One of the first Composition and Rhetoric programs in the Southeast, we emerged in the late 1970s at a time when writing instruction was being bolstered by a recuperative emphasis on rhetorical history. A senior professor and a junior professor worked with a group of three graduate students who wanted to start a degree program in Composition and Rhetoric. With this initial interest, we assembled a small group of professors in the English Department who had an interest in some area of composition or rhetoric to create sufficient course offerings.

The leaders of the program formed an ad hoc committee that met to work out program details, operating with a careful sensitivity to the attitudes of department faculty in this traditional Southern literary department. What made the program acceptable to the English Department as a whole was its relationship with literature and linguistics: an early generation of requirements included core courses in either literature or linguistics, with a written comprehensive exam in one of the areas.

As the program stabilized within the department, it gradually became more independent. In the current revision of the curriculum, minimal requirements for literature and linguistics courses were kept in place, but no examination is required in those areas. Instead, the "specialization" was created to allow Ph.D. students to choose an area of expertise they wish to develop, in literature, linguistics, or any other area of the university that is related to composition and rhetoric.

Today Composition and Rhetoric is well established as an important program in the Department of English, with a growing faculty, challenging courses, successful graduates, and national visibility.