The Department of English and Technical Communication has a long history at Missouri S&T! We provide core courses in English and technical communication for all students, as well specialized and advanced instruction for those seeking a BS in English and Technical Communication.

Our university has gone through several name changes: the Missouri School of Mines (MSM, established in 1870) became the University of Missouri - Rolla (UMR) in 1964, which then changed to Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in 2008.

Although our university has offered English classes for more than 100 years, the English major was created in 1967. At that time, English was part of the Department of Humanities; a separate Department of English was created in 1984. The first chair of the Department of Humanities was Dr. Jim C. Pogue and the first chair of the Department of English was Dr. Jim Wise—both of whom were English professors.

Missouri S&T has been offering technical writing courses for more than a century, as well, but the B.S. and M.S. degrees in technical communication are new in comparison: they were launched in 2005. At about the same time, the Department of English changed its name to the Department of English and Technical Communication.

History of Technical Communication at Missouri S&T