Department of Communication, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences

Graduate Certificate Program

The ability to communicate professionally is a fundamental necessity in a society where information has become the most powerful currency. Students currently enrolled in NMT graduate programs, as well as professionals from the state of New Mexico and beyond, benefit from this advanced degree option that hones their communication skills specific to their professional demands and, more generally, allows them to achieve mastery of a variety of modes of communication.

Graduate Certificate in Scientific and Professional Communication

Program Description

The Scientific and Professional Communication Graduate Certificate offers graduate students and post‐baccalaureate professionals an opportunity to build and strengthen their professional communication abilities for academic and professional work.

The 14 hours of coursework required for the Certificate brings the student from a general foundation (ENGL 501 and TC 511) to specific media of presentation (COMM 560), while elective courses are available to students with specific interests; for example professionals who work in the Americas will benefit from SPAN 520, engineers may be interested in a course specifically designed for Engineering Communication (COMM 570).

Program Outcomes

Students will demonstrate graduate-level writing and editing.

Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of key scholarship and research, history, current issues, and cultural matters in scientific and professional writing.

Students will demonstrate a graduate-level ability to connect theory with practice in one or both of the following ways:
(a) creating effective documents in scientific and professional genres,
(b) performing proficiently in the use of software technology.

Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of ethical issues for scientific and professional writers.

Program Requirements

Requirements for this degree include the following:

COMM 575 (3) or TC 505 (3), TC 511 (3)

Six credits from the following: COMM 575 (3) or TC 505 (3) (whichever was not used for the requirement above), TC 561 (3), ENGL 511 (3), SPAN 520 (3), TC 521 (3), TC 512 (3), COMM 560 (3).

Community Service/Internship ‐ TC 501 (2)

Students must be concurrently enrolled in a graduate degree program at NMT or meet the admissions criteria to enroll in a graduate degree program (including as special graduate students).