Online Master's Degree in Technical Writing at Utah State University

Creating the Best Possible Degree for Improving Your Opportunities and Your Understanding of the Profession:
What this Program Does for You.

Good technical communicators are adept, life-long learners who often teach themselves when the need arises. They adapt readily to new situations and facilitate communication in whatever genre or medium applies.

Few professions evolve as quickly as ours. Technical communicators face the pressure of jobs being outsourced and often offshored, while they race to learn the latest technologies and systems they must use tomorrow. Yesterday we were struggling to learn the latest tools for interactive learning--DHTML, JavaScript, Java, SWF and more; today we face XML, XHTML, DITA and a demand for innovation that extends as far as we can see into the indefinite future.

Excellent technical communicators can also see the big picture and the tiny detail, and they connect with both the expert and the neophyte. Finally, they have a knack for explaining things, for simplifying the complex, and making the incomprehensible clear and straightforward. To do their jobs, the must not only learn to use the latest tools of their profession, but they must learn to use the technical products of their corporations, and they must explain the use of those products to the rest of the world.

The best technical communicators become directors of departments and business leaders, but they also create and manage their own companies. A few who are particularly interested in a lifetime of learning even become educators.

The program at Utah State continuously adjusts itself to meet the needs of such technical communicators -- lifelong learners, leaders, and innovators -- teaching the fundamentals along side courses that examine the ever changing tools and conditions in the profession.