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About

Photo: Erika Schulte

Department Strategic Plan

Writing in the 21st century is global, social, and digital. The literacies of this new
century are culturally diverse, socially powerful, and technologically sophisticated.
Writing Studies is an area of organized and sustained intellectual inquiry examining the
nature, realities, and potential impacts of writing practices. Drawing together scholarly
methods from the humanities and social sciences, the field of Writing Studies seeks to
understand and enrich the ways people use written texts to shape the world.

Read the department's strategic plan, which contains more information about history, theory, and research in Writing Studies.

Mission Statement

The Department of Writing Studies seeks to understand the social, disciplinary, and rhetorical functions of written, visual, digital, scientific and technical communication practices. Through our broad-ranging research, degree programs, and courses—as well as our outreach to the University and communities outside the University—we investigate the intersections of communication with culture, politics, science, technology, and ethics. In all our educational programs, we strive to foster our students' critical-thinking skills as well as their sense of personal, professional, and civic responsibility.

Faculty, staff, and students in the department examine how knowledge is created, understood, disseminated, and debated by experts and the public in historical and contemporary contexts. For instance, we develop new knowledge about the links among writing, critical reading, critical thinking, and audience awareness. We examine the history of writing from its origins and explore the possibilities of written communication in traditional and emerging media. We study writers and teachers with an eye toward understanding how writing is taught and learned and toward encouraging effective and responsible communication. We also analyze persuasive techniques and the social, linguistic, and cognitive processes that make communication a dynamic, exciting, and often unsettling activity.

As a department, we value a multidisciplinary approach to research, teaching, and service; we uphold the principles of academic freedom and integrity; we respect and foster diversity in all its forms; and we strive to provide a collegial and supportive environment for our faculty, staff, and students.