Our Mission
As part of a land-grant institution situated in a diverse region, the Foundations Writing Program is committed to serving the university and intersecting communities through a learning community composed of effective initiatives, engaged faculty, and motivated students.
- Small classes create opportunities for students to develop writing creativity, craft and credibility while reflectively and critically thinking and talking about writing processes.
- Community and civic engagement in writing project initiatives place our students, faculty, and program in active partnerships that enhance life and learning for the people of Arizona and the world.
- Professional development support encourages leadership and collaborations among Writing Program faculty from diverse academic backgrounds.
- Research on writing instruction theories and practices advances the knowledge and expertise in the field and in the program.
Our Values
We as a Writing Program have articulated the values described in this statement to be used as guiding ideals and an ethical compass for our work on the programmatic and individual levels. These values are informed by our location in the Sonoran Borderlands and on the traditional lands of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples as we work within this unique cultural, linguistic, and historical context. Furthermore, these values work alongside the Program’s Mission Statement, which articulates what we plan to achieve as a program, and the Program’s Principles of Teaching Writing, which describe how our beliefs about writing and writing instruction shape our work.
Our work encompasses multiple domains, including teaching students, engaging with recent scholarship in our fields, and promoting the importance of writing across the different communities within the university and beyond. Some of our most important values across all the facets of our work include autonomy, compassion, curiosity, equity, and inclusion. These values are contextualized in more detail below as they become prominent in different ways depending on our roles within the program, the department, and the university.
As educators, we value:
- Autonomy and agency for both students and instructors as we seek to empower students to take an active role in their learning and encourage instructors to make their own informed curricular decisions
- Compassion and generosity in our interactions with students even as we hold high expectations for students’ engagement and effort
- Curiosity, creativity, and risk-taking in student writing
- Equity in our teaching and assessment methods
- Inclusion in our teaching practices and open-mindedness towards diverse perspectives and ideas
As colleagues, writing professionals, and contributors to the larger writing ecology within the department and the university, we value:
- Autonomy in the pursuit of our own creative, professional, and research activities and in defining the future goals and practices of the Writing Program
- Compassion and kindness in our treatment of each other and our collaborative work
- Curiosity and open-mindedness as we seek new ways to improve our skills through continuous professional development
- Equity in our hiring and promotion processes and in work practices that promote the well-being of our instructors and staff
- Inclusion of diverse perspectives not only in our research, writing, and professional activities but also in the decision making process in the program
We acknowledge that values are never absolute or universal and that they are continually shaped by individual and communal perspectives and experiences. As such, the values articulated in this statement are subject to ongoing interpretation, negotiation, and revision, and they are intended to be used as a set of aspirations guiding all facets of our work and future endeavors.
Awards & Publications
UA Writing Program Awarded for Excellence
The UA Writing Program, received the 2017-2018 Writing Program Certificate of Excellence from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. According to Susan Miller-Cochran, director of the Writing Program, this is the most prestigious award a writing program can earn. The program was one of nine across the country acknowledged for excellence in writing instruction. Read the news story about the award.
Students' Guide to Foundations Writing
The Students’ Guide to Foundations Writing is the textbook created and published by the UA Foundations Writing Program. Students in Foundations Writing courses use the Guide as an introduction to writing at the university and beyond. Currently, the Guide is in its 41st edition. The current editors are Kelli Lycke, Pete Figler, and D.R. Ransdell.
Research & Projects
2017-2019 – Faculty Seed Grant (University of Arizona), $10,000 for “Understanding writing development and identifying needs for second language STEM writers: from first year writing to engineering writing.” Prof. Shelley Staples (PI), Prof. Christine Tardy and Vignesh Subbian (Engineering).
2017-2019 – Humanities Without Walls (Mellon Funded Project) Changing Climate Grant, $142,000 for “Crow: the Corpus & Repository of Writing” Prof. Shelley Staples, Consultant; with Bradley Dilger, Purdue University, and Bill Hart Davidson, Michigan State University.
Research Initiative Grant (Conference on College Composition and Communication) – $5874 for "Great Expectations: Discovering First-Year Writing Students’ Backgrounds and Assumptions about Online Writing Instruction.” Catrina Mitchum (UA-PI), with Marcela Hebbard, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and Janine Morris (Nova Southeastern University).
2019-2021 – Center for University Education Scholarship (University of Arizona) $39,991.80 for “Engaging Language in Foundations Writing: Harnessing Computational Models to Advance Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment of Writing” Prof. Shelley Staples (PI).
2019-2020 – American Council of Learned Societies Digital Extension Grant $149,633 for “Expanding the Corpus and Repository of Writing: An Archive of Multilingual Writing in English” Prof. Shelley Staples (PI); with Bradley Dilger, Purdue University
Difference & Inequality
The Difference & Inequality (D&I) Committee recognizes that lived differences create inequitable social relations in our personal and professional lives. These inequities are real and contribute to larger world problems of war, poverty, hunger, exploitation, and prejudice that happen on a daily basis. Mindful of these injustices, the D&I Committee strives to promote faculty, staff, and student awareness of diversity issues and the inequities that can come with diversity. The Committee works to support the Foundations Writing Program in sustaining critical dialogues, supporting academic freedom, and further developing our classrooms, offices, and shared workspaces to understand and value diverse experiences, beliefs, lifestyles, and attitudes. Read more about Committee Practices and Guidelines.
Please email us for more information.