Writing Initiative

We'd like to thank the generous support of the Writing Initiative. Without them, we wouldn't have the wonderful writing from our students that we do!

The Binghamton University Writing Initiative is the home of First-Year Writing and the Writing Center, and shares strategic alliances and institutional space with the English as a Second Language Program. Our mission is to foster the academic and civic literacies essential for success in the university and beyond. Our focus on writing is not simply an attempt to help students acquire rudimentary skills, however, but to prepare them to articulate complex positions in a variety of genres and contexts. Designed by specialists and informed by current research, our courses promote writing as a way of learning about and engaging in the most important issues of our time.

We offer undergraduates a range of first-year and upper-division writing courses, publish outstanding student essays in Binghamton Writes: A Journal of First-Year Writing, and provide writing tutoring across the disciplines and on all levels. We offer PhD candidates both required and elective courses in rhetoric and writing studies, an intensive mentoring program, and the opportunity to earn Graduate Certification in Teaching College Composition.

Through our promotion of writing both within and beyond the academy, the Binghamton community of writers grows. Writing is a lifelong activity, and learning to write well is a process that never ends. The Writing Initiative strives to support writers working in academic, personal, and civic contexts and--through our commitment to best practices in writing instruction--serves as a model for writing programs around the globe. For more on the history of our program, read our "Program Profile" in Composition Forum.

- Kelly Kinney, Director, Assistant Professor, and Editor in Chief of Binghamton Writes

Binghamton Writes is an excellent publication for use in Writing Initiative courses. We provide:

1. A valuable course text
2. Samples and examples of real student writing in each genre
3. A real audience and writing context for current students

We are grateful to be in partnership with the Writing Initiative and for the chance to showcase student work!