rhetoricus aesalon

Exchange notes?
Split a car rental?
Gossip about, "omg I can't believe he wore that" ?

I'm in and it looks like I'll get funding.

I will be there. I'll be presenting on Friday. It's only an hour drive away for me this year which is sweet. Traveling to Las Vegas was not cool last year.

Have y'all seen this yet? http://lolmythesis.com/ Because it's golden. 
 
People sum up their theses in one sentence. Some examples:
 
Fake science sounds an awful lot like real science, except it’s fake. --Archaeology
 
Rats like cocaine. --Psychology
 
Toni Morrison just really kills it. --English

You have many interests, but I'm having a difficult time seeing how these are culminating in graduate studies in rhet/comp. Though the field is certainly interdisciplinary, IMO your work sounds like it may be better supported by a comm graduate program. But perhaps I'm missing a link that you see?
 
You may already know this, too, but there are MA programs that fund students with TAships teaching first-year composition you might be interested in looking into. Though, these are less common than PhD programs that do the same. With that said, graduate students make up a good chunk (if not the vast majority) of instructors who teach most sections of first-year composition; adjunct faculty (who make around $18-$20k a year) will normally teach the rest of these sections, which is probably not the career you have in mind.
 
If introductory composition is your true passion, I'd recommend looking into writing program administration. Does your institution have a Director of Writing or Administrator of First-Year Writing or something else to that effect? I'd recommend connecting with her/him to see if this work is something that truly interests you. You can also check out the WPA listserv: http://wpacouncil.org/wpa-l

Thanks, MisterMister, for answering! Your response gives us more insight into your question.
 
A few things: the great thing about the field of rhetoric and composition is that everyone's interests are varied, so the danger of being pigeonholed is low. I am working on research projects on a zine, on Twitter, and on accommodation statements on the syllabus. I am not yet choosing between rhetoric and composition, and my professors have been encouraging me to pursue multiple interests to see if I can find connections. The first two years of a PhD program are really about exploration.
 
At the same time, the odd reality is that even though you don't want to be pigeonholed, you will definitely construct an identity in your application materials. You do want to have a tagline, of sorts. You don't have to choose just one field or subfield, but it's good to point to an underlying question in your research interests. In my application materials, I talked about feminist theory, disability studies, and access to higher education; I illustrated how social justice was an underlying concern for me in both rhetoric and composition. So, it's great to have varied interests, but it's even better if you can articulate the connections between them. 
 
Interestingly, I just had a conversation yesterday with one of my mentors about the division between rhetoric and composition. I noted how so many scholars seem to identify with one or the other in their research (I'd assert that all rhet/comp folks identify as compositionists in their teaching practice, but research interests tend to be one or the other). He explained that that does seem to be case, but many scholars shift throughout their careers depending on their research questions. Plus, both fields have a shared interest in writing. Long story short, don't feel like you have to choose, especially this early in your career! I am equally passionate about rhetoric and composition, and I am motivated to find ways to merge the two in my research; even better, my professors are supportive of this.
 
In terms of your writing sample, select the piece of writing you think best represents your research, analytical, and writing skills. Bonus points if it aligns with your stated research interests. The conference you attended sounds like it was a great experience! Own it. You are not an impostor but a raising star. You can do this! 

Re: Re-taking GRE tests: If you have the time and money, and re-taking the test will make you feel better about your application, then do it. Think less about what ad comms want (it's too hard to predict what they will prioritize anyway) and focus on what will make you feel more confident about your application. 
 
I got a 157V my first time. I tried to tell myself I was okay with the score, but it kept eating away at me. Once I signed up to re-take the test, I immediately felt better. My second attempt, I scored a 161V, which isn't anything special but I felt so much better about my application. Of course, it's impossible for me to know if that made an impact on my application season, but I do know that re-taking the test helped me sleep better-- that alone was worth the time and money. 

Just because this is an interest of mine as well, I feel like I should agree that what you are being asked to do is absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with you, and you did not have to overcome your disability to succeed but rather the messed up, backwards, elitist institution of higher education. Ugh. Just had to get that off my chest.
 
Also, I wanted to ask what your interests in medieval lit are. I'm not a medievalist myself, but I have been reading in medieval disability lately and it seems like a lot of work needs to be done in that area.

Just because this is an interest of mine as well, I feel like I should agree that what you are being asked to do is absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with you, and you did not have to overcome your disability to succeed but rather the messed up, backwards, elitist institution of higher education. Ugh. Just had to get that off my chest.
 
Also, I wanted to ask what your interests in medieval lit are. I'm not a medievalist myself, but I have been reading in medieval disability lately and it seems like a lot of work needs to be done in that area.

Just because this is an interest of mine as well, I feel like I should agree that what you are being asked to do is absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with you, and you did not have to overcome your disability to succeed but rather the messed up, backwards, elitist institution of higher education. Ugh. Just had to get that off my chest.
 
Also, I wanted to ask what your interests in medieval lit are. I'm not a medievalist myself, but I have been reading in medieval disability lately and it seems like a lot of work needs to be done in that area.

Yeah! A rhetoric page for 2014ers. This is quite exciting and well overdue. Thanks for starting one.
 
The resources you've listed are the exact ones that I've looked at, and I think they are really nice. You've probably already noticed, but Rhetoric Review's Survey is 6 years old, so that might be something to take into account with the (very, very cool and comprehensive) information that it has listed. Specifically, I imagine that admission has become much more competitive in recent years to many schools.
 
The batchgeo map is awesome, and they have also started to make ones that feature job listings in rhet/comp for each academic year that you might be interested in checking out. The first one, as far as I'm aware, was last year and it is here: http://batchgeo.com/map/587e08777d68113388ea134608265b19
 
I would say that it might not be a bad idea to priviledge MA programs. You will most likely not be getting a degree any faster in a BA to PhD program and you will also be limiting the amount of exposure you get to different pedagogical approaches and networking opportunities during your studies. You might also not be able to negotiate a higher teaching contract if you stay within the same program and move from MA to PhD. I also think that since you are still interested in so much, a comprehensive MA program will really benefit you. Honestly, the best program that I know of for comprehensive background coursework in rhet/comp is Purdue, and (correct me if I'm wrong ComeBackZinc) they don't offer a BA to PhD track, only seperate MA and PhD programs.
 
With that said, I'm at Oregon State right now, and I absolutely love it. There is a lot of support (financial and professional) here for MAs (the school does not grant a PhD) and the program is heavily based in pedagogy, which was important to me as I wanted to have strong teaching experience going into a PhD. This is pretty rare for an MA program. There has been some transitioning with faculty over the past two years, but for being an R1 instutition, it feels more like a tightly knit liberal arts school in the program. And the rhet/comp faculty all come from very strong programs and have excellent knowledge and participation in the field. If you'd like more information, feel free to PM me.

Have you done much looking into The Lion and the Unicorn, the academic journal interested in children's lit? You might take a look and see who is publishing in it and where they have affiliation. http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/

Not increasing my loan debt by a penny is a big one.

I approached like any other essay. I started with a research question. Sometimes, the school provided a start, most of the tie, it didn't. I ended up with 4 specific questions that all of my SOPs answered, and in this order: 1) Why is a PhD for me? 2) What do I plan to accomplish during my time as a PhD student and after I obtain the PhD? 3) How can the department and its faculty help me obtain my goals? 4) Why is a teaching assistanceship a requirement for me? (The last question added depending on the school's stated requirements).
 
The first one was my "catch". It's the personal story that tells them about me, as a person, and why I'm not taking the PhD thing lightly. It was my "this is why you should like me better than anyone else" sentence. I wrote about 5 pages answering this question and managed to condense it into two and three sentences. I would interchange these sentences depending on the length of the SOP. The second question, I answered in about 3 pages, and condensed it into two sentences. I wrote several pages answering question 3 for each school. That took a lot of research (I read department blogs, faculty blogs, abstracts of recent dissertations and theses by current and former students, articles put out by relevant faculty and might-be-relevant faculty, even faculty dissertations (at least in part), checked which conferences they've been to, checked their social media, if available, to see what their interests were, in short: faculty stalker!).
 
I found the SOP how-to guides less than helpful. There was too much conflicting advice and none it was from the departments I was interested in. I took the common ideas (such as: give them something right of the bat to distinguish you from everyone else, and apply a nickname to, like sociology girl or library girl or whatever, because nicknames are easy to remember). The SOP is a cover letter for a resume. It's deeply personal. It's about fit.

Hi antigone. It's really a crapshoot. Some of us got into one, some of us were wait listed before we were accepted, some of us got into several, and some got into none. It's such a strange process, really difficult to predict. I know of a few folks who "only" got into UNC Chapel Hill, which is, you know, an AMAZING program. Just remember, no one's worth as a scholar is determined by how many programs s/he gets into. If you look into the threads for the 2013 Acceptance Freakout, Wait list, and No Confidence threads, you'll see a variety of different experiences.
 
Hope this helps!

I think that's great advice, BunnyWantsaPhD, and is something we probably don't think about enough. This might also be something that differentiates a WS for a master's program from that of a PhD program. Maybe I was just lucky, but I felt like for my MA I just wanted to provide the WS that showcased the best, most "polished" form of my writing--not especially in a particular subfield of interest--just something that proved I was capable of doing research at a graduate level.
 
But with the PhD, I am feeling much more pressure to provide work that begins to show I am capable of the critical analysis and expression of contributing to the field as a scholar. It's not just about organization and coherence now, but also ideas and criticism.

Hi all! I'm new to these parts, and I just wanted to drop a quick note to express how thankful I am for all the information you have all already shared. It's been great, too, in seeing I am not the only one who is gearing up for one of the most stressful experiences in life over the coming months. Perhaps the moment can be captured best with "may the odds be ever in your favor!"  

I have a cousin who studied Irish history and taught at the same time while studying at Oxford. His experience seems to align with what is being said, though I could add he was completely converted to the Oxford mindset after returning to the States. In fact, he even had a distaste for how American scholars wrote published articles.

He hated the academic system in the States so much after returning that he left his TT job after a few years and now works for the government.

I'm sure his case isn't the norm, but I do feel like it may contribute to what is being said about the very different academic approaches that are celebrated at Oxford vs. the States. It sounds like you need to fundamentally re-establish yourself when professionally crossing the Atlantic, reorienting yourself to the research that is publishable and teaching that will support your career if and when you make the transition.

It might be something to consider, especially if you intend on eventually teaching and working in the States.

Hi all! I'm new to these parts, and I just wanted to drop a quick note to express how thankful I am for all the information you have all already shared. It's been great, too, in seeing I am not the only one who is gearing up for one of the most stressful experiences in life over the coming months. Perhaps the moment can be captured best with "may the odds be ever in your favor!"