In teaching writing, we are not simply offering training in a useful technical skill
that is meant as a simple complement to the more important studies of other areas. We are
teaching a way of experiencing the world, a way of ordering and making sense of it.
James Berlin
Composition Program Mission
The Composition Program seeks to advance the university’s mission to pursue academic excellence in the context of writing instruction. Composition courses facilitate students’ achievements in exploring and enacting rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading, writing and research processes; and knowledge of conventions. The program is informed by liberatory pedagogy, rhetorical theory, pragmatic philosophy, and social constructionist principles. Writing is a powerful means of purposeful inquiry, communication, and action in the classroom and in the world.
The program consists of undergraduate expository writing courses including Basic Composition (ENEX 100), Composition (ENEX 101), and Advanced Composition (ENEX 195), a c ourse currently under development. In addition, we offer composition classes in the computer classroom, occasional special topics courses in Composition/Rhetoric Studies, and Teaching College Composition (ENEX 540), a requirement for first-year teachers of ENEX 100 and ENEX 101.
The Composition Program’s Directors and teachers also participate in writing-related initiatives at the University. More specifically, the Composition Program seeks to contribute to conversations about writing within the university through building connections to the Montana Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project; the Writing Center; the Writing Studies Program, located in the College of Applied Arts and Sciences; the Center for Teaching Excellence; and those involved in considering the current and future directions of general education writing requirements. In addition, the Composition Program at the University of Montana supports dialogue with writing experts across the University of Montana system and those involved in statewide writing assessment projects.