COM2713 is the gateway writing course for the communication professions — advertising, public relations and journalism — and it is where students learn that professional writing is a craft with rules, not self-expression.
Florida's statewide description is clear about the scope: the course "exposes students to writing for communication professions such as advertising, public relations, and journalism. Students strengthen grammar and develop the writing skills necessary for specific forms of writing… newswriting, public relations writing, and advertising copy. Students will become familiar with Associated Press Style."
⚠⚠ That last sentence is the most concrete thing in the course and the reason to take it seriously. AP Style is the house style of American journalism and most public relations writing — how to render dates, titles, numbers, abbreviations, addresses and attributions. It is arbitrary, it is detailed, and it is non-negotiable in the workplace. ⚠ An editor who receives copy that ignores AP Style does not read it as a stylistic choice; they read it as evidence that the writer has not worked in the field. It is a portable, checkable, immediately employable credential that takes one course to acquire.
⚠ The grammar component is not remedial and should not be read as an insult. Professional communication writing is short, is read fast, and is published under an organisation's name. A misplaced modifier in an essay is a blemish; the same error in a press release is a factual claim the organisation did not intend to make.
One Florida public institution carries this number — the University of West Florida, which titles it Introduction to the Communication Professions and places it in its Department of Communication. ⚠⚠ It carries a Gordon Rule writing designation there, which brings a grade condition most students do not expect; see Special Information.
UWF's catalogue entry states that this course "Meets College-Level Communication Skills Requirement," and Florida's course file records both the Gordon Rule and the Gordon Rule writing flags against UWF's offering.
⚠⚠⚠ The consequence students miss: a Gordon Rule course requires a grade of C or higher to satisfy the requirement, under State Board of Education Rule 6A-10.030. A C-minus is a passing grade and does not count. If you are using this course to clear the writing requirement, a C-minus means taking it again.
⚠ Two cautions on how far to take this. Gordon Rule designation is made by the institution, not by the course number — so this is UWF's designation and another institution's offering of the same number need not carry it. And Florida's two Gordon Rule flags are entered independently and are not a reliable guide to which component is satisfied. Confirm against UWF's own published list before counting it.
It also tells you what the course is like. ⚠ A writing designation means substantial, frequent, graded writing with revision — which for this subject is entirely appropriate, since the course exists to make you write professionally rather than to teach you about writing.
UWF requires ENC 1101 AND ENC 1102 — both halves of freshman composition. Florida's statewide record lists no prerequisite at all.
⚠ Take the requirement as a signal rather than a formality. This course does not teach you to write a sentence; it teaches you to write a professional sentence in a house style, fast, for an audience that will not forgive errors. Students who arrive still struggling with basic mechanics find it punishing, because the grammar component moves quickly and the AP Style material assumes it.
Only one Florida public institution carries this number. A private institution also carries it and is not counted here, under this repository's scope: it lists Florida College System and State University System offerings only.
⚠⚠ That produces a small oddity worth naming, because it affects how you search for this course. Three different names are attached to this one number:
| Source | Title |
|---|---|
| Florida statewide | Writing for the Communication Professions |
| UWF (the only public carrier) | Introduction to the Communication Professions |
| ⚠ a private carrier | Writing for Strategic Communication |
⚠ The descriptions agree almost word for word, so there is no subject divergence here at all — it is three names for the same course. If your catalogue calls it something this guide does not mention, it is still this course. Register by number.
At UWF this is not a standalone elective; it starts a chain, and each course names the previous one as its prerequisite:
| Step | Course | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | COM2713 — this course | professional writing and AP Style |
| 2 | COM3471 Fundamentals of Social Media Communication | history, theory and uses of social media |
| 3 | COM4561 Social Media Content Development | producing organisational social content |
| 4 | COM4564 Social Media Management | running a social media team |
⚠⚠ Take it early if that path interests you. A four-course chain with sequential prerequisites needs four separate terms, and COM4564 additionally requires 75 completed credit hours — so starting this in the junior year leaves no room.
| Institution | Its title | Credits | Contact hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of West Florida (SUS) | Introduction to the Communication Professions | 3 | not published | ⚠ Prerequisite ENC 1101 AND ENC 1102; may not be repeated for credit; ⚠ Gordon Rule writing designation; Department of Communication, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities |
One public carrier, at three credits, publishing no contact-hour figure — so the 45 hours recorded here is Florida's convention for a three-credit course with no C or L suffix. ⚠ Expect the workload to exceed it. A writing course is assessed on produced work, and the revision cycles are where the time goes.
A lower-division (2000-level) course, and one of the few in this guide set that a first- or second-year student can take. It is the foundation for the advertising, public relations, journalism and social media sequences.
Florida's statewide record classifies it as transferable to an institution offering the same course, and marks it for dual enrolment with elective high-school credit — ⚠ a marking every active number in the COM prefix carries, so it says nothing distinctive here.
⚠⚠ COM is a highly fragmented prefix: 370 live identifiers and 83% carried by exactly one Florida public institution, which is at the high end of the statewide range. A single-carrier course is the norm here, not a warning sign — but it does mean the "same course offered" condition in the transfer guarantee is doing real work. Send a syllabus and, for a writing course, samples of the work.
⚠⚠⚠ This is the course where generative writing tools land most directly, and the honest position is more interesting than either "don't use it" or "it's fine."
Start with what is true: these tools write competent professional copy. A press release, a product description, a serviceable news brief from a set of facts — a model produces all of them quickly and at a standard that would have taken a student a semester to reach. Agencies and communication teams use them, openly, and a graduate who cannot will be at a disadvantage. Pretending otherwise would be useless to you.
So what is the course for? Four things, and they are the four that survive.
Use it well: generating headline variations to react against; checking your own draft for wordiness; explaining a grammar rule you keep getting wrong; producing a first structure for an unfamiliar document type. ⚠ Use it on work you have already done, and check your course's policy — this is a field where instructors set explicit rules and are entitled to.
⚠⚠ And one professional norm to absorb now: disclosure. Newsrooms and communication teams are writing policies on this, and they differ. The reputational damage from undisclosed generated content that turns out to contain an invented fact is severe, and it lands on the organisation, not the tool. Ask what the policy is on your first day, every time.
Generated September 16, 2026 · Updated September 16, 2026