Program Website: http://www.clemson.edu/caah/mapc/

Introduction

The Master of Arts in professional communication (MAPC) at Clemson University offers a comprehensive approach to written, digital and visual communication in professional contexts. Through course work, close interactions with faculty and client-based projects, MAPC students learn theories, research methodologies and practices of professional communication. The program prepares students to work as professional communicators in industry or public service, or to teach in two-year colleges. In addition, the program provides the background necessary to pursue a PhD in rhetoric or technical communication.

Program of Study

The MAPC program offers a flexible curriculum that
allows you to tailor the degree to meet your individual professional goals. You will take five core courses and elective classes in a specialty area. The core courses are:

• Seminar in Professional Writing
• Rhetoric and Professional Communication
• Visual Communication
• either Workplace Communication or Advanced Organizational Communication
• Research in Scientific, Business and Technical Writing.

Electives in a specialty area allow you to customize your degree program to meet your career goals. Specializations offered by the program include:

• technical writing
• teaching of writing
• digital publishing
• corporate communication
• health communication.

In each of these areas, the program offers a series of three courses designed to create a specialization. Rather than selecting one of these specializations, you may choose to create a custom specialization from courses in one or more of the above areas, courses offered by the program in other areas and/or courses offered by other departments.

For example, courses are available in:

• international communication
• editing
• rhetorical theory
• communication and organizational consulting
• training
• usability testing.

To earn the MAPC, you will take 30 credit hours, demonstrate a reading knowledge of a foreign language, pass a qualifying exam on a list of readings and complete a thesis or a project. Projects allow candidates to work in industry for academic credit. Most students complete the degree in two years or less. (Some students complete the degree while working full-time, thus taking longer to finish.)

The Department of English, which houses the professional communication program, also offers a health communication certificate (HCC) as an offshoot of the MAPC program. The HCC is unique because it can be awarded not only to returning health professionals who wish to upgrade their technical skills for the workplace, but also to MAPC graduate students who want to work in a health profession. MAPC students earn the HCC by completing the health communication specialization.

Research Facilities

The Multimedia Authoring, Teaching and Research Facility (MATRF) provides MAPC students with state-of-the-art web publishing, multimedia authoring and traditional print-design tools. You will use the facility to produce professional-level deliverables for class projects and for clients. The facility also supports research projects, provides staff assistance and tutorial workshops, and serves as a gathering space for MAPC students.

The Class of 1941 Studio for Student Communication is a corporate-like space for learning, teaching and research. It is especially well-suited to collaborative work and multimedia presentations.

The Roy and Marnie Pearce Center for Professional Communication promotes effective communication across the curriculum as an integral part of the learning process through a comprehensive program of interdisciplinary workshops, collaborative ventures and research. The center’s Corporate Advisory Board holds regular meetings that offer networking opportunities for MAPC students.

The Usability Testing Facility advances the understanding of user-centered design processes and usability testing practices. Graduate students and faculty members in professional communication work with industry partners to improve the usability of products intended for mass markets.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is available to qualified full-time students in the form of assistantships. Aid packages include a competitive monthly stipend and a substantial reduction in tuition.

First-year graduate assistants may perform duties such as developing publications in the MATRF, teaching laboratory sections of the first-year composition course, helping faculty manage and enhance writing programs and tutoring in the department’s Writing Center. After earning 18 credit hours toward the degree, graduate assistants may teach sections of composition. Student loans and fellowship awards are also available, and funding may be available on a competitive basis for students to travel to professional conferences.

Student Group

The M.A.P.C. program comprises students who hold bachelor’s degrees in diverse areas, such as biology, computer science, English, marketing, political science, and psychology. The program currently has 41 students. Seventy-one percent are women, 76 percent attend on a full-time basis, and 5 percent are international students.

 

Graduates and Careers

For most graduates, the MAPC is a terminal degree, and they obtain jobs in fields such as technical communication, web design and multimedia publishing, teaching, training, consulting, journalism, health communication and public relations. Many graduates rise to management positions, often as project managers. The background in communication theory and practice provided by the MAPC program allows our graduates to contribute in almost any workplace.

Some graduates pursue PhD degrees and become active scholars and teachers in the field of professional communication. Our graduates have entered PhD programs at prestigious institutions including Purdue, Michigan Tech, Iowa State, Minnesota and Miami of Ohio.