--- title: "Messages from Sponsors – August 2012" date: 2012-08-22 description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $(" canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2012/08/22/messages-from-sponsors-august-2012/ --- # Messages from Sponsors – August 2012 ## From Southern Polytechnic State University (message from Laura Palmer and Carol Barnum) **Where will Tech Com be in 5 Years? And where will you be?** We know that some of you would rather be writing, or you wouldn't be following Tom's blog. But we see the future of Tech Com as much more than writing.  And we've reshaped our grad programs to address the future now. This past year we've been engaged in lively and thought-provoking discussions about our [Information Design & Communication graduate program here at Southern Polytechnic](http://www.spsu.edu/etcma/grad/idc_overview.htm). From our ongoing exchanges, we've been considering what ***you***, as a potential applicant to our M.S. degree or grad certificates, need when it comes to making an investment in ***your future***. **What You'll Want** You'll want a graduate education that looks beyond today—that's a given. The profession is in a period of flux and careers are already changing in ways no one expected. Tomorrow's careers in information design and communication will require individuals with critical and strategic communication competencies, research skills, and a grounding in the principles of effective design and user experience. These same individuals will also need a broad business perspective and the ability to make decisions based on both theory and practice. We've assessed what you'll need in these areas to take your tech com career in new and dynamic directions. As a result, we've repositioned our program to support the goals of tech communicators who want to think and act strategically, to communicate a vision of the future, to embrace change, and to collaborate with strategic partners at all levels of an organization. **Meeting Your Needs** To prepare you to take your career to the next level, we took a long, hard look at what defines this level, and we know it's ***leadership*** abilities. Courses in project management, business analysis, and user research, including mobile user experience, are now a vital part of our grad curriculum in Information Design & Communication. We've also reshaped our current courses to embrace what we see as a necessary ***strategic ***component. We see the graduates of our programs being well positioned to make communication decisions that have a measurable impact. By no means are we abandoning the essential skills of writing and design; rather, we're supplementing them with competencies that can move your career from the cubicle to the C-level suite. Our new focus conveys, we believe, what an individual with a graduate credential should want—a challenging career that melds management and business practices with strategic communication design. We've taken the vigor and call-to-action stance of MBA program language—strategy, acceleration, collaboration, innovation—and used it to define our position as a graduate program. **New Ideas, New Offerings** You'll see several essential changes to our MS degree in Information Design & Communication.  In addition to new course offerings in Business Analysis, Content Strategy, and Information Architecture, we now require all M.S. students to take a research methods course and a project management course. And in our graduate certificates, in addition to our Technical Communication certificate, we have refocused our advanced certificates and added a new one so that our lineup of advanced certificates now includes: - Visual Communication - Content Strategy - Instructional Design - Communication Management - User Experience (new!) The Technical Communication certificate offers students the opportunity to take graduate level coursework without taking the GRE, and then decide, on completion of six courses, if they want to apply to go on in the M.S. degree program. The advanced certificates target those of you holding a graduate degree in technical communication (or related field) who are ready to get up to speed in a specialty area. We're working on a redesign of our IDC website to reflect these changes.  So, if you're thinking of fine tuning your skills and staying ahead of the curve, check out [idc.spsu.edu](http://www.spsu.edu/etcma/grad/).  Then come back later this fall for the new website design.  The deadline for spring semester applications is November 1. ## News from 3Rabbitz [3Rabbitz Book](http://3rabbitz.com) is 100% Browser-based Enterprise Authoring Software. 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Download a free trial at [http://www.3rabbitz.com/r/home/try_it](http://www.3rabbitz.com/r/home/try_it). A free license for an open source project or non-profit organization is available on request. ## PlagTracker [PlagTracker](http://www.plagtracker.com/) is a free online plagiarism detection service, designed from the ground up to meet the needs of students and teaching staff. Utilising a unique search algorithm and huge database of academic papers and online sources, PlagTracker's intuitive interface provides you with the simplest solution to prevent plagiarism. Plagtracker was established in July 2011 by a group of passionate people, with the main goal to create an alternative to similar paid services. [Premium subscription](http://www.plagtracker.com/premium-subscription.html) is available for those users who require improved features of the site, such as increased scanning speed, uploading documents in various formats, and unlimited text length to check. To check your text content for free, simply go to the [upload page](https://www.plagtracker.com/upload/), insert or upload your text, and get a detailed plagiarism report after the scan is completed.