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What does the Writing Program do for student writers?

  1. Between first-year and junior-year writing requirements, our work connects with almost every undergraduate student on campus. The Writing Program’s courses are a fundamental part of undergraduate students' general education.
  2. College Writing and the Junior Year Writing are required GenEd courses that fulfill the Writing (W) requirement for all students at UMass Amherst.

    Writing, Identity, & Power is an Interdisciplinary (I) elective that also fulfills the United States Diversity (DU) GenEd requirement.

  3. The Writing Program’s College Writing and Writing, Identity, & Power curriculum help students stretch as both college writers and writers engaged with the world outside of UMass Amherst by prompting students to read and write about plural perspectives and become self-reflective about their own learning and writing processes. The curriculum asks students to account for complexities of identity and power as they encounter new approaches to writing.  
  4. Writing assignments in all Writing Program courses give students the chance to develop research skills and to practice writing for different purposes in multiple contexts (both inside and outside the classroom) and within specific disciplines to prepare them for the writing demands in their personal, academic, professional, and public lives.
  5. ​​Our small courses aid students’ progress toward degree by teaching them to grapple with difference and diversity in language while carefully guiding them through rigorous practice in the academic reading and writing process.