Our Mission
About Us
We support writers and the teaching of writing.
Our Mission
The Writing Institute supports and enhances the culture of writing at the University of Pittsburgh, supports sustained intellectual engagement with writing across campus, offers research-based professional development opportunities related to writing, drives and showcases innovative and effective writing pedagogy, and ensures a responsible and effective vision and implementation for the Writing requirement.
Our Team
Who We Are
We are teachers first.
Our team has taught first-year composition, writing-intensive courses, and graduate seminars, and that classroom experience shapes our work, from program design to one-on-one consultations. Our areas of expertise include composition and rhetoric, writing in the disciplines, disability studies, digital writing, science writing, creative writing, and curriculum design.
We design courses that help students explore possibilities and prepare for life after college, develop programs that support writers across the university, and work with faculty to strengthen writing instruction across the Dietrich School.
Our Approach
How We Work
The Writing Institute approaches its work in four distinct but interconnected ways.
Direct support for writers.
We work directly with writers through Writing Center consultations, faculty writing retreats and accountability groups, graduate student Project Workshops and Writing Days, postdoctoral workshops and WAGs, and individual consultations for writers with disabilities. Someone comes with a writing need and leaves with direct help.
Developing capacity in others.
Some of our work is slower and more deliberate by design. It is the kind of capacity-building that takes a full semester or several conversations with a teacher or a department to take root. This work includes administering the W course requirement, consulting on course and assignment design, supporting Seminar in Composition teachers, leading the Writing in the Disciplines Faculty Seminar and Curriculum Design Studio, and maintaining ongoing conversations with departments about their writing-intensive courses. The goal is to strengthen the teaching happening across the Dietrich School.
Building and running programs.
Some of our most visible and durable work involves creating and sustaining programs that open new pathways for writers and students: the First-Year Engineering Composition Program, the Public Communication of Science and Technology certificate, the Disability Studies certificate, and the Seminar in Composition Faculty Fellows Program.
Community and public engagement.
Writing matters beyond the university. Through our grant writing workshops at Pitt's Community Engagement Center in the Hill District and the Creating a Culture of Access speaker series, we work to make writing support and disability scholarship resources available to broader communities.
Our Advisory Board
Who Supports Us
The Writing Institute draws on the expertise and insight of our Advisory Board.
Our Advisory Board brings together members from engineering, economics, social work, mathematics, urban studies, and the health sciences. Their advice on spreading the word about our work led the Writing Center to send syllabus language to all teachers each year. Meet our Advisory Board..
Meet our Advisory Board.
Our History
Where We Came From
The Writing Institute was built on decades of work.
The Writing Institute was founded in 2020 and builds on decades of work at Pitt: the Writing Center, serving students since the 1970s; writing across the curriculum, since 1981; and a nationally recognized first-year composition program. Read about our history.
Connect
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Pedagogy Consultations
Faculty teaching or planning to teach writing-intensive courses can meet one-on-one with a member of our team to talk through course and assignment design. Learn more about pedagogy consultations and schedule a session.