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Director of the Center for Writing Studies: Gail E. Hawisher
201 English Building
608 South Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 333-3251
tbertram@uiuc.edu
The Center for Writing Studies facilitates research and promotes graduate
study in the areas of rhetoric, written composition, language, and
literacy. The center offers graduate students pursuing master’s
or doctoral degrees in participating departments a program leading
to a specialization in writing studies.
Admission
Students are invited to apply through participating departments and
programs, including the Department of English, the Department of Speech
Communication, the Division of English as an International Language,
and the College of Education. Admission to the program is granted
by the student’s home department, and the student must meet
the requirements of that department (e.g., English, Speech Communication,
Division of English as an International Language, Curriculum and Instruction).
Students are customarily admitted in the fall, and Graduate Record
Examination (GRE) scores are required.
Faculty and students in the center focus their interests around three
principal areas: the historical, the theoretical, and the empirical
study of writing. Specific faculty interests include research in computers
and composition studies, methods of rhetorical and functional language
analysis, cognitive processes in message production, the development
of language and literacy theory and policy, and problems in technical
and scientific writing. Graduate students affiliated with the center
may also explore the aesthetic, social, and cultural dimensions of
language and relate theories of writing to theoretical work in criticism
and linguistics, as well as to anthropology, psychology, reading,
and education.
Graduate training in scholarship and research is accompanied by an
equally thorough preparation for teaching. Students who affiliate
with the center are eligible for teaching or research assistantships
as soon as they begin their programs and are assisted through a week-long
orientation and advising program. They also participate in professional
seminars in the teaching of composition, business and technical writing,
the tutoring of writing, and other courses related to writing across
the curriculum and composition studies. Graduate students may work
as tutors in the Writers’ Workshop, as writing consultants,
as teacher trainers and supervisors in the Writing Across the Curriculum
program, and as research assistants to the faculty of the center.
The center is also home to Computers & Composition, a journal
for teachers of writing, and sponsor of an international electronic
discussion group on writing across the curriculum.
Financial Aid
Graduate students are eligible for teaching and research assistantships
in several different areas of writing studies. Tuition and some fees
are waived for graduate students who hold assistantships. |
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