Introduction: The Hunt for Traces of Remnants [T]here are remnants around me, or traces of remnants—misunderstood and misremembered moments and events, ghostly presences, hazy icons. I'm such a tra...

The discipline of rhetoric and composition is experiencing a change in its core curricula as graduate programs are replacing a traditional set of core courses with a more customizable, elective plan of study that focuses on specializations. Graduate student dissertations predict the flow and direction of the field, determining curricular change. Programs are also being responsive to a trend in the listing of specialist positions in the MLA JIL. The 2000 and 2008 Rhetoric Review surveys of graduate curricula as well as the authors' most recent survey results reveal a change in values from general to more specialist curricula.

This essay analyzes curricula and textbooks currently used in graduate programs in rhetoric and composition. Drawing on data from a web-based survey of 592 faculty in rhetoric and composition, we raise two main questions: How adequately are graduate students being prepared for their future professional lives, and should professionalization be a primary goal in graduate education?