Graduate School Bulletin

The Program in Writing and Rhetoric, in conjunction with the English Department and the Linguistics Department, offers a course of study that leads to the Advanced Certificate in Teaching Writing. The certificate program, a 15-unit graduate program approved by the State University of New York, is designed to complement graduate work in rhetoric and composition, English, literacy studies, linguistics, or cultural analysis and theory, to name a few examples. The certificate also provides further professional development and mentoring for those already teaching writing at the secondary or college levels.

Learning to teach writing effectively requires study of a variety of fields. Our program draws on theories, research and practices from psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive psychology, language acquisition research, genre theory, rhetorical theory, media studies and linguistic anthropology.

Teachers who are grounded in this body of theory and research will be better equipped to implement effective teaching strategies or undertake doctoral studies.

Individuals who would benefit from this certificate program include MA and MAT candidates in English who are preparing for a teaching career in high school or community college teaching; PhD candidates in a range of disciplines who would like a broad-based degree program and want to do research in methods of teaching writing; and high school and college teachers seeking advanced training, accreditation, mentoring, or promotion.