Technical communication emphasis, Professional Writing and Interactive Design BA

This major prepares students for a wide range of careers in professional writing and interaction design. It enables learners to write for professional and technical contexts and produce multimodal and intelligent content. In addition to completing a core curriculum, learners choose to specialize in one or more of these emphases: technical communication, science and medical writing, user experience design, and game design. 

Technical Communication Emphasis: 
The technical communication emphasis enables learners to write and produce multimodal and intelligent content for technical problem-solving. Learners write technical documentation and ensure that such documentation is usable, accessible, and compliant with regulations. 

Other available emphases

Science and Medical Writing Emphasis:
The Science and Medical Writing emphasis enables learners to produce content for science and medical writing situations in research, government, technology, and other contexts. Learners apply rhetorical theory to create effective science and medical writing deliverables for a variety of audiences. They analyze how power and knowledge iterate within science and medical writing. 

User Experience Design Emphasis:
The user experience design emphasis enables learners to analyze, design, and evaluate the user experience of content. Learners use various methods and tools to analyze users and contexts and construct the user experience. 

Game Design Emphasis:
The Game Design emphasis helps students produce interactive and static writing artifacts that showcase their ability to write creatively, technically, and consistently across complicated technological environments. Using principles and strategies utilized in the video game industry, this concentration allows students to create innovative game worlds; write compelling storylines, characters, and mechanics; create and maintain design documentation; and work with a variety of different team members and in a variety of different roles in a production team. Students who choose this emphasis do not need any prior programming knowledge.

Student outcomes

1. Analyze the audience and context of rhetorical situations
2. Use digital technologies to create effective technical and scientific communication artifacts
3. Write and design interactive content that is engaging and rhetorically effective
4. Create and edit for ethical, inclusive, and accessible content
5. Evaluate communication artifacts for effectiveness, usability, accessibility, and compliance

Related programs

• Advertising Minor
• Applied Statistics Minor
• Business Administration Minor
• Creative Writing Minor
• Design of User Experience Minor
• Digital Media Minor
• Environmental Communication Minor
• Ethnic Studies Minor
• Game Studies Minor
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology Minor
• Media Literacy Minor
• Organizational Communication Minor
• Practical Ethics Minor
• Public Relations Minor
• Risk Management and Insurance Minor