Writing and Communication

Minor in Writing and Communication

The Minor in Writing and Communication is a theoretically-grounded, skills-based program that provides students the chance to deepen their understanding of communication as learned in their Major and build communication expertise that sets them up for success in their field and beyond.

The Minor helps students gain confidence with writing and communication in their own disciplines and in other academic, professional, cultural, and public contexts. Students learn foundational principles of writing and communication and apply their learning to reach new audiences, use different communication technologies and forms, and shape, share, and transform knowledge across diverse communities and ways of knowing. 

The Minor is open to all UBC undergraduate students in degree programs that allow students to complete a minor in the Faculty of Arts. Students may declare a Minor in Writing and Communication upon attaining Year 2 Class standing (see Promotion Requirements).

For more information on the Minor in Writing and Communication, please visit the School website.

Program Requirements

The Minor consists of 21 credits, of which 18 credits must be at the 300-level or above: 

Lower-Level Requirements (3 credits)

• WRDS_V 200 (3) Writing and Communication Foundations

Upper-Level Requirements (9 credits)

• WRDS_V 400 (3) Writing and Communication Capstone
• 6 credits of 300- or 400-level WRDS_V courses (from the List of Courses, below)

Upper-Level Requirements (9 credits) 

• 9 credits of 300- or 400-level courses (from the List of Courses, below) that explore the writing and communication practices used in specific communities or contexts to make knowledge, with an emphasis on academic, professional, and public contexts.

List of Courses

• WRDS_V 340 Multimodal Writing 
• WRDS_V 350 Knowledge Making in the Disciplines 
• WRDS_V 360 Knowledge Popularization: Research Writing in New Media 
• WRDS_V 370 Research Writing and Marginalization
• WRDS_V 380 Research Writing and Community Engagement  
• WRDS_V 390 Writing Disability
• WRDS_V 450 Writing Practices for Publics and Publication
• WRDS_V 498 Special Topics in Writing Studies
• WRDS_V 499 Directed Studies in Writing Studies
• ACAM_V 350 Asian Canadian Community-based Media
• ANTH_V 317 Linguistic Anthropology  
• ANTH_V 332 Oral Tradition 
• ANTH_V 417 Language, Culture, and Cognition  
• APBI_V 398 Research Methods in Applied Biology
• ASIA_V 300 Writing and Culture in East Asia
• ASIA_V 402 Language, Writing, and Linguistic Thought in the History of the Sinographic Cosmopolis
• ASTU_V 460 No Knowledge is Neutral
• BIOL_V 420 Ocean Conservation and Sustainability  
• CHEM_V 300 Communicating Chemistry 
• CRWR_V 302 Writing for Podcast
• CRWR_V 305 Intermediate Writing of Creative Nonfiction 
• CRWR_V 312 Interactive Storytelling
• CRWR_V 402 Writing for New Media  
• DSCI_V 320 Visualization for Data Science
• COMM_V 390 Business Writing
• COMM_V 396 Business Communications II 
• ENGL_V 301 Technical Writing 
• ENGL_V 309 Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine
• ENGL_V 312 Discourse and Society
• ENGL_V 327 Cognitive Poetics    
• ENGL _V 328 Metaphor, Language, and Thought  
• FNIS_V 300 Writing First Nations
• FREN_V 321 Critical Writing
• GRSJ_V 307 Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Popular Culture
• GRSJ_V 327 Theories of Representation and Difference
• HIST_V 400 The Practice of Oral History  
• INFO_V 419 Information Visualization
• JRNL_V 325 Fundamentals of Community Reporting
• JRNL_V 320 Multimedia Journalism
• JRNL_V 420 Decoding Social Media
• JRNL_V 425 Journalism and Social Change
• LFS_V 400 Audio Storytelling  
• LING_V 315 Sociolinguistics    
• LING_V 440 Language as a Social Instrument  
• LLED_V 367 Teaching Writing  
• MDIA_V 300 Approaches to Writing for Media Studies    
• PHAR_V 480 Pharmaceutical Topics and Communication Seminar IV  
• SCIE_V 300 Communicating Science
• SOWK_V 310 Interviewing Skills