Writing Community

At Oklahoma State University, composition courses engage students in critical conversations about analysis, evaluation, and provide them with a framework of skills to respond to writing within their respective fields of study. Many of our students are studying in programs outside of the English Department, wherein the composition program is located. Our instructors reflect this variance of experience—professors who are literature experts, creative writers, graduate students studying rhetoric. We are also privileged to work with visiting professors and lecturers who contribute to scholarly fields outside of the English Department—enter Dr. Robin Holly!

Each year, on October 20^th, the National Council of English Teachers (NCTE) celebrates the National Day on Writing. This Sunday’s event marks fifteen years of sharing assignments, prompts, and other educational materials across institutions and writing communities to foster student engagement with critical writing skills. This week, and into the next, the NCTE is sharing resources for instructors to implement into their own classrooms and join in the celebration—reflexive writing assignments, themed discussion ideas, interviews with writers, and much more.

On February 1^st, the beginning of Black History Month, Oklahoma State University celebrated Nancy Randolph Davis Day. Nancy Randolph Davis was the first African American student to enroll at OSU (formerly Oklahoma A&M) college in 1949. Before graduating with a Master of Science from Oklahoma State University in 1952, she earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Langston University, Oklahoma’s only historically black university.

Welcome back from break, all! The Oklahoma State First-Year Writing Department has an exciting new opportunity for students enrolled in English 1213 courses—a new OER textbook! Open Educational Resources (OER) is an amazing initiative that offers students their course textbooks for free, and also shares with students materials, articles, and authors that they might not have encountered in commercial textbooks.

Welcome to the Writing Community page for First-Year Composition at Oklahoma State University! This space will soon be home to conversations, events, and celebrations of members of the FYC program.