Technical Communication Major, Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Technical Communication is a professional program designed to prepare students for a career as a writer in a professional, corporate, or non-profit organization. Our graduates get jobs as technical writers, marketing and communication specialists, content developers, customer engineers, instructional designers, graphic and document designers, program managers, web designers, and content developers as well as in other communication-related positions.
In technical communication, students learn to develop, edit and manage a range of professional documents, including instructional manuals, catalogs, promotional materials, newsletters, organizational policies, websites, training materials, and grant proposals. Because of the diverse nature of the profession, students will develop a broad base of professional writing skills, including work in documentation, editing and information design. Students will also enhance their computer literacy, developing knowledge in desktop publishing and web design practices.
As part of this program, students will complete a professional internship, requiring at least 200 hours of supervised work in a business, industry, or agency related to the student’s academic preparation and career goals.
Note: two years of a single high school foreign language or one year of a single college-level foreign language is required.
| Required Communications/Public Relations | ||
| CMST 461 | INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORY | 5 |
| JRNM 453 | PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING | 5 |
| Required Design | ||
| DESN 216 | DIGITAL FOUNDATIONS | 5 |
| DESN 368 | WEB DESIGN 1 | 5 |
| or DESN 338 | USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN 1 | |
| DESN 378 | WEB DESIGN 2 | 5 |
| or DESN 348 | USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN 2 | |
| Required Marketing | ||
| MKTG 310 | PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING | 4 |
| MKTG 400 | BUYER BEHAVIOR | 4 |
| or MKTG 413 | INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS | |
| or MKTG 472 | GLOBAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT | |
| Required Technical Communication | ||
| TCOM 205 | INTRODUCTION TO TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION (students must complete this course with a grade ≥C) | 5 |
| TCOM/SUST 300 | WRITING FOR THE PROFESSIONS | 5 |
| TCOM/JRNM 305 | PRINT LAYOUT AND CONTENT DESIGN | 5 |
| TCOM/ENGL/JRNM 309 | GRAMMAR FOR PROFESSIONAL WRITERS | 5 |
| TCOM 404 | INSTRUCTIONS AND PROCEDURES | 5 |
| TCOM 405 | USABILITY | 5 |
| TCOM 407 | PROPOSAL WRITING | 5 |
| TCOM 409 | EDITING IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION | 5 |
| TCOM 424 | CONTENT MANAGEMENT | 5 |
| TCOM 495 | TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION INTERNSHIP | 5-15 |
| Senior Capstone | ||
| TCOM 490 | SENIOR CAPSTONE: ISSUES IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION | 5 |
| Total Credits | 88-98 | |
University Competencies and Proficiencies
English
Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning
Placement and Clearance
Prior Learning/Sources of Credit AP, CLEP, IB
General Education Requirements (GER)
- Minimum Credits—180 cumulative credit hours
- 60 upper-division credits (300 level or above)
- 45 credits in residence (attendance) at Eastern, with at least 15 upper-division credits in major in residence at Eastern
- Minimum Cumulative GPA ≥2.0
Breadth Area Core Requirements (BACR)
Humanities and Arts
Natural Sciences
Social Sciences
University Graduation Requirements (UGR)
Diversity Course List
Foreign Language (for Bachelor of Arts)
Global Studies Course List
Minor or Certificate
Senior Capstone Course List
Application for Graduation (use EagleNET) must be made at least two terms in advance of the term you expect to graduate (undergraduate and post-baccalaureate).
Use the Catalog Archives to determine two important catalog years.
Degree Works calculates based on these two catalog years.
- The catalog in effect at the student's first term of current matriculation is used to determine BACR (Breadth Area Credit Requirements) and UGR (Undergraduate Graduation Requirements).
- The catalog in effect at the time the student declares a major or minor is used to determine the program requirements.
Students who successfully earn a BA in Technical Communication from EWU should be able to do the following:
- analyze communication problems to create effective technical communication;
- apply project management practices;
- conduct research to solve problems related to technical communication;
- contribute effectively to a collaborative technical communication team;
- deliver well-organized technical communication presentations;
- edit documents for technical communication contexts;
- use various software to design multi-channel technical communication;
- write user-centered technical communication.