Writing Studies as Grounds for Professional Writing: The Major at the University of Minnesota Duluth

The Writing Studies major (with emphases in Professional Writing and in Journalism) at
the University of Minnesota Duluth marks a curricular innovation. This article traces the intellectual arguments that defined Writing Studies as one of the disciplines defined by its object (akin to American Studies, Women’s Studies, and so on). The object of Writing Studies at UMD is writing, defined as a practice, a tool for cognition and social action, and a force for sociocultural change. These arguments are
manifest in the core curriculum of the major (16 credits across four years of student coursework) and serve as grounds for the Professional Writing curriculum. That Professional Writing curriculum places exploration of and practice in writing in specific cultural contexts as the central skill set of a professional writing major rooted in the disciplinary home of Writing Studies.