The Research Master’s programme Argumentation, Rhetoric, and Communication focuses on the study of argumentation and rhetoric in a range of communicative contexts, including politics, law, healthcare and science. Students will: Learn to reflect on the most important methods and approaches to the analysis and evaluation of rhetorical and argumentative characteristics; Explore key developments in the fields of communication and discourse studies; Discuss and examine crucial concepts from rhetoric and argumentation theory as they apply to argumentative discourse analysis, evaluation, and production; Use insights from the philosophy of language and pragmatics, relevance theory, discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, and metaphor theory as a framework for your studies. Develop the methods and techniques of qualitative and quantitative empirical research; Conduct thorough and theoretically justified analyses, case studies, corpus research, and other types of investigations of real-life discussions and texts.

The Research Master’s in Argumentation, Rhetoric and Communication is open for application to students with a Bachelor’s diploma from the University of Amsterdam, or a recognised equivalent from another accredited university, in: Language and Communication Philosophy Rhetoric Speech communication General Linguistics Dutch Language and Culture English Language and Literature Liberal Arts Other Bachelor's degrees Prospective students with Bachelor’s degrees (university) other than those mentioned above can nonetheless apply for admission to the programme. The selection committee will in such cases take a look at the content of the prospective student’s Bachelor programme, his/her study results and general motivation. Hbo-bachelor not eligible It is not possible to apply to this programme with a degree from a Dutch University of Applied Sciences (hbo). We do not offer a preparatory programme (schakelprogramma) for this MA. English language requirements New Master's students should be able to speak, read, write and understand English at an advanced academic level. Please check carefully whether you already meet the English language requirements or whether you need to arrange to take an official English language test.