Northern Arizona University’s online master’s degree in Professional Writing focuses on the practical, not theoretical, applications of writing in the business world. Coursework centers on real-world scenarios and enables you to integrate experiences and projects from your current professional career into your assignments. Learn how to write professional business proposals, grants, white papers and reports—for both private and public businesses.
Through NAU, you can choose the option to earn an online graduate certificate in Professional Writing. The certificate is great if you’re pursing a master’s degree in Professional Writing or in a difference field. All 18 credits for the online certificate count toward the online master’s degree, so no additional coursework it required to earn both a master’s and a certificate.
Start or advance your professional writing career as a:
The M.A. in English, with Emphasis in Professional Writing, reflects the expertise of our faculty and the career ambitions of our students, who are either already working in, or desire to work in, professional positions that involve writing and documentation, in business, industry, and government.The Professional Writing Emphasis focuses on students mastering procedures and techniques to create and publish reader-driven writing typical of the workplace, such as proposals, specifications, procedures, reports, formal correspondence, and white papers. With this degree and the skills acquired in getting it, our graduates are well prepared to succeed in securing high-paying jobs in a variety of corporate and government settings.
To receive a master’s degree at Northern Arizona University, you must complete a planned group of courses from one or more subject areas, consisting of at least 30 units of graduate-level courses. (Many master’s degree programs require more than 30 units.) You must additionally complete:
In addition to University Requirements:
Student Learning Outcomes
In addition, each student completes an electronic portfolio of his or her professional work and also completes an application project, which involves finding a specific and actual problem in the working world, doing the research to solve that problem, and presenting those results to the appropriate management supervisors for implementation. Examples of past projects include development of a training and orientation program for new employees; creation of a new website for a specific clientele; evaluation of a county court’s procedures for filing and accessing court records, which resulted in an entire new system; and many other such practical, on-the-job projects.
Individual program admission requirements include:
This Master’s degree requires 33 units distributed as follows:
Take the following 33 units:Foundations (3 units)Select one of the following courses:
Be aware that some courses may have prerequisites that you must also take. For prerequisite information click on the course or see your advisor.
We have designed this program to provide advanced post-baccalaureate training in the communication skills that are in daily demand among engineers, scientists, finance persons, and other professionals at work in business, industry, and government.
Please note that you may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.
Purpose Statement The Professional Writing Certificate program will help you to create excellent workplace documents such as project proposals, grant proposals, reports, and emails. It will also help you to implement best practices in creating user-facing documents such as product and service descriptions, help files, and instruction manuals. Your participation in our courses will increase your skills in audience awareness, document design, document project management, and editing. These skills are important for anyone who writes at work and can prepare you for a career or help you to advance in your current career as an administrative professional, grant proposal writer, technical writer, technical editor, or any other type of professional writer in many careers such as project management, program management, and non-profit, research, government, and corporate communications. Student Learning OutcomesStudents completing the Certificate in Professional Writing will have mastered the following bodies of knowledge and related skills (specific courses for each outcome shown in parentheses):Bodies of Knowledge Mastered
Take the following 18 units:Select from the following, with the approval of your advisor:
This certificate may be pursued and completed concurrently with a degree program or as a stand-alone certificate. Under both circumstances, federal financial aid can be used for this certificate.