Become a strategic and flexible writer

DePaul's master's program in Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse is Chicago's only graduate program to focus solely on writing, rhetoric, pedagogy, and language. Students build a solid theoretical foundation in rhetoric and discourse, and pair it with hands-on practical training; faculty in the program seek to make you a better writer and teach you exciting new approaches to the history, craft, politics, and practical applications of writing and content. With the option to concentrate on Professional and Digital Writing or Teaching Writing and Language, you'll develop valuable skills for approaching writing and content production in a range of industries and careers.

With an MA in WRD, you can pursue professional goals such as

• Writing for businesses, nonprofits, and tech companies
• Producing and managing digital content in organizations
• Working in an instructional design role at a university or other educational setting
• Teaching writing in a post-secondary institution
• Continuing the study of writing in a PhD program
• Building skills in language and composition instruction as a high school English teacher

Enhance your degree with graduate certificates in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL), Teaching English in Two-Year Colleges, Strategic Writing and Advancement for Nonprofits (SWAN), and Digital Humanities.

Read about WRD courses, events, and alumni on our blog wrdblog.org.

Courses are offered on weekday evenings at the Lincoln Park Campus. The program can be completed in two years.

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Get real-world writing and teaching experience

In addition to our robust internship program that connects you to professional writing and teaching internships in Chicago, you’ll have the opportunity to work with Chicago-area organizations through community-involved projects in courses like Grant and Proposal Writing, Urban Literacies, and Writing for the Web. You can also apply to teach your own section of DePaul’s first-year writing course as part of the Teaching Apprentice Program (TAP).

Application Deadlines

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. The deadline to be considered for a graduate assistantship is February 15.

Admission Requirements

Submit an online application, official transcripts, 500-word statement of purpose, current résumé, and 15 to 20 pages of your own written work.

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Required Courses

Students take a core foundation course and three courses in Rhetoric and Discourse, plus eight additional electives or required concentration courses.

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Top10

Chicago ranks in the top 10 U.S. metro regions for number of technical writers.

 

95%

of Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse graduates were employed, continuing their education or pursuing other goals within six months of graduation.

The MA in WRD is the only such program in Chicago with an embedded TESOL certificate and Teaching Apprenticeship Program

Learn from experienced and engaged faculty

“My research and teaching have been heavily impacted by my background as a Chicana who was predominantly educated and taught along the U.S.–Mexico border,” said Monica Reyes. Her classes create opportunities for service learning; recent coursework connected students with La Posada Providencia, a south Texas emergency shelter for immigrants and asylum seekers. Students worked to interview and learn from shelter clients and then produced multimodal stories of their strength and resilience.

“Being an MA student is a process of personal discovery. My classwork is helping me build a toolset that will allow me to enter the educational field as an effective instructor, and as someone posed to be an advocate and activist for educational social justice. This is one of the best investments I have made for myself.”

Dan (MA ’24)

Alumni Network

Alumni of the Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse graduate program have found rewarding work in companies, nonprofit organizations, and colleges and universities in Chicago, nationwide and worldwide. Learn more about some of our alumni.

Scholarships & Aid

Graduate school is an investment in your future. Learn more about the financial aid and scholarship opportunities available to you.

Admission Requirements

The annual deadline to apply for admission to the MA in WRD with a financial award (GA or Partial Tuition Fellowship) is February 15.

Students with a bachelor's degree in any field are eligible to apply to the MA in WRD program. Applications also require the following materials, submitted through the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences:

• A graduate application
• Official transcript(s) from all previous schools attended
• Statement of Purpose (approximately 500 words): In your Statement of Purpose, specifically discuss the academic and professional experiences that helped shape your decision to pursue graduate work in Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse (WRD). Explain your educational and career objectives and how these relate to the MA in WRD program. Please examine our departmental website to familiarize yourself with our curriculum and our faculty’s areas of expertise before you submit your application. One of our primary criteria for evaluating applicants is to make sure your interests are a good match with our department’s strengths.
• Current resume or CV
• 15 to 20 pages of your own written work. This writing sample may include academic writing or professional writing, one document or several. At the top of each document, provide several sentences that give context—including when the document was written and for what audience(s)—and that explain what the sample demonstrates about your academic or professional writing.
• Two letters of recommendation, which speak to your academic and professional abilities.

Application materials can be sent to the following address:

Graduate Admissions Office
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
2400 N. Sheffield
Chicago, IL 60614-2215

Credentials (including official transcripts) also can be emailed to the Office of Graduate Admission at graddepaul@depaul.edu. Please make sure your name is on all documents.

Students may apply at any time of the year, as the program adopts rolling admissions. All application materials should be received eight weeks prior to the student's desired starting date.

TOEFL and IELTS

The MA in WRD welcomes international students to study in our program. The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences requires that students educated in a country where the native language is not recognized as English must submit proof of English proficiency. Students may demonstrate proficiency in one of the following ways:

• An official TOEFL score report: the minimum TOEFL requirements are: 96 (Internet version), 243 (computer version), or 590 (paper version)
• An official IELTS score report: 7.5 or higher

Please have your TOEFL or IELTS score report sent to DePaul from the testing agency (institution code: 1165).

Learn more about Graduate Admission.

Degree Requirements

Course Requirements 

Students complete 12 courses (48 credits) to graduate from the MA in WRD program. Program requirements vary based on whether or not the student declares a concentration.

Required Course (4 credits)

Course	Title	Quarter Hours
WRD 500	PROSEMINAR (To be taken within the first 4 courses of the program)	4

Rhetoric and Discourse Courses (12 credits)

Course	Title	Quarter Hours
Select three from the following:		12
WRD 503	ANCIENT RHETORICS
WRD 505	CONTEMPORARY RHETORICS
WRD 506	MULTICULTURAL RHETORICS
WRD 507	GLOBAL ENGLISHES
WRD 508	DISCOURSE AND STYLE
WRD 509	GENRE THEORY AND PRACTICE
WRD 510	TOPICS IN RHETORICAL HISTORY
WRD 511	TOPICS IN COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND IDENTITY
WRD 512	TOPICS IN LANGUAGE
WRD 513	SEMIOTICS
WRD 514	SOCIOLINGUISTICS
WRD 515	THE ESSAY

Optional Concentrations (16 credits)

Professional & Digital Writing

Course	Title	Quarter Hours
Select four from the following:		16
WRD 521	TECHNICAL WRITING
WRD 522	WRITING IN THE PROFESSIONS
WRD 523	EDITING
WRD 524	DOCUMENT DESIGN
WRD 525	WRITING FOR THE WEB
WRD 526	GRANT AND PROPOSAL WRITING
WRD 530	TOPICS IN PROFESSIONAL AND DIGITAL WRITING
WRD 531	DIGITAL STORYTELLING
WRD 532	CONTENT STRATEGY
WRD 533	WRITING ACROSS MEDIA
WRD 580	MARKUP AND TEXT ENCODING IN THE HUMANITIES
WRD 590	INTERNSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL AND DIGITAL WRITING

Teaching Writing & Language

Course	Title	Quarter Hours
Select four from the following:		16
WRD 540	TEACHING WRITING
WRD 541	COMPOSITION THEORY
WRD 542	URBAN LITERACIES
WRD 543	TEACHING ESL WRITING
WRD 544	TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE
WRD 545	TEACHING WRITING ONLINE
WRD 546	PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR
WRD 547	AP INSTITUTE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
WRD 550	TOPICS IN TEACHING WRITING AND LANGUAGE
WRD 551	TEACHING APPRENTICESHIP PRACTICUM
WRD 582	WRITING CENTER THEORY AND PEDAGOGY
WRD 591	INTERNSHIP IN TEACHING WRITING AND LANGUAGE

Electives (8-32 credits)

• Students who declare a concentration take four elective courses (16 credits); students who do not declare a concentration take eight elective courses (32 credits).
• Students may declare a concentration by completing the LAS Graduate Concentration Declaration.
• All 500-level WRD courses count for elective credit.
• Students who have completed six MA in WRD courses may take up to two courses outside of the MA in WRD for elective credit; the WRD Graduate Committee must approve any course a student wishes to take outside of the department. 

Portfolio Requirement

All students will keep a portfolio of significant work done for courses. This work will be curated and submitted as a portfolio at both the midpoint of the program and at its culminating point. For a full description of the portfolio requirement, please download the Portfolio Requirement Guide. For additional resources, please visit the Portfolio page on the WRD Blog.

Mid-Program Portfolio

After completing the sixth course but before taking the ninth course, all students must submit a portfolio to their advisor and meet with this advisor to discuss both the portfolio and their future plans in the program. The Mid-Program Portfolio must be submitted, discussed with a student’s advisor, and approved before the student can register for their ninth course in the program. 

Professional Portfolio

In the final quarter of coursework, all students must submit a Professional Portfolio and reflective essay. The portfolio will be evaluated by the WRD Graduate Committee as “Pass” or “Fail.” A Professional Portfolio that does not initially earn a score of “Pass” must be revised until it does so.

Content displayed from this DePaul University catalog page.

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