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Writers' Studio

Writing for Life

ASU's Writers’ Studio is an online writing program that recognizes the centrality of written communication in our lives. Writers’ Studio is a writing community where you develop writing practices to be a better communicator in all areas of your life: the personal, the professional, the civic and, of course, the academic. We work with you to draw on your experiences in all these arenas to cultivate your own theory and practice as writers.

Far beyond just writing papers

"The projects prompted me to compose in different kinds of electronic environments—a skill that is needed in many kinds of fields. I learned how to make a blog, a YouTube video, and embed videos and music."

 

Becoming a confident writer

The prospect of writing and researching in school can be intimidating. Writers’ Studio emphasizes writing as a manageable process and our focus is on breaking the practice of writing into several steps: invention work, outlining and drafting, revising and rewriting. This method helps you overcome anxieties about writing. You'll understand that, with feedback, anyone can be “good at” writing!

Giving and using feedback

We use a writing workshop model. You begin with invention work and write multiple drafts. Peers, writing mentors, and instructors offer feedback. We encourage you not only to revise based on this feedback, but also to reflect on how your writing changed throughout the process.

Reflecting

In the Writers’ Studio, you are encouraged to develop your own theory of writing through regular and consistent reflection on your work in class. You create a compilation of multiple drafts in a digital portfolio that demonstrates the way your writing practices change over the course of the semester.

You are also asked to reflect on the writing you do in the professional, personal, and civic areas of your life.
 

Collaborating

Writing is a social act. Good writing is never produced in isolation. Writers consider their audience and purpose each time they begin a project. Our unique, collaborative environment gives you opportunities to share your work with a range of audiences: instructors, writing mentors, and peers.

Mastering technology

You will not compose traditional academic essays in the Writers' Studio. Rather, you will work on multimodal projects that incorporate images, videos, hyperlinks, infographics, and other forms of new media to reflect the kind of composing people do in the real world today.

In our asynchronous online courses, you will communicate and work in multiple digital learning spaces, such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Sites, InScribe, and Zoom. You will read and complete quizzes in our course eBook. Most of your course interaction with your instructor, writing mentors, and peers will take place via Canvas.

A curriculum grounded in research and practice

The guiding frameworks for ASU's Writers' Studio are the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition, guidelines that have grown out of practice, theory and a large body of research from composition teachers nationally; and the WPA Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, which identifies eight habits of mind that promote success in college and beyond: curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility and metacognition.  

Contact Us

To learn more about Writers' Studio at ASU, contact:

Shillana Bowen-Armendarez
PhD Faculty Head and Associate Teaching Professor, English
Interim Writing Program Administrator and Faculty Head, Writers' Studio
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
School of Applied Sciences and Arts
Arizona State University

Email:

srsanch3@asu.edu

Phone:

(602) 496-2435