WELCOME
The Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) program offers a Certificate in Professional Communication and an MA in English, concentration in Technical and Professional Communication. Students from a variety of academic backgrounds can develop the knowledge and abilities needed as communicators in industry, academe, and the public sector.
(IMPORTANT: If you seek a program that qualifies you to teach "communication" courses, be sure that our courses with an "ENGL" prefix will suffice. For some community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, you need to complete courses with a "COMM" prefix. The word "communication" in the title of many of our courses is not enough. Though our courses would provide good content for you, the prefix of the course is what is important for you to be able to teach in some environments.)
As part of the master's degree program, you can acquire knowledge about the following areas of emphasis, although that information won't appear on your transcript. For listing of courses available for each emphasis, go to the courses page.
- Technical editing and publishing
- Communication media and technologies
- Teaching, training, and pedagogy
- Civic rhetoric/public discourse/leadership in specific professional contexts such as healthcare, science, and government; professional writing genres; and many other areas.
According to your career goals and academic background, earning an online certificate, along with your MA in English, concentration in technical & professional communication, might require no additional courses (such as the Certificate in Multicultural Transnational Communication) or only one or two additional course (such as the Certificate in Community College Instruction). Of course, earning a certificate would result in your earning fewer TPC courses, a situation that might not benefit you. For information about online ECU graduate certificates, go to http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/options/gradc.cfm.
Our programs also offer practicing communication professionals the opportunity to step back from their everyday tasks to reconsider the technological and conceptual changes that influence their work. Our graduates become public relations specialists, fund-raising and educational outreach professionals, program directors and communication specialists, trainers, writers in government, and technical communicators in high-tech industries. In addition, our students enter educational environments teaching at community college as well as four-year colleges and universities.
While the TPC program has a campus presence, you can earn the Certificate and/or MA in English, TPC, completely online.
For further information on graduate admission, click here.
For answers to questions about the TPC program, contact the TPC area coordinator, Dr. Brent Henze (TPC@ecu.edu).
For help with course selection, contact the TPC graduate advisor, Dr. Brent Henze (henzeb@ecu.edu).
