ENGL 302: Writing for Government

If your career plans include working for government or in the public sector, the best thing you can do to improve your prospects is to develop strong writing skills. Take a quick look through the job postings for positions in government and you’ll see that almost every ad demands excellent written communications skills. Employers know that strong writing skills reflect not just your command of language but also your organizational skills, your attention to detail, your persuasiveness, and your ability to make sense.

English 302 introduces you to the essential skills you’ll need to be an efficient and effective government writer, whether you plan to work in government communications or as a professional in a specific ministry. You’ll learn to design, plan, and develop documents so that they achieve their purpose concisely and effectively. Through intensive practice, you’ll learn to write in a clear, concise, and readable style suitable for both government and public audiences. You’ll develop your knowledge of document structure and design, for both print and online publications. You’ll learn how to make complex information simple and clear. You’ll practise writing briefing notes—one of the most in-demand skills in government—as well as correspondence, policy proposals, and media releases.

The skills and practice highlighted in this course will be of value to you if you are studying in any program that leads to government or public sector work—from nursing, education, health information sciences, and social work to business, political science, history, and many others in the social sciences and humanities. They will also help prepare you to work as a writer in any workplace setting, public or private.

Among the students who’ve taken this course over the past few years, many now work as communications officers, policy analysts, and government administrators. Others have put their writing skills to good use in the broader public sector and for private businesses.