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Rhetoric & Composition

What is Rhetoric & Composition?

Rhetoric & Composition is a vibrant field that includes Rhetoric, Composition, Cultural Studies, and Literacy among other subfields like Disability Studies.

Students trained in Rhetoric & Composition acquire the power to use writing and rhetoric in the pursuit of personal, political, professional, and social goals and learn how to research and produce writing not only through traditional forms like essays, but also in twenty-first century forms, including digital Web texts, graphic novels, blogs, wikis, videos, and a variety of other multimodal compositions.

What can Rhetoric & Composition offer me?

Graduates with training in Rhetoric & Composition work in large and small corporations, publishing houses, newspapers, non-profit organizations, and educational instruction, as well as in archives and digital platforms of all kinds. Graduates with training in Rhetoric and Composition are well prepared to pursue graduate study in law, rhetoric/composition, digital humanities, cultural or gender studies, communication, English as a second language (ESL), and library science.

Is Rhetoric & Composition right for me?

Professional and social goals are the heart of Rhetoric and Composition because students in this area become experts at analyzing the world around them. They critically analyze words, media, images, places, movements, and become participants in trending debates. Using rhetoric as a lens, they provide needed commentary on issues small and large. Rhetoric and Composition students are also experts in the teaching of writing. They get training in how to assign writing, assess writing, and build writing communities.

In Rhetoric & Composition courses, students have many opportunities:

Blend persuasion and creativity in various genres.
Analyze popular culture, social justice texts, media, and make connections between language and power.
Discover and apply best practices of teaching and assessing writing at a variety of levels.
Learn how the teaching of writing is transformative.
Explore personal identity through research, writing, and theory.

Job opportunities in Rhetoric & Composition

Graduates with training in Rhetoric & Composition work in large and small corporations, publishing houses, newspapers, non-profit organizations, and educational instruction, as well as in archives and digital platforms of all kinds. Graduates with training in Rhetoric and Composition are well prepared to pursue graduate study in law, rhetoric/composition, digital humanities, cultural or gender studies, communication, English as a second language (ESL), and library science. Whereas other graduate students struggle with writing, Rhetoric & Composition students soar to success.

Some Rhetoric & Composition students from Georgia Southern have used their degrees to work as writers in diverse settings like an educational technology company that supports first-generation college students; the Tesla, Inc. car company, or teaching domestically (Washington, D.C.) and abroad (Costa Rica). Others have used their degree to go to graduate school in Rhetoric and Composition, Cultural Studies, and law school.