Online Graduate Certificate in Technical and Professional Writing

Program Highlights
12 credit hours | In-state tuition: $490/credit hour | Out-of-state tuition: $575/credit hour
- Accelerated 12-credit graduate certificate program
- Convenient, flexible and affordable online format
- Low/no-cost textbooks
- Focused on writing skills for a variety of professions
- Multilingual and multicultural faculty members
- Advanced study of new media and communication technologies
Increase Your Hireability With Just Four Courses
Technical and professional writing is a growing field that has many applications and earning a technical writing certification online can help increase your hireability. In addition to teaching strong writing skills, the program also focuses on digital communication and community engagement in intercultural contexts. Graduates of the program will learn to:
- Be more effective communicators overall and learn how to write for a variety of audiences. including technicians, corporate executives and military personnel
- Communicate technical concepts to a non-technical audience
- Apply rhetorical theories in practice and critically evaluate electronic research
- Work with new media to share information in a variety of different ways
Graduates of our technical writing graduate program typically work in positions such as:
- Corporate communicator
- Grant writer
- Online content developer
- Public relations specialist
- Science reporter
- Script writer
- Speech writer
- Technical editor
- Technical writer
- Technology reporter
- Translator
- Military communications specialist
The UTEP Career Center provides graduates with resources to help them pursue their career goals.

"The courses offered in the Technical and Professional Writing certificate open your eyes to communication at different levels and aspects, regardless of your professional field." - Gisela Simental, Graduate
READ MORE MEET MORE STUDENTSLearn With Multicultural, Bilingual Faculty
The technical and professional writing faculty members who teach in our technical writing certificate program online are bilingual and multicultural. Some of them have backgrounds in service learning and community writing, others in technology and writing. Still others have backgrounds in professional writing and student success. One thing they all have in common is a passion for effective communication and the development of great writing skills.
Course Overview
The 12-credit technical and professional writing graduate certificate offered through UTEP Connect can be completed in as few as two semesters, helping to propel you forward toward your educational and career goals.
RWS 5312 | Technical Writing | Study the art and science of rhetoric for print and electronic communications that integrate the effective practice of technical writing, editing and graphic expression. Learn how to manage writing projects of varying levels of complexity, adapting content for various audiences and mediums, including social media. |
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RWS 5313 | Grant Writing | Examine the principles integral to writing successful grant proposals. Topics include analyzing requests, evaluating the requirements of proposal reviewers, adhering to grant submission guidelines, preparing executive summaries, developing in-depth project descriptions, and determining outcome measures and budgetary needs. The course culminates with the formal preparation of a substantial grant proposal. |
RWS 5315 | Professional Writing and Rhetoric | Explore the concepts related to taking an ethical, rhetorical approach to developing professional documents and designing effective presentations for distribution across print and electronic mediums. Study how to participate effectively in intra-organizational social networking, and learn what it takes to plan large collaborative group writing projects. |
RWS 5317 | Professional Writing Seminar – Editing | Learn why editing is an essential element of successful writing through the practical application of copy marking, copyediting, comprehensive editing and web editing techniques. Assess the rhetorical elements of audience, purpose, authorship, ideology and design of web-based and print documents for discipline-specific, private industry, public sector and academic consumption. |