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It argues that the MA should not be reduced to merely feeding the PhD, highlighting anti/interdisciplinary potential and concrete curricular structure. The article presents the program’s origins, evolving concentrations, growth metrics, and core course requirements that shape student experiences across rhetoric, composition, language, and style.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/composition-forum-fall-2006-the-ma-in-writing-at-depaul-university-program-description/598756/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/composition-forum-fall-2006-the-ma-in-writing-at-depaul-university-program-description/598756.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"awa","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why does the article argue that the MA should not be defined only by its role in preparing students for the PhD?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It states that limiting the MA to “feeding” the PhD overlooks multiple ways theoretical and pedagogical knowledge prepares writers for professional and public life outside academia.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What concentrations are described in DePaul’s Master of Arts in Writing program?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The program lists Writing Theory and Pedagogy, Technical and Professional Writing, and Literary Writing (creative writing).",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What core course requirements do students complete regardless of concentration?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Students complete two courses in the Language and Style Core and two in the Rhetoric and Composition Core, including a requirement to choose two from Classical Rhetoric, Renaissance and 18th Century Rhetoric, Modern/Contemporary Rhetoric, and Composition Theory.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},598756,1792667722,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},3985747858093,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Composition Forum 16 , Fall 2006  \nThe MA in Writing at DePaul University  \nJennifer Clary Lemon and Peter Vandenberg  \nWhile discussion about the nature and function of the PhD has flourished for years in the broad context of English studies (Bérubé; Lunsford et al. ; Nelson) and for more than a decade now in rhetoric and composition (Brown, Meyer, and Enos; North; Young and Steinberg), the Master’s degree has attracted scant attention. Other than “The 2004 Survey of MA Programs in Rhetoric and Composition Studies ,” whose editors lament their own “inadequate data set”(Brown, Torres , Enos , and Juergensmeyer 8), the Master’s has not figured in our discipline’s relentless self reflection. No doubt this traces to a continuing concern with disciplinary viability and to the awareness that recognition is dependent on a robust collection of programs offering the terminal degree. The MA in English or any of its subfields , as is true of the same degree in various disciplines , is framed almost exclusively in its relation to the terminal PhD (Dalbey; Wright; Gaylord; Duyfhuizen) .  \nThe assumption that MA coursework has value to the extent that it prepares students adequately for doctoral study appears so well entrenched that how it does so in curricular terms escapes scholarly interest. The Program Profile feature in Composition Forum , however, offers an excellent venue to begin consideration of just how the Master’s degree functions dually , both preparing students for PhD study as well as working in support of the dynamic cluster of interests that circulate around the term writing in the academy. Lacking a significant number of well established undergraduate programs in rhetoric and composition, doctoral programs in our discipline—unlike their counterparts in literature—will continue to value the Master’s as a locus of theoretical and historical academic training. However, to constrain our understanding of the MA to its role in “feeding” the PhD is to miss or ignore manifold ways in which our theoretical and pedagogical knowledge can prepare writers for lives outside the academy. We have much to offer these students in the way of preparation for an active rhetorical life at work and in various public spheres .  \nOur intention here, in dialoguing about the MA in Writing program at DePaul University , in which Peter currently teaches and Jen was a student from 1999 2001, is in part to draw attention to Master’s programs as vibrant sites of anti/ inter/disciplinary potential. In departments where the MA is the highest degree offered—such as the English department at DePaul—MA programs typically function with a “vocational” or “professional” mission (Steward); they attract many students who return to school motivated not by a desire to engage in research practices and scholarly argument , but an intention to move efficiently through a credentialing process that will better position them in careers . When these students decide at some point during their MA programs to turn their attention for the first time toward the PhD—as Jen did during her time at DePaul—their stories have much to teach us about the appeal and potential of our work as it plays out in sites quite different from our familiar locales , the first year writing classroom and the doctoral seminar.  \nProgram Description  \nThe Master of Arts in Writing program at DePaul exemplifies , in capsule form , the curricular variety Brown et al. find reflected in their survey (9) . Like many programs at all levels , the MWR (as it is identified in the course schedule and other program documents) was born of circumstance rather than heavily theorized design; the degree’s current concentrations—Writing Theory and Pedagogy , Technical and Professional Writing, and Literary Writing (by which we mean creative writing)—are the legacy of interests represented by faculty in residence at the time of the program’s formation in the very late 1980s . It isn’t clear whether the rationale for c","cbCaicQmSxs832kL","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicQmSxs832kL","pdf",283051,"English","# Composition Forum\n## The MA in Writing at DePaul University\n## Program Description","[{\"question\":\"Why does the article argue that the MA should not be defined only by its role in preparing students for the PhD?\",\"answer\":\"It states that limiting the MA to “feeding” the PhD overlooks multiple ways theoretical and pedagogical knowledge prepares writers for professional and public life outside academia.\"},{\"question\":\"What concentrations are described in DePaul’s Master of Arts in Writing program?\",\"answer\":\"The program lists Writing Theory and Pedagogy, Technical and Professional Writing, and Literary Writing (creative writing).\"},{\"question\":\"What core course requirements do students complete regardless of concentration?\",\"answer\":\"Students complete two courses in the Language and Style Core and two in the Rhetoric and Composition Core, including a requirement to choose two from Classical Rhetoric, Renaissance and 18th Century Rhetoric, Modern/Contemporary Rhetoric, and Composition Theory.\"}]","Composition Forum - Fall 2006 - The MA in Writing at DePaul University - Program Description | PDF",1792087537,12]