Who We Are

Housed in the College, the Writing Program oversees the University of Chicago’s first-year writing instruction and provides academic writing support and training to students, faculty, and staff across the University. Our history – and our flagship writing course, Academic and Professional Writing (The Little Red Schoolhouse) – is grounded in an approach to writing that considers the particular challenges of writing about complex, expert subject matter for a variety of readerships.

The Writing Program provides writing support to all University divisions and schools, as well as academic and administrative programs. We teach for-credit and non-credit courses, seminars, and workshops. We also provide training in writing pedagogy, individual tutoring for undergraduates and graduate students, and consultations with faculty and staff on the writing needs of specific individuals, departments, and programs.

A key to serving so many different constituencies is strong integration of writing instruction at many different levels. Today’s undergraduates are tomorrow’s graduate students and professional school students. We help undergraduates develop writing skills they will use throughout their careers. We help writers work within the disciplinary expectations of their fields, but also prepare writers to flourish in an academic and professional environment that is increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative.

40 years of training writers

Since its inception, the Writing Program has been committed to giving writers with big ideas the tools to communicate those ideas to particular readers–with clarity and grace.