The UMass Amherst Writing Program pursues excellence in writing education. Our award-winning program teaches student writers to find agency, take risks, grapple with complicated ideas, and discover new ones.

Since 1982, we have been an independent academic unit serving the entire campus community and remain a key part of undergraduate general education here at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Since joining the Writing Program in September 2020, Dr. Burnside has been teaching College Writing 112 and has been involved in our teacher training program. Dr. Burnside also led the Writing Program’s Tech Fellows group, creating a space to explore the technological integration of pedagogy and praxis in the classroom.  

We’re looking forward to the day when we can properly welcome Dr. Elkie Burnside in person in the Writing Program offices!

Congratulations to the winners of the Charles Moran Best Text Contest for 2020! 

This award honors Charles Moran, the founding director of the Writing Program, who firmly believed in publishing and celebrating outstanding student work. In that tradition, the Writing Program highlights student essays in both the Student Writing Anthology (SWA, used in College Writing courses) and the Best Text Contest awards given in his name. 

Jarrel De Matas, a Writing Program TO and member of the Resource Staff, marks the moment in a video addressed to the Writing Program community. During the video, Jarrel discusses the things he missed and gained during the pandemic.