About Us

We’re Focused on Writing!

The University Writing Program supports students, faculty, and staff at ECU, as well as community members, through four interrelated projects: Writing Foundations, Writing Across the Curriculum, the University Writing Center, and the Tar River Writing Project.

Throughout a student’s educational career, writing is important. When new students matriculate to ECU, nearly all of them will take two Writing Foundations courses that will help them make the transition from high school to college. These courses teach students about research and writing/thinking practices that will be key to success both in their majors and in the professional lives.

In their majors, students will also take two writing intensive courses as part of ECU’s commitment to Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) . These courses build on the writing and research experiences of Foundations courses in order to prepare students for the diverse writing and thinking practices that help us all to understand ourselves and our worlds in more complex ways. Through writing in various genres and research styles, students in writing intensive courses gain valuable practices in communicating new research and experiences to various audiences. In order to make these courses as effective as possible, the WAC program sponsors regular professional development for faculty teaching writing intensive courses. These projects range from single-session events to multi-session workshops and symposia, as well as our popular WAC Academy, a six-week intensive workshop where faculty work to improve their own teaching of writing in their discipline.

While faculty and students work hard in their classes to learn to write effectively, the University Writing Program also wants to be sure we provide as much support as possible on the individual level. To that end, the University Writing Center supports student, faculty, and staff through one-to-one and small-group consultations about writing projects as they develop. Both undergraduate and graduate students sign up for face-to-face or online writing consultations, and will find in the UWC’s staff of trained writing consultants eager and excited readers who can help them to communicate effectively with different audiences. While the UWC works primarily with students, we also support faculty and staff writers on a host of different genres and projects. If you need help with writing, make an appointment at the UWC and take advantage of the high quality feedback we offer!

Writing, of course, does not stop or start only in classrooms. The University Writing Program is also engaged in various community writing and literacy projects that are central to personal, professional, and economic development in Eastern North Carolina. Through the Tar River Writing Project, for example, K-college teachers in our region meet regularly to study new research and “best practices” in the teaching of writing. Many of our TRWP teachers go on to sponsor various young writers workshops and camps and to volunteer with area community literacy projects.

Our staff at the UWP are always eager to learn more about what’s going on with writing on campus and in our local community. If you’d like to know more about our services, the links at the top of the pages will give you an in-depth look at the many different programs we offer. If you have an interested in getting involved with campus or community writing and literacy projects — or if you’d like to chat with us about a local partnership with your organization — we’d love to hear from you through the form on our Contact page.