Chomposition

Thanks! A lot of what you said appeals to me. I like the idea of blending the humanities with social science practices and I especially like rhet/comp being a practical field. When I started out as an English major my freshman year of college, I quickly realized I didn't find much fulfillment (or understanding) in analyzing the literature we had to read. I then switched to journalism and then to public relations (both in the comm department) because I found it more practical. Now I'm realizing I'm fine working in PR/marketing, but I'm not passionate about it to the extent I would want to study it more or pursue a degree in it. My "beginning" goal would be to get accepted into the rhet/comp MA program at the university I work at, which I couldn't attend until fall 2019 because the next batch of assistantships are decided spring 2019. I would want/need a teaching assistantship to cover tuition and provide a stipend, and give me experience teaching first-year comp (kind of scary to me, being a teacher!). My end goal includes these career options: Teach at a community college, work in a writing center, get a job in student affairs (most positions seem to require a master's), continue on for a PhD (it seems rhet comp programs usually require an MA first) or, if all else fails, get a job in nonprofit communications. Any of these sound viable to me at this point. I had previously considered applying for a master's in student affairs, but realized you don't usually need a master's in student affairs for the related jobs, just a master's degree at all. I find rhet comp more flexible with more potential as a degree, and probably more interesting for me at this point. Good luck in your future PhD program! Are there any books you might recommend to introduce me to the field/profession? Maybe a "so what" book if you will, or something that discusses the relationship between rhetoric and composition.

This is good to know, thanks. I went to a small university and generally got the impression that English focuses on Literature, so if you wanted to study film, TV and other media, communication would be the better department. I've now seen other colleges that had film studies in the English department, but for my university, the few media studies courses were in communication. What does reading the canon mean in this case? My guess is that it's reading all the "significant" literary works over the last several hundred years? So like anything from Shakespeare to Huckleberry Finn to 1984. This is probably accurate. I'm pretty sure the university I work at has their English department headed by a fiction writer, and my alma mater was headed by a British literature specialist. I don't think my alma mater actually had any faculty with degrees in rhet/comp (though again, small school). It's great to know that there's a lot of English folks out there that enjoy media studies! For me, I could find that interesting but from what I've researched I am genuinely interested in composition, so if I go to grad school for English that's definitely going to be my concentration, but maybe there might be room for a lit course along the way. Your profile says attending for Fall 2018. Are you going for a PhD now?

Probably yes. They do also have a PhD in rhet/comp but I’m not sure how distinctive it is from the MA. I actually could take classes part time for free as an employee, but a program like this warrants a full-time commitment because of the assistantship. Anyway, I have a significant other with a job and we live together, so there’s probably no room or money to uproot our lives and move. I’d probably be banking on getting accepted and funded at this school. It’s a mid-size state school that probably doesn’t have a prestigious English program, but i think it would have the resources, support and opportunities I need to get by.

Hi! Thanks for responding and helping me work through this big decision. This is spot-on and a great way of putting it for me. I do enjoy reading and learning, whether that be online forums, articles, news, listening to NPR, watching documentaries, etc. I do enjoy fiction, but rather than books these days I appreciate a strong narrative in movies or video games, which often require a lot of reading anyway. Capital-L Literature is exactly it the term I needed. I like books fine, I can discuss ideas and narrative and I can enjoy that, but I never enjoyed going meta with literature in a scholarly way. This is true. I guess I already feel a bit of an imposter syndrome where I assume everyone in grad school already has relevant experience and expertise, despite how paradoxical that sounds. This is great to know! I'm sure it varies by school, but it sounds like you get eased into the subjects rather than being treated like you are already familiar with all the subjects. I know I'll have to take a course or two on rhetoric, and I'm not opposed to that, but it's just not my interest, but who knows, it could change! Can I ask what you are hoping to do after your MA? I've heard that a lot of programs (particularly in hard sciences, I think) have straight-to-PhD programs that are recommended over a master's, but as you said I also noticed the programs I'm looking at require a master's before the rhet/comp PhD. Looking up journals is a great idea. Have you had to take the GRE? I'm a little worried about that because a big long test I have to pay for sounds awful, and I know the math will be miserable, but I think it's required for the rhet comp program at the university where I work. Did you study a lot? Will you be getting any funding or assistantship to go? Being out of college for three years, it's terrifying that I would have to quit my job and subsist off an assistantship, but for my goals I think it would be very important for me to get a teaching assistantship or possible assistantships with the writing center and other related areas. It looks like you'll be going to school in the fall, so congrats and good luck! Hopefully you get some time over the summer to relax and prep for the next two years.

I graduated in 2015 with a bachelor's in public relations, a minor in peace studies and three credits from a minor in English. Since then I've worked at a newspaper and now a college academic department doing PR-type work, but neither feel like my true "calling." I'm considering going to grad school now. I had written off anything in English for a long time because I assumed it was all about literature, until I found that there are programs specifically in composition. A little about how this could or could not fit in for me: + Worked in my university's writing center for a year as a tutor/paper tune-upper and liked it. I only left to do a campus job in public relations since it was directly related to my major. - I don't have a love for literature that seems typical with an English major. I haven't been a huge reader of novels since I was a kid, and while I like learning and reading about different topics, I don't read a lot for recreation. When I do it's usually nonfiction (not biographies, but social science kind of stuff) or narrative nonfiction. + I enjoyed my first-year seminar and advanced college English courses and could see myself being involved in or teaching those, but I have no teaching experience whatsoever. - Even though the program would obviously focus on composition, I'm concerned that I also disliked both of my literature survey classes in college when I started as an English major. Maybe it was my professor, maybe it was some of the material, but I just didn't enjoy reading Frankenstein and then writing a literary critique on it. - I'm also concerned about the rhetoric part. I've taken and did fine in a classical rhetoric course and a rhetorical criticism course (communication department for these), but never felt I fully understand the theories and why all these philosophers from Aristotle to Foucault were so important. + I think I could find a lot of composition-related topics that interest me. A few a jotted down were first-year composition, developing writing in other majors, writing centers and programs, plain language, conversational narrative, etc. ? I'm a trained journalist and I don't use the Oxford comma. If I could jump ahead with a degree and my pick of jobs, I could see myself teaching composition, working in a writing center, being an administrator in a nonprofit, writing grants or going into student affairs and working in academic advising or some other area. This is sort of long-winded, but how did you all know this is what you wanted to do, and do you think my description sounds like a good fit for a rhet/comp program? I'd have to quit my job probably because getting a TA position is important. I don't know if it's fine to do an MA first or if it's advised to go straight into a PhD. The rhet/comp program PhD at my university requires a master's degree first. My first post here and thank you all who can lend your advice. Edit: Any recommended book on composition for someone broadly interested in the subject and graduate study?