The M.A. concentration in C/R/L serves two purposes equally: to prepare teachers of composition and to provide the basis for doctoral study in composition, rhetoric, and literacy. The concentration provides grounding in the theories, practices, and research in composition, rhetoric, and literacy that will enable teachers/scholars to become central agents for improving instruction in written communication and thereby contribute to higher levels of literacy among students and in turn within the larger culture.

The concentration regards rhetoric and composition studies as that field which articulates and addresses the problems of teaching writing. Also, the concentration acknowledges that the field, as with all fields of study, poses and addresses problems within cultural contexts that are charged by a variety of ideologies and interests.

Consequently, the program of study is attentive to the larger historical and contemporary forces that shape composition and rhetoric studies. It is attentive both to the 2,500-year history of classically derived rhetorical theory and to twentieth-century composition and rhetorical theory, in particular, to the growth over the last 20 years of interdisciplinary research and theorizing. Because of these influences, the curriculum emphasizes the following main areas of study:

• Interdisciplinary range of composition theory and research, introducing the student to national and international contributions made by rhetorical theory, literary theory, linguistics, psycholinguistics/cognitive psychology, sociolinguistics, philosophy of language, education, and the emerging area of literacy studies;
• Classical antecedents and historicizing of composition and rhetorical theory, including competing systems of educational theory, the relationship of rhetoric, education, and culture, and the effects of new technologies on writing instruction over time.
• Historical development of composition studies in Britain and the United States, introducing the student to the historical dimension of the current discipline by focusing on contributions to composition theory by 18th-century theorists of rhetoric, elocution, logic, and grammar, and by focusing on the institutionalization of rhetoric and language study programs in 19th-century American colleges, the beginnings of English studies at the end of the 19th century, and the rise of composition and rhetoric studies as an academic discipline in the mid 20th-century;
• Nature of literacy, including changes in literacy resulting from computers and electronic information technologies, competing definitions of literacy, multiple literacies, interrelationships of reading and writing, the differences and similarities between oral and written communication, literacy as a kind of consciousness, culture and literacy, and the politics of defining literacy.
• In addition, students have the opportunity to acquire background in technical writing, research methodology, and language theory. Finally, the concentration is also grounded in the belief that the study of writing as rhetoric should not be separated from the study of literature as poetics, and that the close reading of literary works along with the historical study of their production and reception help develop a deeper and greater breadth of knowledge about writing.

A minimum of 27 hours of course work and 6 hours of thesis are required. Standard proficiency in one foreign language is also required. The distribution of course work is described below.

Issues in Composition Rhetoric and Literacy

To understand current theories of composition and rhetoric, a knowledge of the Sophists', of Plato's, and of Aristotle's work in "composition," rhetoric, and language theory is important. Research in their rhetorical and compositional theories depends on an examination of their epistemologies and their connection with rhetoric, culture, and politics. The body of classical rhetoric in the 700 years from Corax in the fifth-century B.C. to Quintilian in the second-century A.D. recurs in varying forms in subsequent periods of rhetorical history, including periods of reaction against it. The primary classical rhetoric texts will be related to literary and other kinds of discourse as well as to substitute "related theories" of languages.

18th- and 19th-Century Rhetoric and Composition Theory

An introduction to the rhetorical thought of 18th- and 19th-century Britain and America with the rise of Enlightenment thought and modernity, focusing on the development of rhetorical theories within the contexts the consolidation of industrialism and print culture, Scottish moral philosophy, English romanticism, and the emergence and development of higher education in 19th-century America.

History of Modern Composition Studies

The Ph.D. in C/R/L provides strategies for scholarly research in rhetoric and composition studies--the field of inquiry that formulates and addresses the problems of analyzing theory, historicizing rhetoric and composition, studying literacy and culture, and teaching writing. In addition, the concentration emphasizes that writing, the study of writing, and the teaching of writing are cultural practices and, thus, subject to critical examination. The general aims of the concentration are (1) to make the student familiar with recent advances in the teaching of rhetoric and composition, (2) to introduce the student to current theoretical and research problems that shape the field, (3) to introduce the student to the strategies necessary for research, and (4) to make the student aware of the history of the teaching of composition and the history of rhetoric and composition theory, especially in light of recent changes in communication technology. Encompassing these aims is the emphasis on developing a critical perspective, an ability to examine the cultural-political aspects of the practices that comprise the field of rhetoric and composition studies.

The concentration is attentive to the social forces (historical and recent) that shape rhetoric and composition studies. It is attentive especially to the influence of composition and rhetorical theory of the past, and in particular to the growth over the last 20 years of interdisciplinary research. To promote a critical understanding of these influences, the curriculum emphasizes:

• the interdisciplinary range of rhetoric and composition theory and research, introducing the student to contributions made by rhetorical theory, cultural and literary theory, linguistics, psycholinguistics/cognitive psychology, sociolinguistics, anthropology/ethnology, philosophy of language, philosophy of education, and the emerging area of literacy studies;
• the classical antecedents and historicizing of rhetorical and composition theory; including competing systems of education theory; the relationship of rhetoric, education, and culture; and the influence of writing as a technology;
• the historical development of composition studies in Britain and the United States, introducing the student to the historical dimension of the current discipline by focusing on contributions of composition theory by eighteenth-century discourse theories, theories of logic, and theories of grammar, the institutionalization of rhetoric and composition programs in nineteenth-century American college curricula and the institutionalization of rhetoric and composition studies as an academic discipline in the twentieth-century;
• the methodologies used to formulate and address issues of composition, rhetoric, and literacy; and
• the growing discussion on the nature of literacy, including changes in literacy resulting from computers and electronic information technologies, competing definitions of literacy, multiple literacies, interrelationships of reading and writing, the differences and similarities between oral and written communication, literacy as a kind of consciousness, culture and literacy, and the politics of defining literacy.

A minimum of 33 hours of course work is required. A standard proficiency in two foreign languages or one foreign language and statistics is also required. The distribution of course work is described below.