Master of Teaching Writing

Over the course of two years, students complete 30 credit hours and prepare a thesis and professional portfolio to complete this degree. In the first year, students may have the opportunity to work as writing consultants or research assistants. In the second year, students are given the opportunity to teach in the Composition Program. For the Certificate of Teaching Writing program, students are required to take 18 credit hours with a bachelor’s degree and 15 credit hours with a previous master’s degree or higher. The certificate may be completed in a year.

For more information, to ask questions, or just have a conversation about what it takes to teach writing at the college level or in the community, please contact the program director, Dr. Elizabeth Woodworth at ewoodwor@aum.edu, or Dr. Shannon Howard at khowar20@aum.edu. 

Core Courses in the MTW and CTW

MTW Advising Sheet

To provide students with opportunities to:
1. Develop the knowledge needed to support literacy learning in writing programs, to implement effective teaching strategies in composition;
2. Practice applying theory to contexts in teaching;
3. Experience composition and rhetoric as a multidisciplinary field by completing reading in composition theory, rhetorical theory, learning theory;
4. Gain familiarity and experience with a growing body of research focused on the learning process in acquiring literacy;
5. Enter in the professional conversation of scholarship in compositions studies and rhetorical theory;
6. Acquire knowledge of the history of composition studies.

About the Professors

Dr. Shannon Howard is an Assistant Professor of English who currently serves as Director of the Master of Teaching Writing and teaches graduate courses in composition theory, pedagogy, and writing across the disciplines. She also teaches first-year writing courses with an emphasis on environmental issues. Her research interests include material and cultural rhetorics, the use of popular culture in freshmen composition classrooms, ecocomposition, and the professionalization of new writing teachers. In the MTW she teaches Theories in Composition, Writing across the Curriculum, Thesis/Portfolio, and Composition Teaching Practicum. She is a member of the Online Learning and Teaching committee at AUM and is currently focused, like her colleagues, on converting core courses in the MTW to online formats.

Dr. Lilian Mina is an Assistant Professor of English who teaches graduate courses and upper-division writing courses in the Department of English and Philosophy. She researches digital rhetoric with focus on multimodal composing, the integration of social media platforms in teaching writing, and identity construction in online writing spaces. Her research on multilingual composition is centered on writers’ experiences with multimodal composing through incorporating translingual practices, and examining students’ prior (digital)writing experiences. She is also interested in professional development of writing teachers, professionalization of graduate students, empirical research methods, and undergraduate research. She teaches these courses in the MTW program: Multilingual Composition and Teaching Diverse Populations of Students; Professional Writing, Editing, and Consulting; and Writing in Digital and Material Environments.

Dr. Elizabeth D. Woodworth is the Director of Composition at Auburn University at Montgomery and an Honors Associate Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy and with the University Honors Program where she is also a faculty mentor. Dr. Woodworth teaches seminars in the Honors Program and courses on composition, creative nonfiction, British literature, and writing pedagogy for the Master of Teaching Writing. Her specialties include basic writing pedagogy, writing in the disciplines, Victorian literature, British detective fiction, writing program administration, and leadership in higher education. . At the Air War College, she is a visiting professor and project director for the Center for Writing Excellence at Maxwell Air Force. She developed the center and has been directing it since 2011.