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Powerwriting for Journalism and Publishing is designed to help adults enhance and advance their writing skills. The course uses modern published media (including current newspapers, magazines and blogs) as templates to help students pursue their goal of fluent written English.

In particular, participants will learn editing tools: practical guides to "style" (formatting) and tone (audience and intent).

Successful graduates can pursue jobs in publishing and journalism, web-editing, online publishing, advertising, tourism, business (especially small-businesses), graphic design and hotel management. That is, any job that requires you to mediate between native and non-native speakers through writing.

Most of us turn to the television, radio, or internet to learn more, or we wait for the next day's newspapers for a full account of the event. Without these news outlets, we'd have no way of knowing what goes on in other parts of the country, world, or even within our own government.

Journalists are the people who gather information about what's happening, distilling events into concise television or radio reports, or articles for newspapers, magazines or internet "blogs." When the press works well and responsibly, it helps the public get the information necessary to make sound social and political decisions. When the press doesn't work so well, it can ignore important issues, emphasize trivial ones, oversimplify complex issues, or even mislead the public.

A journalist's life is not nearly as glamorous as some television shows and movies would have you believe. Most journalists (also referred to as reporters) spend a great deal of time reporting on boring and inconsequential stories. And yet, there is a definite allure to this job. At any moment, journalists can suddenly find themselves in the middle of exciting, even historic, events. Their task is to gather facts and try to tell all sides of a story. This involves interviewing people, obtaining documents, consulting experts, and when possible, observing events firsthand. After gathering information (which can be done in a day or over several months) reporters organize their information and write it down. After they've finished writing, they submit their work to editors who review their stories and suggest improvements.

The finished product is printed in a newspaper or magazine, on a wire service or website, or broadcast on radio or TV. Sometimes reporters discover a story themselves in the process of "covering a beat" or writing habitually on one particular topic. Other times, they are assigned to cover stories by editors. When reporters cover important stories well, their work can dramatically change social and political policy and laws. For example, the work of reporters at the Washington Post, eventually brought about the resignation of President Richard Nixon. News stories have also pointed out inadequacies in environmental, consumer protection and health and safety laws, resulting in new regulations in these areas.