Professional Writing

Write Your Future at MWCC

Grab a pen or pencil, open your notebook, and let’s get writing. At MWCC, our Professional Writing track gives you the flexibility to improve your writing skills and provides you an outlet to write your own education story. If you’re ready to become a writer, we’re here to get you started on your first draft.

Through a combination of extensive reading and advanced writing, you will explore many areas of professional writing careers. You will also be prepared to transfer your knowledge and skills to further your professional writing education in a bachelor’s degree program.

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Write Your Way to a 4-Year College or University

You can write the next chapter of your story by deciding where to go for your bachelor’s degree after graduation. You will save thousands by starting your professional writing education at MWCC. After you complete your associate’s degree, you will be ready to transfer seamlessly to a public 4-year institution to further your education.

Since Professional Writing is a concentration within the Liberal Arts & Sciences program, your curriculum will also include general education courses within the MassTransfer block. You will be able to transfer all of your credits to any public college or university in Massachusetts.

Learn to Write, Rewrite, and Rewrite Again

You will take classes in:

  • Journalism
  • Technical Writing
  • Advanced Writing and Research
  • Creative Writing

Also, for many of your classes, you will get to choose from a variety of electives. You will get to enhance your own academic program by tailoring it to fit your personal goals and interests.

Publish Your Work in the Student Newspaper

In one of your core courses, you will get first-hand experience in journalism working with MWCC’s student newspaper, The Mount Observer. You will write news stories to be published in the student newspaper and receive hands-on training in the basic skills of journalism, including:

  • Reporting
  • Observing
  • Researching
  • Interviewing
  • Media Writing

You can continue your journalistic education and enhance your media writing by choosing from several more journalism courses in your electives.

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Tips for Writers from Author Stephen King in On Writing

  1. First write for yourself and then worry about the audience.
    “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”
  2. Don’t use passive voice.
    “Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe.”
  3. Avoid adverbs.
    “The adverb is not your friend.”
  4. Avoid adverbs, especially after “he said” and “she said.”
  5. But don’t obsess over perfect grammar.
    “The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.”
  6. The magic is in you.
    “I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.”
  7. Read, read, read.
    “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”
  8. Don’t worry about making other people happy.
    “If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”
  9. Turn off the TV.
    “TV—while working out or anywhere else—really is about the last thing an aspiring writer needs.”
  10. You have three months.
    “The first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three months, the length of a season.”