Welcome to Professional and Creative Writing

Judith Rodriguez, Honorary Fellow, Professional Writing

Presenting the facts; presenting the person, the issues, the needed background, new insights – presenting them with skill and winning flair. These skills of Professional Writing can be taught. Students learn, too, to accommodate these skills to the dozens of media, old and new, that construct our world of meaning and communications. Theirs are the researched documentaries, the profiles, the opinion pieces, the imaginative worlds of poetry and novel, stage and screen, of the future.

Deakin’s Writing teachers are professionals, each with an exciting track record in the skills they teach. They know the pride, the diffidence and difficulty of forging an output, and the demands and pitfalls of professional practice. Their ongoing practice of writing combines with their vocation for teaching and mentoring, to the benefit of students.

The writing course is geared to offer what can’t be found elsewhere - choice among genres, updated materials, carefully mediated guidance and standards, the company and discussion of peers. It is planned as a bridge into practice – into the word-work of a lifetime, whether as an art or in such fields as marketing, advocacy, or administration.

Students who aspire to excellent communication, and who hope to explore their ability to write at a high standard, should consider applying to enter the writing course. This is where ideas and strategies spring to flourishing life!

Who Is Judith Rodriguez

Judith is a well-known poet, who also created the libretto of the opera Lindy, premiered in 2002 at the Sydney Opera House. Area Coordinator of Professional Writing from 1998, she retired at the end of 2003 but sits on the Board of Verandah and contributes as Honorary Fellow to the area. She works with the lobby-group Friends of the ABC and for International PEN.