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The Department of English in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts will feature a new concentration in its fall 2024 undergraduate curriculum designed to prepare its students to enter a variety of in-demand professional fields, including publishing, education, legal studies, writing for nonprofit organizations, digital content strategy and more.

The new concentration, Writing, Rhetoric and Literacy Studies (WRLS), will lead students through a sequence of five introductory, intermediate and advanced courses taught by leading scholars of writing, rhetoric and literacy studies.

“The English Department at UMass Amherst has long been known for its strengths in composition and rhetoric, providing leadership for the university’s groundbreaking College Writing and Junior Year Writing courses since 1980,” said David Fleming, professor of English, who teaches courses in rhetoric. “But in the last decade or so, we’ve seen a growing demand from students for more courses in writing. We’re excited to now unveil this new five-course concentration within the English major in Writing, Rhetoric and Literacy Studies, as well as a letter of specialization for non-majors.”

Students will develop skills in public writing, community research, drafting and revision, editing and publication, audience analysis, digital rhetoric, and multimodal composition. Students can gain experience analyzing and crafting writing for different audiences and with a view to the public good. They will practice writing across a range of genres, from grant proposals and policy statements to digital essays.

The curriculum equips students with valuable skills in verbal and written communication, qualities prized among employers across professions and applicable in any career. It also gives students the option to choose from a variety of electives to design their own course path in pursuit of a wide range of careers or graduate programs.

“With a new 200-level introductory course and a more encompassing view of the field of writing studies, the new program brings together an exciting range of scholarly, practical and professional topics,” Fleming adds. “It also recognizes one of the fastest growing and most vibrant areas of study within English studies, both nationally and here at UMass.”

The concentration has been approved by the UMass Faculty Senate, and students can begin enrolling for courses for the 2024-25 academic year. A listing of fall 2024 courses counting toward the concentration and specialization is available on the Department of English website.

Students who wish to add English with a WRLS concentration as a second major should contact English Undergraduate Program Coordinator Celeste Stoddard at cstoddard@english.umass.edu or stop by the English Undergraduate Advising Office at E345 South College.

For more information, contact Janine Solberg, director of the WRLS concentration at jlsolber@english.umass.edu.