Minor in Technical Writing

This minor draws courses from several disciplines into a coherent program. The English Department offers a 22-hour (seven course) minor open to students from any major. For Liberal Arts majors, the minor combines academic preparation in writing and editing with technical courses in science, computer science, or engineering. For majors in these technical disciplines, the minor offers additional English or Communications courses. All students complete an internship that provides practical experience supervised by a professional technical communicator. The sequence is particularly useful for students planning a career in technical communication.

• Plan of study for Liberal Arts majors
• Plan of study for majors in technical disciplines

Plan of Study for Liberal Arts Majors

For Liberal Arts majors, the minor combines academic preparation in writing and editing with technical courses in science, computer science, or engineering. Students should consult with the Director of Business and Technical Writing in planning their course of study. Following is a typical plan of study for a Liberal Arts major.

POS for Liberal Arts Major	Semester Hours
EHT 301 - Technical Writing	3
EH 302 - Technical Editing	4
EH 320 - Practicum in Writing	3
CM / EH Elective	3
Technical Electives	9
Total	22

Liberal Arts majors should plan early to take courses in technical or scientific fields. Students with technical majors should consult the Director of Business and Technical Writing, Dr. Ryan Weber, for current requirements. All courses in the minor must be in addition to the major.

Plan of Study for Technical Majors

For students majoring in science, math, business, or engineering, the minor combines academic preparation in writing and editing with additional humanities courses emphasizing writing skills. Technical communication courses build skills that become increasingly important as scientists and engineers progress beyond entry-level positions. Students should consult with the Director of Business and Technical Writing, Dr. Ryan Weber, in planning their course of study. Following is a typical plan of study for majors in technical disciplines.

POS for Liberal Arts Major	Semester Hours
EHT 301 - Technical Writing	3
EH 302 - Technical Editing	4
EH 320 - Practicum in Writing	3
CM / EH Elective	3
Humanities Electives	9
Total	22

Careers in Technical Communication

The term "technical communication" may cover a wide variety of career paths. The careers of some UAH students who completed the Minor in Technical Writing over the last ten years illustrate some of the possibilities.

Both Kathryne Smith Pickett, an English major, and Lynn Jones Dozier, a Political Science major, were hired by companies where they interned. Kathryne started writing on-line help for a defense contractor, and went on to write computer manuals for VMIC, an industrial hardware and software company. Lynn held several positions at Intergraph, from writing training manuals to writing user's guides and online help, before moving to Adtran to write training materials.

Jennifer Whitman Rankin also interned at Intergraph and was hired there as a technical writer the summer after graduation. For five years, she wrote and edited manuals and created online help. Intergraph provided tuition assistance for her to return to graduate school for the Graduate Certificate in Technical Communication. In winter 2000, she was promoted to Webmaster for Intergraph Public Safety and is now responsible for design and management of the internal and external websites for this division.

John Brewer, a double major in Engineering and English, completed the minor and was hired as a technical writer at Cybex (now Avocent) before graduating. He writes and edits manuals for Avocent switching systems, helps design and layout ads for national magazines, codes Hyper-Text for the World Wide Web, and helps with promotional materials such as flyers, catalogs, and trade show booths.

Laurie Harris already had a Journalism degree and experience as a newspaper reporter when she came to UAH for the minor. Now she works in Marketing Communication at Intergraph, writing sales collateral, advertising, press releases, and direct mail.

With an English major and minor, Thom Chumley began as a NASA subcontractor editing standard operating procedures. His company helped pay for his MA degree with a Graduate Certificate in Technical Communication (1995), after which he went to Sun Microsystems, Inc., in Mountain View, CA, as a Technical Writer. There he designed and maintained internal web pages and delivered online documentation on CD-ROM. In 1998, Thom moved from California to Sun's Colorado office. His latest promotion makes him program manager for Sun's first online service site, SunSolve (http://sunsolve.sun.com).