The Speech Communication Department is small enough to know you, but large enough to serve you. The Graduate Program in Consultancy at OSU is almost 30 years old. Typically, 20-25 graduate majors join us each year to work on their degrees.

DEGREE OFFERED AND DEGREE PLANS

The Department offers work leading to a Master of Arts degree in Speech Communication. The graduate program typically is completed in two academic years, but can be completed in three semesters and a summer. The applicant is expected to have had at least twelve hours of appropriate undergraduate work in speech communication. Should the graduate faculty decide that there is a deficiency in the applicant's undergraduate work, they may require the deficiency be removed by enrollment in specific, undergraduate courses. Courses taken to remove a deficiency cannot be counted towards the Masters degree.

Students may earn the Masters degree in Speech Communication under any one of the following three plans of study:

PLAN ONE: 24 hours of required courses and completion of a Masters thesis

PLAN TWO: 30 hours of course work including 24 hours of required courses, 6 hours of elective courses, and a graduate project.

PLAN THREE: 36 hours of course work including 24 hours of required courses, and 12 hours of elective courses.


Students should consult the University catalog for the specific proceedures governing each Plan.

Near the completion of the course requirements, the student will take the written and comprehensive examinations. These examinations will be scheduled by the department three times each year: the first weeks of October, February, and June. The student must notify his/her adviser and the graduate faculty one month prior to the scheduled date on which he/she wishes to take the examination. Following the completion of the written examination, the student will take an oral examination related to but not limited to his/her responses on the written examination.

Each of the three plans of study requires the same 24 hours of courses which constitute the core curriculum.

SPCH 5013 Introduction to Graduate Study
SPCH 5023 Introduction to Qualitative Research
SPCH 5210 Advanced Practicum
SPCH 5710 Seminar in Speech Communication ("workshops")
SPCH 5713 Rhetorical Theory
SPCH 5723 Oral Communication Theory
SPCH 5733 Human Relations in Organizations
SPCH 5763 Seminar in Organizational Communication Consultancy

For students selecting plan two or three, elective courses may be selected from various supporting areas such as business, mass communication, sociology, psychology, and adult and occupational education.