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The “Report on the 2012 Survey of Programs” is available for download (2012surveyreport.pdf). This 36-page report presents an overview of the 2012 Survey of Programs along with a concise account of both qualitative and quantitative responses to the survey. Please direct questions about the report or the survey to Consortium Co-chairs, John S. Dunn, Jr. […]

Earlier today the Consortium opened its 2012 Survey of Programs and circulated an invitation to complete the survey to 196 program coordinators, directors, and administrators. The 28-question survey will remain open through Wednesday, August 15, 2012. Click here to learn more about the survey.

The Master’s Degree Consortium of Writing Studies Specialists needs your help. This summer we are in the process of assembling a comprehensive index of MA and MS programs associated with rhetoric, composition, writing studies, and technical and professional writing.  In late June and early July, a small team of volunteers began the first phase of […]

You may not have given it much thought, but even if your program is focused on writing and rhetoric, your students are most likely being counted in Higher Ed statistical categories as students of literature. Thanks to a great deal of hard work over several years by Louise Phelps (Syracuse University) and her taskforce, the […]

The 2012 Survey of Program, which opened on March 5, closed in mid-late August with more than 90 responses.  We are currently in the process of smoothing the data set (i.e., combining split entries, removing empty or illegible entries, etc.).  We anticipate having a preliminary report available in mid-January 2013. Dr. Derek N. Mueller Co-chair […]

Call for proposals: MA Programs at Work (Proposal deadline: Sept. 30, 2011) For those seeking a Ph.D., the Masters of Arts degree is a necessary stepping stone. Stand alone M.A. programs, often referred to as “terminal,” can suggest a premature endpoint or confer second-class status upon this form of advanced study.  Recently, scholars have begun […]

See Peter Vandenberg and Jennifer Clary-Lemon’s article, “Advancing by Degree: Placing the MA in Writing Studies,” in the December 2010 (62.2) issue of College Composition and Communication. Abstract Master’s programs have been absent from writing studies’ scholarship on graduate education, primarily because they are not sites of disciplinary research. The MA, however, should be valued […]

If you have a "news" item related to the interests of the Master’s Degree Consortium of Writing Studies Specialists that you would like to see posted at this site, please contact Derek Mueller.