By Beverly Makhani, Undergraduate Education
PULLMAN, Wash. – The Writing Program at Washington State University again has been named among the 21 best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. WSU is the only institution in the Northwest to “typically make the writing process a priority at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum,” according to the rankings criteria.
“WSU’s Writing Program has appeared on this national ranking for more than a decade,” said Mary F. Wack, vice provost for undergraduate education. “Recognition for excellence has become a tradition that we value deeply and work hard to attain.”
“It is a great honor to be recognized publicly for the positive affect we have on students and their academic programs,” said Victor Villanueva, Writing Program director and WSU Regents professor of English. “To be on this list of top programs means we are on the radar of university officers and administrators across the U.S.”
Of the seven institutions on the list west of the Mississippi River, those closest to WSU are Stanford and the University of California-Davis. Other top schools across the nation include Brown, Cornell, Duke, Harvard and Princeton. See the complete list at http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/writing-programs.
In its 30th year, the Writing Program (http://WritingProgram.wsu.edu) is WSU’s “literacy teaching and learning center, providing writing support for all WSU students,” said Villanueva.
“Other universities follow our lead and adapt our pedagogies for their own programs,” he said. As former leader of the national organization for writing studies – Conference on College Composition and Communication – he received that organization’s “exemplar” award in 2009.
With the All-University Writing Committee, the program helps faculty develop and review more than 400 writing-intensive courses. The program manages the writing portfolio requirement for juniors, is the center for writing assessments and provides thousands of hours of writing mentoring, small groups and workshops to undergraduate and graduate students yearly.
New to the Writing Program this fall is a for-fee professional editing service center with proofreading, copy editing and conceptual editing for graduate and faculty members and individuals outside the WSU community. See https://writingprogram.wsu.edu/graduate-and-professional-writing-center/professional-editing-service-center/.
Contacts:
Victor Villanueva, WSU Writing Program, 509-335-2680, victorv@wsu.edu
Mary F. Wack, WSU Undergraduate Education, 509-335-8044, mwack@wsu.edu
