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 the degree in two years.
Our faculty have extensive experienced 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
Quality and Value
- Ten faculty specializing in rhetoric, composition, communication
- Website Usability Testing Center
- $533 per credit includes textbooks
- Career Services office serves all students
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:
Dr. Julie Watts, MSTPC
UW-Stout, Harvey Hall 340-K
Menomonie, WI 54751
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: April 15
- 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
2018 MSTPC Advisory Board
- Julie Watts, Program Director
- Jason Adrians, Editor/News Executive, Lee Enterprises
- Paul Anheier, User Experience (UX) Writer, amazon.com
- Ted Bensen, Professor, CSTEMM, Cross-Media Graphics Management
- Brian Croxall, Digital Humanities Librarian, Brigham Young University
- Kevin Drzakowski, Department Chair, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Kate Edenborg, Program Faculty, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Amy Griffiths, Director of Marketing and Communications, Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church
- Melissa Haeska, Director of Web Content, FindLaw/Thomson-Reuters
- Rachel Hallgrimson, Social Media and Video Coordinator, UW-Stout University Communications
- Joleen Hanson, Program Faculty, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Maria Jahn, Technical Communications Manager, Kohler Company
- Elizabeth Kafka, Lecturer, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Associate Professor, Department of Writing Studies, University of Minnesota
- Kelli, Cargile-Cook, Associate Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric, Department of English, Texas Tech University
- Mary Knatterud, Technical Writer Editor-Educator, Departments of Surgery, Urologic Surgery and Otolaryngology, University of Minnesota
- Krystal Leitner, Alumni, Technical Writer, Cray Research
- Kelly Lippert-Negen, Alumni, Senior Technical Writer, Cummins Power Generation
- Amy Mittlestadt, Public Affairs, Mayo Clinic Health System-Menomonie
- Mitch Ogden, Program Director, CACHSS
- Daisy Pignetti, Program Director, CACHSS
- Cody Reimer, program Faculty, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Gregory Schneider-Bateman, Program Faculty, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- John Spartz, Program Faculty, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Emi Stuemke, Program Faculty, CACHSS, English and Philosophy Department
- Laurel Verhagen, Alumni, Biochemical Informatics Research Chair, Marshfield Clinic
- Jen Westpfahl, Deputy Editor of Digital New and Social Media, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Certificates
Four graduate-level professional development certificates are offered fall and spring. The certificate courses are transferable into the degree program:
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)
