Utah State University invites you to apply for admission to its new doctoral program, Theory & Practice of Professional Communication. The program offers an opportunity to study professional communication, technology, and culture in a department with a long history of expertise and achievement in writing and technology. The defining features of this new program include opportunities to study and work with advanced communication technologies, to engage in extended fieldwork research experiences, and a flexible program of study that can largely be tailored to complement your research interests within the field of professional communication.

Grounded in rhetorical inquiry, the program provides students with advanced study in the communicative and cultural dimensions of artifacts, processes, and technologies.

Researchers in professional communication pursue knowledge about discourse and communicative practices in organized contexts, including business, academic, scientific, technical, and non-profit settings. They study communication as it is or has been practiced in actual, lived contexts. They primarily use theories and research methodologies associated with rhetoric and professional communication. These researchers are particularly interested in how communicative practices shape and are shaped by culture, technology, history, and theories of communication.

Our understanding of what professional communication encompasses is broad, embracing a diversity of rhetorical contexts and situations. Areas of study range from the everyday writing of the workplace to writing pedagogy of the nineteenth century, from the implications of new media on communicative practices to the theory and design of online learning, and from oral presentations to the production of CD-ROMs and websites.

Additional information about the application procedure and financial aid is available on the Graduate Advising page.