Writing and Rhetoric

The Writing and Rhetoric Program teaches students to write effectively in academic, professional and community contexts. In our courses, students learn to read actively and reflectively, to think critically, to compose written texts with attention to specific rhetorical contexts and to understand these processes as interdependent activities.

Students learn to plan, draft, and revise with a specific purpose and audience in mind. Working both collaboratively and individually, students learn to write for both traditional print and digital audiences. In our multicultural context in Miami, our courses encourage students to draw on language diversity in their writing and research, with language and multilingualism often a focus of discussion and of course materials.

The Writing and Rhetoric Program serves over 4,000 students each semester, with courses in face-to-face, fully online and hybrid settings. The program offers:

A strong writing foundation in first-year writing, including specific support for multilingual student writers
Upper-division courses, including the Certificate in Professional and Public Writing, providing instruction in academic and professional writing in traditional, digital, and multimedia formats
Graduate instruction including Grant-Writing, Alternative Rhetorics and Teaching Composition

Preparing graduate students as successful instructors who work effectively with student writers is another priority of our program. We offer the following methods of teacher training:

Interdisciplinary Writing Teaching Assistant training program, a Provost Strategic Initiative aimed at putting well-trained instructors from a variety of disciplines into the first-year writing classroom, thus better preparing future faculty to work with student writers
English Department TA training, for teaching assistants in Literature, Linguistics, and Creative Writing
Graduate courses in teaching college writing
Hybrid-Based Practicum, in which teaching assistants shadow experienced full-time faculty who mentor them in classroom teaching, conferencing, grading, and providing feedback and
Mentoring Program, which provides TAs with two years of mentoring once they begin teaching their own classes

We also provide ongoing support and professional develop for all writing program faculty via our Professional Development calendar, brown bag events and peer-to-peer feedback system. Consult our program handbook for policies.

Cultivating a growth mindset, a culture of risk-taking and viewing failure as opportunity for learning
Taking a strengths-based approach, including valuing and using diversity as a strength
Creating a classroom culture of acceptance, kindness, and respect to encourage a strong sense of belonging
Encouraging intrinsic motivation, through pursuit of student autonomy, mastery, and purpose
Promoting self-efficacy
Facilitating collaboration
Utilizing project-based learning
Preparing students for changing workplace (divergent thinking)
Valuing responsible writing and informed citizenry
Promoting positive/productive disposition toward writing as a craft, as a process of discovery, as a thinking tool, and as a socially situated practice
Awarding process, not just product
Prompting meta-awareness and reflective practice
Providing sufficient professional development for all instructors

Ongoing workshop series for Miami-Dade public school language arts teachers;
Professional development and mentoring for dual enrollment teachers
Service learning: For example, students in ENC 3354, Writing as Social Action mentored more than twenty 10th graders from Miami Northwestern Senior High School. Learner-centered activities designed and facilitated by the FIU students helped Miami Northwestern students develop concrete writing skills and a view of writing as a tool for social action

Program Contacts

Writing Program Director

Kimberly L. Harrison
Professor; Director of Composition; Director of the Writing Across [...]

Writing Program Associate Directors

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Program Contacts

Faculty