PhD in Rhetoric and Professional Writing

The English Department grants one doctoral degree, the PhD in English. However, PhD students can choose a specialization in Rhetoric and Professional Writing. This specialization prepares students for teaching and research positions at academic institutions, or for work in professional settings as technical communication consultants, analysts, and researchers. Our cross-disciplinary degree program incorporates coursework and methodologies from technical communication, rhetoric and composition, and linguistics to prepare PhD candidates to perform research projects on a wide variety of topics in rhetoric and professional writing, including textual studies in rhetoric, the rhetoric of science, all areas of technical communication, composition theory and pedagogy, and rhetorical and discourse analysis of writing in professional contexts.

The PhD degree consists of 60 credit hours beyond the MA degree. Fifteen to 20 of these hours are devoted to the dissertation. In addition to these hours, students must

• Take a prequalifing exam in their second semester
• Demonstrate reading knowledge of two foreign languages or mastery of one language
• Pass the PhD qualifying examination in two areas
• Pass an oral defense of the dissertation

Students may also choose an interdisciplinary emphasis in a variety of areas: technical writing, composition and rhetoric, linguistics, teaching English as a second language, and all periods of British and American literature, Native American literature and language, creative writing, literary theory and criticism, and film. In consultation with their advisory committees, students devise an individualized curriculum that reflects their own intellectual interests and career goals.