Certificate Courses

Required Courses

It is advisable, but not necessary, to take the required courses before the elective courses.

ENG 214 Introduction to Editing is the student’s first exposure to the professional treatment of written work.  Students learn to edit, revise, and proofread copy.  Assignments acquaint students with typical editorial practices, problems, and resources.

ENG 314 Technical Document Design and Editing introduces skills needed by professional writers in workplace environments, including planning, drafting, organizing, and editing documents.  It also covers visual aspects of professional writing, such as document design, creation and use of graphics and desktop publishing.  Assignments include production and evaluation of various forms of workplace and technical writing.

Elective Courses

Students must complete 9 credit hours of elective courses. See the list of courses along with their descriptions in the university catalog. Please note that for some of the elective courses, you must obtain permission from the instructor to enroll.

Course Availability

Courses are offered during the day fall, spring, and summer semesters, and sometimes at night during the fall and spring. Not every class may be offered at night every semester, but the selection usually permits a student to complete the certificate program at night within two years. Students who can attend during the day may be able to complete the program faster. 

Course Enrollment

Some courses require manual enrollment due to prerequisites. If a student is unable to self enroll in a course, please email professionalwriting@ncsu.edu with the course name, number and section number. 

Certificate Completion

After completing all five courses, students need to submit the certificate completion form. Once the form is submitted, the Professional Writing program will process the complete and send you a certificate suitable for framing and a letter attesting to your achievement in your coursework.