DU Students Learn the 'Write' Stuff
You may not become Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen, but you will learn how to be a better writer during your time at DU with the University Writing Program.
The University's new writing program aims to improve every student's writing ability and goes well beyond mandating writing-intensive courses.
Some of the program's features include:
- a Writing and Research Center inside Penrose Library
- two writing courses and a seminar for first-year students
- 19 new faculty members
- writing courses limited to just 15 students
The Writing and Research Center is a resource to undergraduate and graduate students that offers one-on-one consultations on student writing projects as well as a variety of workshops.
Rachael Fliegelman, a junior psychology major from Chicago, walked away from a recent consultation with a much better idea of how to brainstorm ideas for her papers. She got a little help in the editing department, too.
"I really like it, and I feel like I was able to turn ideas into more of a concrete paper and argument," she said.
The center, with a staff of 17 under Director Eliana Schonberg, debuted in fall 2006 and already has helped more than 150 undergraduate students and 90 graduate students.
The first-year writing sequence has been transformed into a series of three courses: a first-year seminar offered by faculty across campus followed by two writing courses taught by new writing program faculty.
Many of those writing instructors joined the DU faculty to work with one of the leading figures in writing education, English Professor Doug Hesse, the director of the new program and the former chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication.
"The students will have much more thorough interactions with faculty," Hesse said. "My guess is that DU students will get twice the amount of attention than at many other schools."
Published on Oct. 31, 2006