or Client Handout
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Book or Film Review
  • Article
• editing other students’ writing
• completing on-line exercises
• reading short sections of the text to prepare you to write
• posting weekly on the class discussion board.

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Credit hours

Schedule

See the class schedule for the next available course dates.

Once your tuition and fees are paid, you will receive a log on and password and a written orientation to WebCT use.  (WebCT is our online educational interface.)  This will be sent to you via email, and you will be able to go online and try things out a few days before the quarter begins.  Technical assistance will be available.

There are weekly assignments and deadlines, so you must keep pace with the class.  However, there are no “real-time” components to the course, so you can complete the learning activities and assignments whenever it is convenient for you within the constraints of the due dates.

There is a general discussion board for students to engage in discussion with one another as desired beyond the required question board and an internal email system you will use to contact the instructor or SMS staff (or fellow students) if needed.

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Texts

• A Writer’s Reference (5th ed, 2003), by Diana Hacker

• Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (2004), by Patricia T. O’Conner
• The Elements of Style (4th ed, 2000), by Strunk and White

Computer Requirements

Please click here for a complete summary of computer requirements for WebCT.

Instructor

Launa Hall holds a masters degree in writing from Purdue University and has previously taught composition, English as a Second Language, and short story writing.  Her articles, book reviews, and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications.  She is a mother of two, a La Leche League Leader, and a midwifery consumer and advocate.  She enjoys teaching online and loves being a part of the SMS community.

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