Tag: Professional Writing

Faculty Spotlight: Monica Reyes

Although they spend significant time working with their students, the professors in the WRD department are still scholars at heart–often working on their own projects in addition to teaching. Dr. Monica Reyes is no exception. Her courses like Multicultural Rhetorics and Feminist Rhetorics encourage students to think outside the box for their own personal scholarship. Let’s check in with her to see what she’s been up to.  What are you working on right now? I am currently working on my single-authored book with Routledge. My book, Rhetoric and Storytelling within the U.S. Asylum Process: Shelter Rhetorics, examines the U.S. requirement

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Job Sleuth: Grant & Proposal Writing

When students decide to pursue a career in professional writing, grant writing might not immediately come to mind. However, knowing how to write grants and proposals is an important work skill even if you have no intention of pursuing that industry. That’s why Professor Lisa Dush’s WRD 526 Grant and Proposal Writing class for graduate students is popular year after year. Students from other departments flock to it too–not just the WRD folks.  So we asked Professor Dush to tell us a bit more about her class and how the skills you learn in WRD 526 can help prepare you

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Event Preview: Ecological Rhetorics  in vivo/in situ: Precarity Infrastructure Across Borders with Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon

The WRD Writing & Rhetoric Across Borders Series is back in person! On Wednesday, October 5 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in McGowan South 105, gather together with Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon to learn about how built objects affect the things around them. If you have ever gotten into a serious debate about what is and is not considered rhetoric–this talk is for you! As always, the event is free to attend!  Dr. Clary-Lemon is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She has a BA in Political Science from the University of Arizona, an MA in

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Alumni Spotlight: Rachel Landgraf

After graduation, life moves pretty fast–and sometimes in directions you never expected. At least, that’s the case for alumna Rachel Landgraf who graduated with her Master’s degree in New Media Studies in 2017. For the last three and a half years, she has been working for United Airlines. We had the chance to catch up with her recently to see what she’s been up to, where her academic work has taken her and to see if she had any advice to share.  What do you do for a living? Is it what you believed you’d be doing after grad school?

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Research Opportunities for Undergraduate and Graduate Students

One of the best parts about pursuing a degree is finding scholarly tracks you’re passionate about. Sometimes that passion swells beyond the scope of a class or project and you want to take your research to the next level. Whether you’re an undergraduate or graduate student, oftentimes there are ways to pursue that research in a meaningful, productive way.  Whether you take your project to a fellowship or find funding to do more research on your own, there is a myriad of opportunities to take advantage of while you’re still in school. This article doesn’t talk about every single option

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Going to Graduate School Later in Life

When finishing an undergraduate program, it can sometimes feel like that is the only time one can go into graduate school. But, for many students, heading right back into school after 12-16 straight years of schooling isn’t the right option. In fact, as of 2021, the average American graduate student was 33-years-old which is a statistic that has remained pretty stable for the last several decades. Beyond that average age, however, are folks who decide to go to graduate school later in their lives and careers.  Choosing to go back to school is a big commitment, even in a two-year

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Job Sleuth: Sports Writing

Among the classes in DePaul’s WRD program, there are several you would probably find clones of in other similar programs around the country. But in pursuit of a professional writing career through the program a class like Professor Justin Staley’s WRD 284: Sports Writing in America: Myths, Memories, Heroes and Villains, you’re bound to learn a variety of skills that will help in a variety of writing work capacities. Just because the class is about sports writing doesn’t mean you necessarily have to take that professional route after graduation. It’s also possible you’ll fall in love with the topic and

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Faculty Achievement Spotlight: Monica Reyes

In October 2021, Professor Monica Reyes of the Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse program was awarded a fellowship to further her Shelter Rhetorics manuscript. The grant was awarded through the American Association of University Women. Her manuscript is a timely piece that looks to engage a dialogue around the rhetorics of displacement and asylum. This work is vital to Dr. Reyes’ scholarship as she helps students navigate through these kinds of rhetorics in her classes. In the last three years, she has taught two separate, service-learning courses that highlight “countering the predominant victim narrative we often hear about asylum experience.” For

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Sharing Your Truth: Publishing a Personal Essay

This blog was written during Asexuality Awareness Week 2021, October 24-30.  At the start of 2020 I pitched a personal essay story to the Huffington Post personal section. It was an essay outlining my discovery of Demisexuality* and how that discovery impacted me as a person. I thought a few people would read it before life went on. What I didn’t expect was for the article to go viral during the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, or to see my face on other media platforms’ homepages sent in screenshots from friends around the world, or to be inundated with

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