Texas Tech offers:

• Excellent facilities, including a usability lab, a multimedia lab, and a terrific building.
• A large faculty of nationally and internationally-recognized experts in the field.
• National leadership in computers and writing pedagogy
• A record of student achievement and job placement
• A program culture that emphasizes personal attention
• An award-winning chapter of the Society for Technical Communication

In distance learning graduate courses, students "meet" via the Internet rather than in classrooms at the university. Graduate distance learning courses are taught as organized courses on the semester schedule. Students are expected to meet course deadlines assigned by the instructor and to participate in a synchronous class discussions on one designated weekday during the semester.  A graduate level course requires a commitment of approximately ten hours per week for participating in group online activities, for reading, and for working on course projects. The online MATC is 100% online. 

The online version of the master's degree in technical communication provides professional development for people working in technical communication. It also provides the qualifications for entering the career for people in other career fields. The specific goals of graduate study are:

• Knowledge of history, theory, research, genres, and practice of technical communication
• Knowledge of principles and techniques in the field
• Development of effectiveness in technical communication

Upon completing the MATC curriculum successfully, students should be able to do the following:

• Create effective technical documents justified with relevant theory. 
• Analyze and respond appropriately to rhetorical situations and key issues in the field, including the differing goals and agendas of audiences, organizations, and societies.
• Employ and justify user-centered approaches to technical communication.
• Demonstrate sensitivity to the ethical, professional, and cultural issues that face technical communicators. 
• Use communication technologies and media appropriate to users and situations.
• Write clear, correct, and stylistically effective prose.

Students' success in meeting the outcomes stated above will be measured through the following means:

• A semester review by the Director of Graduate Studies in Technical Communication and Rhetoric
• A professional portfolio of work to be completed in the last semester of MATC coursework after taking the Capstone course.