Course Description

This course is a senior-level capstone seminar that results in a project that integrates material from the student’s degree that must be synthesized into a writing project.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to Liberty University.

Rationale

The purpose of this senior capstone is three-fold. First, students will revise and expand a previously-written work of creative, academic, or professional writing; in doing so, they will have developed a key piece of writing for their professional portfolio that showcases their research and writing skills. Second, students will create professional documents, such as resumes and cover letters, that will aid them as they begin their vocational pursuits. Finally, students will reflect on how their writing fits within a theological framework—demonstrating how their writing will bring about human flourishing and reflect the key tenets of their faith.

Measurable Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Revise a previously-written work of creative, academic, or professional writing.
2. Develop a writing project over the course of the entire term that integrates scholarly research and creative, academic, or professional writing styles.
3. Appraise future career options on the basis of individual ability, personal interest, and potential for hire.
4. Identify cultural, social, and political trends in writing.
5. Evaluate the vocation of writing within the wider framework of a biblical worldview.

Course Assignment

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in Module/Week 1.

Throughout the course, the student will participate in 4 discussion forums reflecting on the concepts and themes presented in Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Good. Each post must demonstrate thoughtful engagement with the prompts and concepts from the assigned chapters, as well as substantive interactions with classmates’ posts. The book must be cited in each post, but the writing itself may be informal or personal in tone.

Throughout the course, the student will complete a number of assignments that will aid him/her as he/she begins a career in a writing-related field. In Module/Week 3, the student must develop a career statement in which he/she must explain the type of vocation or career that he/she wants to cultivate upon graduation. In Module/Week 5, the student will perform a job hunt, finding at least 7 job openings that could fit within his/her desired field. Finally, in Module/Week 8, the student will create a resumé and cover letter for one of the job openings found during the job hunt.

As the culminating work of his/her degree program, the student will choose a previously-written work from another class and substantially revise and expand it. This work may be an academic research paper, a piece of creative writing, a professional writing project, or another genre upon instructor approval. The student must add at least 10 pages in length to the previous work and demonstrate clear reasoning, pristine diction and syntax, thoughtful organization, and thorough research, if applicable.