Areas of Emphasis
The Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech houses two graduate academic degrees, the Master of Arts in Technical Communication and the PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric. Within this program, we specialize in the following five areas at the doctoral and master's levels in our admissions, scholarship, coursework, and initiatives:
- Rhetoric, Composition, and Technology. The art, history, and theory of persuasion, argumentation, and expression and how such activities are applied and taught.
- Technical Communication. Theory, history, practice, teaching, and management of workplace communication, including the genres of reports, manuals, and proposals, and the skills of document design, style, and editing in a variety of media.
- Rhetorics of Science and Healthcare. Consideration of discourse and communication within scientific, technical, and medical fields.
- Technology, Culture, and Rhetoric. History, theory, and analysis of tools, techniques, and various cultural factors (feminism, ethics, intercultural analysis) in the production and reception of discourse.
- Visual Rhetoric, New Media, and User-Centered Design. Analysis, theory, and production of non- or extra-textual aspects of communication and discourse.
We also emphasize research methods in our PhD program, and have the most rigorous methods requirement of any doctoral program in the discipline.