Technical Writing Students Work with U.S. Geological Survey

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Students taking online coursework with the Graduate Certificate in Technical Writing and Public Rhetorics worked this spring semester with the U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Mission Area to revise the group's Style Guide.

Coordinating with the chief of the Web Communications Branch, Emily K. Read, the students in ENGL 5963, Technical Editing and User Experience Design, helped create a style guide for a public-facing website and social media materials generated by the Water Resources Mission Area of the USGS. 

Adam R. Pope, director of the Graduate Certificate, said, "It is always exciting to have an opportunity to work with service-learning stakeholders during graduate coursework, and it is wonderful to have such amazing partners as the USGS Water Resources Mission Area." 

Read of the USGS had the following to say regarding the graduate students' work on the style guide project: 

"The work overseen by you, and implemented by your students, is high quality and immediately useful to us. Our agency's long tradition benefits from the thought-provoking external perspective you have provided. You and your students are professional, technically knowledgeable, and enjoyable to work with."

The contributions of the graduate students in the Graduate Certificate were able to assist the USGS Water Resources Mission area in their public-facing writing that reaches over 8 million unique visitors annually. 

As a part of the Global Campus at the University of Arkansas, the Graduate Certificate in Technical Writing and Public Rhetorics strives to offer students a top-quality education in Technical Writing via asynchronous online coursework with full-time faculty in the Department of English at the University of Arkansas.