Department website: https://engineering.jhu.edu/cle/programs-minors/professional-communication-program/
Professional Communication Program
Strong communication skills are the key to success in any discipline. The Professional Communication Program (PCP) helps Johns Hopkins undergraduates and graduate students learn how to improve their communication skills in both academic and professional settings through a variety of hands-on courses designed to develop their abilities to research, write, display data, and speak persuasively.
Starting with the highly popular foundational courses EN.661.110 Professional Writing and Ethics and EN.661.250 Oral Presentations, PCP students learn how to design, develop, create, and revise communication-based deliverables for diverse audiences. They also learn how to present pitches and posters at academic conferences, prepare job application materials, practice interviewing for internships and jobs, and speak effectively in a wide array of academic and professional scenarios. EN.661.110 Professional Writing and Ethics will meet the requirement for WSE FA1 Foundational Course in Writing and EN.661.250 Oral Presentations will meet the requirement for WSE FA1 Foundational Course in Oral Communication.
The program expands to include specialized classes and seminars in scientific writing, research and grant writing, engineering culture and ethics, food blogging and travel writing, social media, multimedia PR campaigns, improvisational techniques, and other relevant topics. All PCP courses are small, which ensures that everyone receives the skilled attention necessary to grow as a communicator.
The PCP also hosts a Technical Communication Lab, which is open to undergraduate, graduate, and post-doc students on the Homewood campus. The lab offers free consultations in technical writing, graphic design, presentation practice, poster development, job interview practice, ESL skills, and other relevant areas.
PCP Courses
EN.661.110. Professional Writing and Ethics. 3 Credits.
This course teaches students to write skillfully, think ethically, and reason persuasively by responding to ethical challenges that arise between technology and society in the twenty-first century. Topics for these activities are drawn from the WSE’s Grand Challenges and other ethical contexts relevant to engineering, including contemporary debates about the social, economic, and environmental responsibilities of professional engineers. Course activities give students techniques to write effectively as individuals and collaboratively in teams, hone their ability to think critically, evaluate and use evidence to support their ideas, communicate effectively with professional and public stakeholders, iterate and refine their ideas, create appropriate visuals and infographics, and other relevant areas. Course-specific topics may include: equitable health systems, trusted artificial intelligence, resilient cities, robot ethics, privacy and fair computing; accessible and inclusive design, sustainable energy, and the social responsibility of science.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)
EN Foundational Abilities: Ethical Reflection (FA5)
Writing Intensive
EN.661.128. Improvisational Techniques for Communication. 3 Credits.
This course can help increase your self-confidence, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and personal effectiveness in a wide variety of social settings—both academic and professional. Using scenarios that encourage creative problem solving, collaboration, imaginative movement, radical acceptance, and deep play, this course teaches adaptable communication skills This course is appropriate for students in any discipline or major.
Distribution Area: Humanities
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
EN.661.250. Oral Presentations. 3 Credits.
This course is designed to help students push through any anxieties about public speaking by immersing them in a practice-intensive environment. They learn how to speak with confidence in a variety of formats and venues - including extemporaneous speaking, job interviewing, leading a discussion, presenting a technical speech, and other relevant scenarios. Students learn how to develop effective and visually compelling slides; hone their main message; improve their delivery skills; and write thought-provoking, well-organized speeches that hold an audience's attention. Students will also learn about the civic responsibilities of engineers in the democratic process. No audits.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
EN.661.306. Special Topics in Professional Writing: Freelance Travel Writing. 3 Credits.
In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of magazine and travel writing as well as best practices for working as a freelance writer. While gaining familiarity with the genre by reading a selection of exemplary magazine articles, students will learn how to brainstorm ideas, plan research, interview skillfully, polish pitches to editors, and write/revise/submit work for publication.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)
Writing Intensive
EN.661.315. Culture of the Engineering Profession. 3 Credits.
In this course, you will explore the culture of engineering while preparing to think and communicate effectively with the various audiences with whom engineers interact. You will read, discuss, present, and write about major themes and questions in engineering today. We explore the origins and evolution of the engineering profession, the dreams and nightmares of our engineered world, and today’s major debates in engineering ethics. Over the course of the semester, you will boost your ability to think and communicate as an informed engineer. Assignments may include ethical analyses, case studies, multimodal technical documents, argumentative essays about the history and trajectory of the field, professional presentations, and proposals supporting improved, human-friendly outcomes in engineering.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2)
EN Foundational Abilities: Ethical Reflection (FA5)
Writing Intensive
EN.661.317. Culture of the Medical Profession. 3 Credits.
This course is designed to engage students in thinking critically and empathetically about key issues encountered by healthcare professionals. The course, taught in seminar style, explores topics ranging from health disparities and healthcare costs to provider-patient communication and socioeconomics of health care by examining cases and readings that highlight the problems that doctors, administrators, researchers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals face on a daily basis. Guest speakers with a range of clinical backgrounds from physicians to social workers also come to class in order to share their path into medicine and daily life as a medical professional. Course content is focused around three specific course goals: 1) teaching students to consider the culture of the medical profession in general as well as the culture of specific institutions and therapeutic areas; 2) equipping students with the framework to understand health care from diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts; and 3) providing students opportunities to exercise the communication skills required in healthcare settings.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
EN.661.355. Special Topics in Professional Writing: Blogging about Food and Culture. 3 Credits.
Explore Baltimore’s thriving food and restaurant scene while learning the art of criticism and best practices for blogging. In this journalism class taught by former New York Times Magazine editor Sarah Smith, students will study the work of some of the best writers in the field, from Laurie Colwin to Pete Wells, and using that work as a guide, write their own essays, reviews and features, which the class will discuss in a workshop setting. Instruction will include the basics of reporting and research; differences in writing for print and online media; ethics and legal concerns; and practical advice for pitching editors and setting up blogs. Recommended Course Background: At least one previous writing course.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3),
Engagement with Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
EN.661.361. Crisis Communications. 3 Credits.
This course will unpack the elements of successful crisis communication in both the private and public sectors, offering a detailed review of the three principal types of crises that emerge with increased regularity in the worlds of business, entertainment, politics and government. Through the application of contemporary and historical case studies – both positive and negative - this course will provide students with the distinguishing characteristics of each crisis category. From there, we will assess both the risks of catastrophic consequence and the potential for recovery for the protagonist and provide time-tested strategies for the successful management and resolution of each scenario.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
EN.661.370. Storytelling with Data. 3 Credits.
Complex ideas can often be more effectively communicated when they are represented simply and visually. In addition, data exploration and visualization are crucial foundational skills for data analysis and decision analytics. Using storytelling and visualization techniques, students will learn how to interpret data patterns to inherent in information and datasets and create effective data visualizations to assist managers, VIPS, and other stakeholders in their decision-making process. Students who take this course will learn modern methods and standards for data visualization, the principles for meaningful data visualization, and the ethics of skillful, effective visualization. Students will learn to use data analysis software (Excel and Tableau), but no prior programming experience is necessary. A working knowledge of Excel would be useful.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3)