major in english/professional writing [2001-2006]
(58 hours + secondary study)
qtr / yr √ course completed hours Professional Writing Core 35
Required Courses 23
/ Engl 244 Desktop Publishing
4
/ Engl 273 Writing in the Public Sphere
4
/ Engl 405 Cultural Studies
4
/ Engl 445 Senior Seminar
2
/ Engl 452 Rhetorical Theory
4
/ Engl 470 Editing
4
/ Engl 481 Internship
1
Electives (Choose three, two at the 300/400 level) 12 / Engl 241 News Writing
4
/ Comm 256 Writing for Broadcasting and Electronic Media 4
/ Engl 290 Special Topics (in writing)
4
/ Engl 342 Fiction Writing
4
/ Engl 343 Persuasive Writing
4
/ Engl 344 Writing Cyberspace
4
/ Engl 345 Screenwriting 4
/ Engl 346 Prelaw Writing
4
/ Engl 347 Advanced Writing
4
/ Engl 390 Journal Publishing
/ Engl 443 Nonfiction Writing 4
/ Engl 447 Advanced Creative Writing
4
/ Engl 451 Literary Criticism
4
/ Engl 490 Special Topics (in writing)
4
Practicums (at least 3 hours in at least two different practicums) 3
Engl 250-Newspaper; Engl 251-Magazine; Engl 230-Web Publishing; Engl 231-Journal Publishing; Engl 377-Professional Writing Workshop (1-4); Engl 290-Screenwriting
/ 1
/ 1
/ 1
Language and Literature Core 20
/ Engl 210 English Studies 4
/ Engl 351 English Language 4
Three literature courses in three core areas, two at the 300/400 level
World Literature (Engl 208, 209, 219, 220, 262, 432, 451) 4 British Literature (Engl 213, 214, 260 or 412, 310-326, 364, 410) 4 American Literature (Engl 211, 212, 261, 334, 335, 365, 431) 4 Other courses, whose content changes significantly with each offering, may also satisfy these literature requirements: Engl 207, 263, 290, 390, 430, 490.
/
/
/
Engl 001 Enrichment (2 terms a year up to 8 times, depending on time enrolled as a major)
/ / / / / / / /
Secondary Study
introduction
Technical communication certificates are offered by many colleges and universities as an alternative to full undergraduate or graduate degrees in the field. Certificates typically require only one or two years of coursework strictly within technical communication, and typically can be earned while working full time or while seeking another degree. As Sherry Burgus Little notes in “Design- ing Certificate Programs in Technical Communication,” certificate programs are diverse in their charter and construction. Some programs are geared toward those entering the field, while others are designed to augment the skills of prac- ticing professionals. Some programs are designed to serve those in scientific and technical fields specifically, while others are designed to serve technical com- municators more generally. Programs are offered at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and the courses they require vary widely (Little 276–77).
According to the CPTSC/STC joint publication Academic Programs in Technical Communication (third edition), there were sixteen programs offering technical writing certificates in 1985 (Hayes 1). In 2003, the website of the So- ciety for Technical Communication (STC) listed about eighty-four individual certificate programs, representing an approximate fivefold increase in number over eighteen years. Compared to the approximate doubling of the number of technical communication programs overall during the same period (Little 274), we can see certificate programs are an increasingly popular means of meeting the demand for skilled technical communicators.
Despite their increasing popularity, however, surprisingly little infor- mation or discussion exists in the current literature specifically about certificate programs. (Excepting, of course, the works presented for the first time in this volume, including Jude Edminster and Andrew Mara’s valuable chapter “Rein- venting Audience through Distance.”) This informational and conversational void is unexpected, as certificate programs are currently situated in the middle of a number of related conversations in the field. With their vocational emphasis,
certificate programs are potentially the site of conflict “on the issue of training
opposed to education, or in other words, the conflict between theory and prac- tice” (Little 278, emphasis in original). With their role in meeting the needs of local industry, and with their potential as the locations for academy-indus- try cooperation, certificate programs speak to the conversation of who shapes technical communication programs: academy or industry (Anderson, Bosley, Bushnell, Coon, Krestas, Yee, Zimmerman). With certificate programs’ role as a gatekeeper to the profession—that is, the role of “certifying” implicit in their very name—they shape the professional identity of technical communicators and they present a number of significant implications to the project of profes- sionalizing the field (Savage 364–5).
In this chapter, I seek to begin addressing the informational void sur- rounding certificate programs with the hope of making way for more produc- tive dialog in the above conversations. In addition, I hope to provide some in- formation, considerations, and cautions useful for administrators interested in implementing their own certificate programs. I begin the chapter by relating a two-part study of certificate programs that I performed in 2003. In the first part of this study, I examine sixty-two certificate programs to characterize them in terms of their curricular requirements. In the second part, I perform a survey of certificate program administrators to gauge who teaches in such programs, the age of such programs, and the relationship of such programs to local industry. Finally, I conclude by drawing from the work of Gerald Savage and others to suggest a potential framework for theorizing the certificate program in techni- cal communication, namely sophistic rhetorical theory. Sophistic rhetoric, as Savage demonstrates, can act as a valuable tool for constructing the professional identity of the postmodern technical communicator. Likewise, I argue, it proves to be a valuable tool for theorizing the technical communication certificate pro- gram.