Professional Communication (MA)

Department website

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:

1. To produce audience-centered messages through advanced writing, storytelling, and argumentation;
2. To master formal presentational skills in mediated and unmediated contexts;
3. To facilitate constructive communication to enhance organizational, community, and cultural interactions;
4. To enact civic and organizational leadership skills;
5. 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

Please note that declarations of the Master of Arts in Professional Communication have been suspended beginning Spring 2025.

Delivered online in 7-week module formats. The program will culminate in a research paper or professional project. 

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Required Courses
COMM 701	Introduction to Graduate Studies	1
COMM 703	Professional Communication	3
COMM 707	Qualitative Research Methods	3
COMM 797	Comprehensive Exams I 1	3
COMM 798	Comprehensive Exams II 1	3
Elective Courses
Select six of the following: 2		18
COMM 708	Critical Media Studies
COMM 715	Gender and Work
COMM 720	Philosophy & Theory in Communication
COMM 725	Conflict Transformation
COMM 730	Grant Proposal Writing
COMM 740	Self-Reflective Communication in Civic Change
COMM 750	Digital Media Production
COMM 770	Enacting Leadership
COMM 775	Making Your Case: Strategies for Argumentation
COMM 785	Public Dialogue
COMM 794	Professional Communication Internship
COMM 799	Independent Study
Total Credits		31

¹

Students may take up to 6 credits of COMM 797 Comprehensive Exams I and/or COMM 798 Comprehensive Exams II if necessary.

²

Students may take up to 6 elective credits outside of the Professional Communication program with approval from their graduate program advisor.

University Requirements for Master’s Degree Programs

To receive a master’s degree from UW-Parkside, students must meet the following minimum requirements (note that individual programs may impose more stringent requirements):

1. Complete at least 30 graduate credits, of which no more than 12 may be transferred from another institution.
2. Have an overall GPA of at least 3.00 for all graduate work taken at UW-Parkside that is applicable to the degree program.
3. Satisfy all requirements of the graduate degree program.

Students may take no more than seven years to complete a degree, beginning with the semester in which they complete their first course as a UW-Parkside degree-seeking graduate student, unless they apply for and receive an extension through the appropriate graduate program. Some programs may impose a shorter time limit. To graduate, students must file a request for graduation. The request form, signed by the student’s advisor and filed in the appropriate graduate program office, initiates the final review of the candidate’s records. Students also need to apply to graduate with the Office of the Registrar.

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.

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