The Undergraduate Rhetoric Program has outstanding instructors teaching our classes. Our instructors’ excellence is evident in consistently strong teaching materials, successful teaching observations, and compelling student testimonials. Furthermore, Rhetoric instructors are regularly listed on CITL’s Teachers Ranked as Excellent list, which is compiled based on student course evaluations.

As part of our efforts to reward innovative pedagogy, the Rhetoric Program administers annual teaching awards each spring for our graduate teaching assistants and specialized faculty. Any graduate instructor or specialized faculty member who has taught in the University of Illinois Rhetoric Program for at least three semesters may apply for an award by submitting a teaching portfolio, which is then reviewed and ranked by a committee of other undergraduate writing instructors.

We offer three types of awards each year — the Rhetoric Program Award for Teaching Excellence for a Specialized Faculty Member, the Rhetoric Program Award for Teaching Excellence for a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and the Ruth Schurman Brookens Graduate Award for a female-identifying graduate student demonstrating excellence in the teaching of first-year writing. Each award comes with a $750.00 prize.