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Graduate Progam Information:
Marnie Leonard (970) 491-2403 Marnie.Leonard@colostate.edu

Graduate Study

M.A. in Communication Development

We are in the middle of discussions to revise or retire the Communication Development Program.  In the interim, applicants interested in pursuing graduate work in Creative Nonfiction are encouraged to contact Professor SueEllen Campbell (SueEllen.Campbell@colostate.edu).  Applicants interested in pursuing graduate work in Rhetoric and Composition are encouraged to contact Professor Lisa Langstraat (Lisa.Langstraat@colostate.edu).  If you would like more information about our M.F.A. Program, please contact Professor Leslee Becker (Leslee.Becker@colostate.edu).   For information on all other programs, please contact Marnie Leonard, Graduate Programs Assistant, at Marnie.Leonard@colostate.edu.

Most people drawn to English studies as students or teachers read and write for a variety of audiences and goals---entertainment, analysis, argument. What first draws us to English studies might be the beauty of figurative language, the utility of informative language, the persuasiveness of argumentative language. Students who are drawn to serious study of English see a multiplicity of theoretical approaches that seek to explain the power of language---informative, creative, analytic, or persuasive--in shaping our thinking and our lives.

When students choose to pursue graduate studies in Communication Development, they bring with them a wide range of practical experiences with language as well as an assortment of theoretical perspectives informing their reading and writing. Regardless of their specific, long-term professional goals, students come to the program to learn more about communicating through texts. Whether they are interested in writing literary essays or hypertext grant proposals, whether they plan to become teachers in writing or literacy programs, whether they expect to edit corporate newsletters or World Wide Web sites, they need to understand the complex relationships among texts, readers, and writers.

The Communication Development program develops critically informed views of what textual communication is, how it works and how writers engage in it. The Current Perspectives courses in the CD program--E501, E522, and E615--assure that students examine three key perspectives on language--writing theory, semantic/pragmatic theory, and critical theories. These perspectives give students common ground from which to examine theoretical and practical concepts presented in other CD courses. Perhaps even more important, studying language through the three perspectives also gives them flexibility in understanding the range of theoretical perspectives they are likely to encounter in professional settings beyond the master's degree. E501 focuses on writers as it looks carefully at theories of meaning-making applied to written discourse production. E522 concentrates on discourse as it examines semantic and pragmatic dimensions of meaning as well as discourse analysis. E615 focuses on the production and circulation of meanings within language/culture by studying the critical theories that address such issues. By presenting students with these approaches to readers, writers, and texts, the Current Perspectives courses combine to allow students to pursue specific theoretical and practical extensions as they wish.

The M.A. in Communication Development is an interdepartmental program involving English, Speech Communication, and Journalism and Technical Communication, and students are encouraged to do relevant course work in other departments. For some courses outside the Department, you will need to fulfill prerequisites or secure the instructor's permission. Apply by January 15 if you want to be considered for any University fellowship.

Teaching Assistantships

Teaching Assistantships are available on a competitive basis. Most assistantships begin in the fall semester. Please apply by January 15th for full consideration.

Requirements for degree:

Most students complete their degrees in two years (four to five semesters of course work)

Core Courses:

Theory: Choose two courses (six credit hours) in consultation with your advisor.

Other Courses:

Teaching Assistantships - are available on a competitive basis for those applying to enter in the fall semester.

 

Recent Topics Courses in Communication Development

The following course descriptions are taken from recent issues of the Rambler, the Department's student newsletter. They describe some of the topics courses (courses not regularly offered) taken by students in the Communication Development program.

E630C Ecocriticism

This new course explores the newly emerging territory of "ecocriticism." Our boundaries will be permeable in genre and approach--we'll look at bits of literary theory (post-structuralism, cultural studies, Foucault, Barthes, etc.), environmental history, economics, politics, and philosophy, geography, literary nature writing, literary criticism, ecological theory, social theory, and so on--anything we can find that offers strong conceptual tools for thinking about environmental discourses. The class will involve a good bit of varied reading, regular writing, active thinking (both rigorous and creative) and participation, and independent library research; it should be both fun and stimulating.

E630C The New Somatic Criticism

This course will examine the recent abundance of "body" (or somatic) criticism that has emerged in contemporary criticism, as well as the historical backgrounds for such criticism in Marxisms, poststructuralisms, and cultural materialisms. We will read books and articles by feminists, cultural critics, gender critics, postcolonialists, and so forth. Authors include Foucault, Deleuze, Butler, Grosz, Gatens, Nancy, Taussig, etc. One or two papers (approximating 20 pp.); possible oral presentation.

E630D Gender and Genre

When writers choose one mode of discourse (and not another), they shape what can be included and what must be excluded. Before a word has been put on a page or an image on a screen, they have simultaneously created a bounded space for readers and opened a site of experimentation. Students in "Gender and Genre" will explore some implications of genre choices, with special attention given to the gender questions those choices raise. Further, we'll look at how both implications and questions change over time. Readings will range from eighteenth-century gothic and sentimental tales to Audre Lorde's biomythography Zami and Theresa Cha's DICTEE. We'll draw on Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Diana Fuss, Eve Sedgewick, Catherine Belsey, Michel Foucault, Cathy Davidson, Janice Radway, and Hayden White to keep discussion lively.

E631 Gender and Writing

This course will explore the connections between theories of gendered identity and ways of writing. In order to examine the effects of a gendered identity on the production of text, we will examine how the assumptions gender theory makes about identity production influence the research on writing practices. In particular, we will look at theories of gendered identity from many different schools of thought--essentialism, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, poststructuralism, neo-marxism, and cultural studies--and the resulting writing research which emerges from each theory. The major course project will involve conducting "original" research into the question of gender and writing.

E631 Nature and Environmental Writing

This class will explore a range of nonfiction books dealing in different ways with our relationship to the natural environment, focusing on books that have been or promise to be particularly influential in one way or another. We'll begin with some "classics" like H.D. Thoreau's Walden, Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, Rachel Carsons' Silent Spring, and Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, but we'll mainly read newer books, including many that ignore disciplinary boundaries at will, encompassing environmental history, cultural studies, philosophy, religion, politics, science, literature, and maybe more. Lots of interesting reading; weekly writing; discussion format.

E641 Writing Nonfiction: Creative Science Writing

Science could not evolve without its literature. Literature would be neither vital not accurate without its science. In this course, we explore this interdependence in two ways– – through a series of readings that examine world view from the very scientific to the very spiritual, and through a series of writings (including poetry, personal essays, fiction, and science writing) from the literary to the scientific and their intersection as creative science writing. Students of the sciences will be provided with a greater breadth of literary discourse to draw from in the creation of scientific literature and students of the humanities will be provided with a broader appreciation of scientific voice.

E641 Writing Nonfiction: Histories

This course, which builds upon techniques discussed in E640CV, provides an opportunity to explore the writing of histories from the perspective of a writer of literary nonfiction. During the term, you will, at the instructor's discretion, write an extended piece of nonfiction or a portfolio of shorter works. The course will include (1) discussions of techniques relevant to the writing of histories and (2) critiques of original student writing.

Recent Theses and Projects: Communication Development

Communication Development - Career Opportunities

The M.A. in Communication Development differs significantly from the traditional M.A. in English Literature, which prepares graduates to analyze literary texts, as well as from the traditional M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition, which prepares graduates to teach writing. The Communication Development program recognizes that once discrete fields of study within English (rhetoric and composition, linguistics, and literary theory) have connections that promise to make the degree more versatile for graduates. Because the program is strongly interdisciplinary in its approach, students will learn how to study the nature and function of many kinds of texts in specific discourses--political, scientific, philosophical, business, and so forth.

Thus, the M.A. in Communication Development has both applied and theoretical value. Students completing this program are competitive for positions in non-academic and academic settings. Because this degree focuses on principles and modes of inquiry, students develop the competence to conduct research in a variety of settings.

The program has a sufficiently broad base to qualify graduates for positions in a variety of educational, professional, and business settings. Graduates can choose coursework and projects that would prepare them to work in non-academic settings as specialists in business and teachnical communications, in computers and communication, in Web site design and development, and positions in literary editing.

In addition to qualifying for non-academic positions, graduates of the Communication Development program have found traditional and non-traditional positions in departments of English. Graduates of the program are working in English departments as tenure-track faculty, as Web site developers, and as administrators.

Because the job market and the changing field of English mandate that students look at career options before they complete their degrees, the Department of English has established an internship program for graduate students. Students work with the Graduate Internship Coordinator to obtain internships on or off campus, within and outside of academia, in areas related to their studies. Though English has not traditionally been a field which emphasizes internship experience as part of an academic course of study, this internship program has been successful in locating a variety of for-credit internships related to the field, and in helping students examine career options.

Web Links: Communication Development General Links

For information about course offerings and registration procedures for the upcoming semester or summer session, please view the Rambler, the Department's student newsletter.

This information is not intended to replace your advisor or the information in the CSU General Catalog, the Class Schedule, or the Department Checksheets.

Contact us:  Attn: Marnie Leonard – Through the mail at 1773 Campus Delivery Eddy Hall, Ft. Collins, CO  80523-1773.  On the phone at (970) 491-2403.  By e-mail at Marnie.Leonard@colostate.edu.

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