The Writing Program draws on full-time instructors, part-time lecturers, and teaching assistants from disciplines across the Arts and Sciences to staff more than 900 writing courses a year. We also provide tutoring, free of charge, in our Writing Centers located on the College Avenue Campus, Livingston Campus, and Douglass Campus.

To assist students in developing the critical thinking and writing skills most highly valued in the university, the Writing Program has developed a curriculum centered on student writing.? Our courses presuppose that the context for writing is always prior reading, and in this spirit, students spend time reading, discussing, and writing about texts that deal with some of the most important issues of our time: globalization, the rise of the "knowledge society," biotechnology, environmental decline, the encounter between different regions and cultures, the changing nature of identity, and the search for enduring values beyond the prospect of seemingly random change.

From the start of the term, we address grammar, clarity, and structural coherence in the context of revision, meaning that instructors offer feedback on rough and final drafts of students? work, as opposed to providing workbook-style exercises or lectures on correctness and style. Our basic approach is to help students recognize the patterns of error in their own writing, and to see problems of organization as a consequence of conceptual confusion.? Regardless of their incoming skill levels, all students can expect to spend a substantial amount of class time reading, discussing, and revising peers' essays.? With the help of these techniques, students learn to generate clear and cohesive writing that advances an argument.