What is Professional Writing ? The MA in Professional Writing offers coursework in many forms of specialized writing, including technical, business, and health. But careers in writing are rapidly changing. Most writing jobs require the authoring of texts and graphics in multiple media, incorporating new technologies. In this program, students develop cross-genre skills in information and instructional design, Web content development and design, project management, and user-testing. Students write and edit articles, promotional material, grant proposals, and reports; create digital and social media; interact with various specializations and research methods; and develop competencies in appropriate software. The curriculum emphasizes the theory and practice of communication processes bridging disciplines and industries. An innovative approach to service-learning in the classes stresses students’ roles as professional consultants and collaborative team-members. The internship requirement affords students the chance to put classroom work into practice. Individualized attention to students’ interests and changes in related fields ensures students’ success in a variety of careers. The program is designed for full and part-time students, including recent graduates of BA or BS programs in English, communication, graphics, the sciences, and other fields, working professionals turning to part-time graduate study to enhance their careers, improve their chances for promotion, or become credentialed in a different field. (Students have included recent college graduates to recent retirees.)

Career Possibilities The program prepares graduates for an array of possible professional routes. Most program graduates have accepted nonacademic positions though some have gone on to doctoral work in composition, rhetoric, and technical communication. Job titles for recent graduates include distance learning coordinator health communicator proposal writer project manager technical writer editor content specialist instructional designer digital marketing specialist