Professional Communication (MA)
College: College of Arts & Humanities
Program Overview
The Master of Arts in Professional Communication (MAPC) is designed to provide students with an advanced level grounding in professional communication with specific attention to organizational and community leadership, community relations, and contemporary, applied media. Graduates will be better equipped to communicate strategically and ethically to diverse audiences, create messages in various formats (i.e., oral, written, digital), manage conflicts, and constructively and creatively provide leadership in community and organizational settings.
Program Objectives
The Communication Department graduate curriculum is designed around a set of five learning goals that are focused on the concept of becoming a competent communicator. Core and elective course offerings are meant to help you develop your knowledge and skills in the following Communication program learning goals:
- To produce audience-centered messages through advanced writing, storytelling, and argumentation
- To master formal presentational skills in mediated and unmediated contexts
- To facilitate constructive communication to enhance organizational, community, and cultural interactions
- To enact civic and organizational leadership skills
- To embody critical, diverse perspectives in the workplace
Department Policy on Collaboration and Academic Honesty
The Communication Department strongly encourages our students to engage in conversation and collaboration with our faculty, each other, and other members of the academic community. These kinds of exchanges are at the heart of teaching and learning. As part of this process, it is essential that students fully disclose and credit the sources used in their work. All work that is not originally created by the author should be credited, including (but not limited to) others’ ideas, language, images, art, digital recordings, and projects. The intentional or unintentional use of another’s work, or one’s own previous work, without the accurate and full citation of the source, constitutes plagiarism. Penalties for documented cases of plagiarism may include a grade reduction or failing a course. All documented cases of plagiarism in the communication department will be filed with the department chair or her designee. A student who commits two or more acts of plagiarism in one or more communication courses will have their case reviewed by the department’s executive committee. If a case is confirmed as constituting serious breaches of academic honesty, the committee may decide to formally drop the student from the communication major.
Requirements for the Master of Arts in Professional Communication
The program consists of 30 credits, delivered online in 7-week module formats. Students must complete 21-credits of required core courses along with 9-credits of elective courses. Students may take up to 6 elective credits outside of the Professional Communication program with approval from their graduate program advisor. The program will culminate in a thesis or project. A minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.00 is required to graduate with a Master of Arts in Professional Communication.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| COMM 703 | Professional Communication | 3 |
| COMM 708 | Critical Media Studies | 3 |
| COMM 720 | Philosophy of Communication | 3 |
| COMM 725 | Conflict Transformation | 3 |
| COMM 770 | Enacting Leadership | 3 |
| COMM 797 | Proposal Development 1 | 3 |
| COMM 798 | Project/Thesis Implementation 1 | 3 |
| Elective Courses | ||
| Select three of the following: 2 | 9 | |
| The Glass Ceiling: Gender in the Workplace | ||
| Grantwriting | ||
| Self-Reflective Communication in Civic Change | ||
| Digital Media Production | ||
| Making Your Case: Strategies for Argumentation | ||
| Dialogue: Productive Strategies | ||
| Total Credits | 30 | |
| 1 | Students may take up to 6 credits of COMM 797 Proposal Development and/or COMM 798 Project/Thesis Implementation if necessary. |
| 2 | Students may take up to 6 elective credits outside of the Professional Communication program with approval from their graduate program advisor. |
Requirements for Admission to the Master of Arts in Professional Communication
For admission into the M.A. in Professional Communication online program, you must:
- Hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
- Write a 500-word statement about why you would like to enter the program
- Provide two letters of recommendation
Official transcripts from all colleges/universities attended, regardless if they appear on the degree awarding transcript or not, should be mailed directly from the institution(s) to UW-Parkside at this address:
Admissions Office
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
900 Wood Road
Kenosha, WI 53144
Graduate Courses in Communication
COMM 703 | Professional Communication | 3 cr
Examines communication or communication in a global workplace emphasizing intercultural and multi-generational differences. Cross-listed with: MAPS 703.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 708 | Critical Media Studies | 3 cr
Introduces a number of theoretical backgrounds and methodological processes involved in doing media scholarship, such as analyses of industries, audiences, texts, and discourses.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 715 | The Glass Ceiling: Gender in the Workplace | 3 cr
Investigates the roles that genders play in defining and determining access to leadership and power in the U.S. workplace. Explores women, men and non-binary genders in leadership positions within the corporate, political and non-profit sectors.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 720 | Philosophy of Communication | 3 cr
Delves into the nature of human "Being," by exploring philosophical discourse about communication, experience, interpretation, truth, art persuasion, and the construction and interpretation of reality.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 725 | Conflict Transformation | 3 cr
Examines the connections between communication, conflict, and personal/social transformation.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 730 | Grantwriting | 3 cr
Develops skills necessary for writing successful grants. Covers different types of grants, identifying funding agencies, interpreting call for grant proposals, and creating persuasive narratives.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Summer.
COMM 740 | Self-Reflective Communication in Civic Change | 3 cr
Examines autoethnographic writing as a mode of qualitative research, art form, and transformative process of understanding human behavior and lived experience.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Summer.
COMM 744 | Human Machine Interface | 3 cr
Explores how human and machines effectively engage in decision-making processes by aligning values, ethics, and cognition, and how the design of interfaces affects the social and cultural factors. Cross-listed: MAPS 744.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program; MAPS 640 or consent of instructor.
Offered: Summer.
COMM 750 | Digital Media Production | 3 cr
Introduces digital production techniques and technologies appropriate to achieve success in multiplatform workplaces. Develops skills in audio and video production and integrating multimedia projects on social networking platforms.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Summer.
COMM 770 | Enacting Leadership | 3 cr
Explores rhetorical perspectives and practices of leadership, critical followership, and ethics.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Spring.
COMM 775 | Making Your Case: Strategies for Argumentation | 3 cr
Considers argument in the context of theory and practice through a community-based project. Analyzes theoretical foundations for how the exchange of reason influences individuals and collectives in private and public life.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 785 | Dialogue: Productive Strategies | 3 cr
Examines the theory and practice of dialogue as a form of communication. Analyzes a range of perspectives and strategies to gain proficiency as facilitators of the dialogue process.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program.
Offered: Yearly.
COMM 790 | Special Topics in Professional Communication | 3 cr
Examines selected advanced topics in professional communication. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.
Prerequisites: None.
Offered: Occasionally.
COMM 797 | Proposal Development | 3 cr
Provides guidance for developing a Master's thesis or project proposal.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program; consent of instructor.
Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.
COMM 798 | Project/Thesis Implementation | 3 cr
Continues the process of project or thesis development including conducting research, implementing the project, writing the final document, and presenting results.
Prerequisites: Admission to the program; COMM 797.
Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.