Composition

Recognizing that we live in an information-saturated culture, the Composition Discipline supports the development of critical and creative literacies among students.  We are here to teach writing and help students prepare for the literate demands of the classroom, the workplace, and the world.

We build a culture of writing at UMD by offering first-year and intermediate expository writing, technical and professional writing, introductory and advanced creative writing, and more specialized upper-level rhetoric and writing classes.  These courses emphasize the writing process, writing for professional and disciplinary audiences, invention and creativity, and critical thinking and are geared toward students in any major or career field where written communication is important.

Faculty in the Composition Discipline…

• teach first-year and upper-level writing
• mentor and teach K-12 education students in courses like Composition 327
• advise campus publications like Lyceum
• support programs like MALS and Dual Enrollment by offering workshops and seminars
• build partnerships with community agencies that provide service and leadership opportunities, foster citizenship, and improve writing proficiency among students
• maintain close relationships with other units on campus like the Civic Engagement Project, American Studies, and the Honors Program
• conduct research and publish scholarship in areas like writing pedagogy, writing in non-academic settings, and the relationship between culture and rhetoric

Students in our writing courses…

• fulfill campus-wide as well as discipline-specific UMD requirements
• learn to write a variety of genres for a variety of audiences
• enjoy workshop- and discussion-oriented learning environments
• develop skills in areas like critical thinking, research, and print literacy
• use digital media technologies to conduct research and communicate ideas
• have access to faculty thanks to small class size and an atmosphere of collaboration.