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 develop a broad base of professional writing skills, including work in documentation, editing and information design. Students also enhance their computer literacy, developing knowledge in desktop publishing and web design practices.
As part of this program, students 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 world language or one year of a single college-level world language is required.
| Required Communications/Public Relations | ||
| CMST 461 | INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORY | 5 |
| CMST 465 | 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 | |
Plan of Study
The following plan of study is for a student with zero credits. Individual students may have different factors such as: credit through transfer work, Advanced Placement, Running Start, or any other type of college-level coursework that requires an individual plan.
Courses may be offered in different terms and not all courses are offered every term, checking the academic schedule is paramount in keeping an individual plan current. There may be some courses that have required prerequisites not listed in the plan, review the course descriptions for information. Students should connect with an advisor to ensure they are on track to graduate.
All Undergraduate students are required to meet the Undergraduate Degree Requirements.
This major requires the completion of the World Language requirement. Students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree must complete two years of a single language in high school or one year of a single language in college.
| First Year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall Quarter | Credits | Winter Quarter | Credits | Spring Quarter | Credits |
| ENGL 101 | 5 | ENGL 201 | 5 | MATH 107 | 5 |
| Humanities & Arts BACR 11 | 5 | Humanities & Arts BACR 21 | 5 | Diversity - graduation requirement1 | 5 |
| Social Science BACR 11 | 5 | Natural Science BACR 11 | 5 | Social Science BACR 21 | 5 |
| 15 | 15 | 15 | |||
| Second Year | |||||
| Fall Quarter | Credits | Winter Quarter | Credits | Spring Quarter | Credits |
| Global Studies - graduation requirement1 | 5 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 |
| Natural Science BACR 21 | 5 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 |
| Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 5 |
| 15 | 15 | 15 | |||
| Third Year | |||||
| Fall Quarter | Credits | Winter Quarter | Credits | Spring Quarter | Credits |
| CMST 461 | 5 | CMST 465 | 5 | DESN 368 or 338 | 5 |
| DESN 216 | 5 | TCOM 300 | 5 | TCOM 404 | 5 |
| TCOM 205 | 5 | TCOM 309 | 5 | TCOM 405 or 424 | 5 |
| 15 | 15 | 15 | |||
| Fourth Year | |||||
| Fall Quarter | Credits | Winter Quarter | Credits | Spring Quarter | Credits |
| DESN 378 or 348 | 5 | MKTG 400, 413, or 472 | 4 | TCOM 405 or 424 | 5 |
| MKTG 310 | 4 | TCOM 305 | 5 | TCOM 490 (Senior Capstone - graduation requirement) | 5 |
| TCOM 409 | 5 | TCOM 407 | 5 | TCOM 495 | 5 |
| Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 1 | Elective - certificate, minor, or general elective | 1 | ||
| 15 | 15 | 15 | |||
| Total Credits 180 | |||||
- 1
University Graduation Requirements (UGR) and Breadth Area Course Requirements (BACR) courses may be less than 5 credits and additional credits may be required to reach the required 180 total credits needed to graduate. Students should connect with an advisor to ensure they are on track to graduate.
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
World 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.
Requirements in Degree Works are 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 earn a BA in Technical Communication from EWU should be able to:
- 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.