Writing Studies offers a wide-ranging view of how writing functions in the world.  Students in this concentration will have a chance to study the language of civic change and learn how to participate in it.  They can study the multi-facets of visual communication.  They can also learn the arguments that help define our racial identities.  Theory, practice, history, current events, individual projects—graduates with this specialty will be prepared to face writing situations across disciplines and in various professions.

Drawing from courses in the fields of composition, rhetoric, creative writing, communication, and foreign language, this new concentration is available for English majors as an Option and to all other students as a Minor.

The Department of English has six tenured/tenure-track faculty who are writing studies specialists. 

Additionally, the majority of the department consists of qualified writing instructors, many of whom have been trained in professional settings. 

The department’s Chairperson, Beverly Schneller, has published two books on writing: Writing about Business and Industry and Writing about Science. Tim Mayers also has written (Re)Writing Craft: Composition, Creative Writing, and the Future of English Studies.