The Composition Program
Overview
The Composition Program at the University of Pittsburgh offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate seminars; certificate and internship opportunities; resources for writing, teaching, and scholarship; and a nationally-recognized faculty committed to participating at all levels of the curriculum.
Among the many endeavors and alliances sponsored by the Composition Program, the following projects are central to our identity:
- Challenging introductory seminars that feature an integration of writing and reading; a semester-long inquiry based on contemporary problems in language, culture, and society; and a strong focus on the writing of students themselves.
- Advanced undergraduate practice in writing, including the opportunity to earn a Certificate in Public and Professional Writing, which concentrates on writing for the public sphere as well as writing in professional settings.
- Graduate study that engages students in scholarly investigation of the connections between composition, literacy, pedagogy, rhetoric, literary history, media, and critical theory, with the aim of preparing future faculty to teach across the English studies curriculum at a wide variety of schools, colleges, and universities.
- A Writing Center staffed by an experienced team of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate peer tutors that assists the university community with individual writing and teaching projects, and that hosts a Writer’s Café for those interested in group discussions of writing.
- Writing-across-the-Curriculum initiatives such as the recently-launched faculty seminar that is now offered every semester for faculty who teach or plan to teach writing-intensive courses in disciplines throughout the university.
- Partnerships with local school districts through the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, which offers the Young Writers Institute for children and adolescents interested in writing, and the Summer Institute for Teachers, a four-week graduate course in which local primary and secondary teachers explore possibilities for their own writing and share their practices as teachers of writing.
- Regular departmental colloquia, such as the Literacy Research Forum and the Composition Study Group, in which faculty and graduate students discuss particular areas of interest.
