UW-Stout's Master of Science in Technical and Professional Communication is a fully online 30-credit degree. Most of our students are working professionals who finish their degree in two years. Our faculty have extensive experience in online instruction, and the program is evaluated yearly to help ensure that students receive quality instruction.
Engaging curriculum includes courses in:
- user-centered design
- visual rhetoric
- rhetorical theory
- project management
- communicating in multilingual environments
- speech communication
Program Overview
Certificates
Three graduate-level professional development certificates are offered fall and spring. The certificate courses are transferable into the degree program:
- Communicating with Emerging Media Certificate
- Improving the User Experience Certificate
- Communication Studies and Rhetoric Certificate
Use the Request Information form to receive a program summary and learn more about the Master of Science in Technical and Professional Communication.
Request Information
Tuition & Fees
Customized Instruction at UW Stout can be described as programs that are designed with the adult learner in mind. If you're comparing UW-Stout's customized instruction tuition to our competitors, keep in mind:
- $590 per graduate credit — customized instruction tuition rate includes the textbook rental fee.
- There are no additional university-based semester or technology fees.
- Students in customized instruction programs pay the same rate of tuition regardless if Wisconsin residents, out-of-state or international participants.
Value for Your Money
There’s more to value than just tuition. UW Stout also provides:
- Program Director – faculty with discipline expertise.
- Student Services adviser – one point of contact, providing support to students for each program.
- Course sequences and matrices – know what courses are offered when so you can plan ahead.
- Courses and programs may be stackable for use in another program.
- Courses are flexible and convenient for working professionals.
- Website Usability Testing Center for experiential learning opportunities.
- Career Services staff to assist you with career planning and professional development.
Other universities will present costs and value differently - make sure you're comparing apples to apples.
Professional Development Graduate Courses
Current high school teachers who wish to qualify to teach dual-credit courses (courses earning students high school and college credit) can earn up to 21 credits of ENGL graduate coursework.
To be admitted, complete this e-application.
- ENGL 615 Technical Writing – 3 cr. (offered Summer)
- ENGL 712 Communicating in Trans-national Environments – 3 cr. (offered Spring)
- ENGL 720 Rhetorical Theory – 3 cr. (offered Spring)
- ENGL 730 User-centered Research for Technical Communicators – 3 cr. (offered Spring)
- ENGL 740 Visual Rhetoric for Technical and Professional Communicators – 3 cr. (offered Fall)
- ENGL 745 Communication Strategies for Emerging Media – 3 cr. (offered Fall)
- ENGL 750 Technical & Professional Communications Special Topics – credits vary (offered Fall and Spring)
General UW-Stout Graduate School Application
All prospective graduate students at UW-Stout must follow a standard application process through our Graduate School. Beyond that, each graduate program has specific requirements that must be met to be successfully admitted to the program:
Program-Specific Admission Requirements
Please submit the following to apply to the M.S. Technical and Professional Communication program:
- Resume: Current resume detailing your work experience
- Statement of Goals: Three-page statement addressing your academic history, employment history and professional goals. Include a discussion of your expectations for online learning and examples of your readiness to participate in online learning.
- Portfolio and Reflective Statements: Portfolio of two or more samples of your current work demonstrating communication excellence. Each piece should be accompanied by a 500-word reflective statement explaining why you have included the piece in your portfolio.
- Submit all materials to the Program Director by email or via USPS mail to:
Gregory Schneider-Bateman
Program Director
University of Wisconsin-Stout
340E Harvey Hall
Menomonie, WI 54751
Email: schneider-batemang@uwstout.edu
To gain full rather than probationary admission to the program, the applicant must have an overall undergraduate GPA of 2.75. The admission committee favors those applicants with academic and workplace experience writing and designing documents and those with keen interests in professionalizing their communication practices and skills.
Application Deadlines
- Fall: July 31
- Spring: December 15
- Summer: May 1
- Survey and synthesize theoretical concepts and principles about major issues in technical and professional communication.
- Select and apply theoretical concepts and principles to the interpretation of technical and professional communication phenomenon.
- Evaluate relevant scholarship as a means of informing inquiry in technical and professional communication.
- Select, design and conduct research, using proper methods and methodology, making sound recommendations and drawing logical conclusions.
- Compose texts, designs and other deliverables, demonstrating ethical, rhetorical, and user-centered strategies.
- Assess documentation for accuracy, adequacy, correctness, accessibility and usability.
- Appraise international and intercultural issues in technical and professional communication, recommending strategies for addressing these issues.
- Evaluate the ways emerging media and digital technologies impact technical and professional communication.
- Plan a documentation schedule and monitor project progress against that schedule.
- Evaluate and execute team-building and interpersonal communication strategies.
Course Syllabi
Course Planner through 2021
2020 MSTPC Advisory Committee
| Gregory | Schneider-Bateman | Program Director | M.S. Technical and Professional Communication |
| Teena | Carnegie | Director Technical Communication | Eastern Washington University |
| Jay | Edenborg | Marketing Director | Mayo Clinic Health System |
| Russ | Hall | Digital Coordinator | Abbott |
| Paul | Anheier | User Experience (UX) Researcher | Amazon.com, Inc. |
| Brian | Croxall | Assistant Research Professor of DH | Brigham Young University |
| Aaron | Fultz | Technical Communication Manager | SRK Consulting |
| Amy | Griffiths | Director of Marketing & Communications | Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church |
| Matt | Gundrum | Freelance Writing Consultant | |
| Melissa | Haeska | Director of Operations and Grants Management | National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota |
| Rachel | Hallgrimson | Social Media Coordinator | Marketing Communications |
| Maria | Jahn | Technical Communications Manager | Kohler Co. |
| Elizabeth | Kafka | Alumni | UW–Stout, English and Philosophy |
| Lee-Ann | Kastman Breuch | Professor and Chair | University of Minnesota, Writing Studies |
| David | Madden | Digital Content Supervisor | HealthPartners |
| Colin | Marklowitz | Digital Media Producer | Kohler Co. |
| Amy | Mittlestadt | Public Affairs Manager | Mayo Clinic Health System |
| Patrick | Ranfranz | Director of Marketing | Rice Lake Weighing Systems |
| Alison | Saxton | Technical Writer | |
| Marya | Wilson | Assistant Professor | Operations and Management |