Students interested in teaching writing at the college level or those who anticipate going on for a Ph.D. will benefit enormously from the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & Discourse’s Teaching Apprenticeship Program (TAP). This unique program provides advanced students in the
MA in WRD the opportunity to gain valuable experience teaching college composition in DePaul’s First-Year Writing Program.
MA in WRD students accepted into TAP will be assigned to teach a section of WRD 103 (Composition and Rhetoric I) under the close supervision of a WRD graduate faculty member. They will participate in a 3-day teaching workshop prior to the start of the quarter in which they teach, then take a companion course, WRD 551, concurrent with their teaching. This ensures plenty of support and supervision from a tenured faculty member. They will also be paid a stipend of $3,032.
The annual TAP announcement is typically posted in late February, and applications are due in early April. You may review the TAP 2024 Announcement and Application to see the timeline and required materials (click the link to download).
Admission to the program is competitive. To be eligible for consideration,
MA in WRD students must be in good standing with six courses (24 credits) in the MA in WRD by the end of Spring Quarter preceding the year they intend to enroll in TAP. In addition, they must have taken WRD 540 and at least one additional course from the Teaching Writing and Language concentration area by the end of the Spring Quarter. Note: Applications from advanced students in MA programs in the Department of English will be considered if students have completed WRD 540 successfully.
What Previous Students Say About TAP
"TAP offered one of the most educational and professional opportunities I have had since being in graduate school. After speaking with students from other universities who have had the opportunity to teach as graduate students, I now see that the TAP program (along with the class, WRD 551, that we take simultaneously) is one of the more unique apprenticeships available to students." – MA in WRD student, AQ 2014
"The lead professor put together a virtual tome of resources, readings, and ideas for handouts to help us generate lessons for our students. The course served its purpose of scaffolding the experience of teaching at the university and making the process manageable. I leave this course with a greater sense of myself as a teacher and how I might structure future writing courses." – MA in WRD student, AQ 2014