Writing at Pitzer

Pitzer offers a range of interdisciplinary seminars on writing that will challenge you to write with imagination, discernment, and purpose. We partner with Scripps College to support a new major in Writing and Rhetoric that focuses on the persuasive power of nonfiction prose. In workshop-based seminars, students compose in a range of forms—from the political manifesto to the personal essay, from the arts review to the memoir.

Our approach to writing is interdisciplinary and informed by social justice frameworks. Course topics draw from a variety of disciplines, including writing and rhetoric, disability studies, gender and feminist studies, the visual and performing arts, and critical data studies.

A Real-World Approach

At Pitzer you will use your writing to engage in transformative conversations, tackling complex questions with no easy answers and exploring diverse perspectives to arrive at your own views. Writing at Pitzer isn’t simply a skill.  It’s a powerful form of world-making that challenges you to envision and help create a more socially just world. You will unlearn the norms that hinder your thriving and replace them with new ways of using language to build, unsettle, listen, and connect.

In addition to offering courses focused on different genres of writing, the Writing Program offers seminars on writing pedagogy.

Writing Center Theory and Praxis, for example, is designed for Fellows who work in the Writing Center but is open to all students interested in the craft of writing and collaborative learning. Other courses, like How We Write Now or Teaching Writing for Social Justice, introduce students to inclusive writing pedagogies and involve students in original research to publish the results.

The Writing & Rhetoric Major and Minor

All Writing courses at Pitzer contribute to the Writing and Rhetoric Major and Minor housed at Scripps College.

In addition, they meet a variety of Pitzer educational objectives, as well as pre-med requirements for a second writing-intensive course in college.

Sample Pitzer courses include:

• Writing 15: Writing Disability
• Writing 22: Writing with AI
• Writing 31: Writing for Social Justice
• Writing 100: Writing Center Theory and Practice
• Writing 101: Multilingual Writing
• Writing 110: How We Write Now
• Writing 125: Writing Political Feelings
• Writing 130: Writing Policy for Data Justice
• Writing 140: Journalism: Writing the Essay
• Writing 190: Teaching Writing for Social Justice

The Writing Center

The Pitzer Writing Center supports writing across the curriculum through individual consultations, writing workshops, and an embedded peer Fellow program. To learn more or make an appointment, visit our homepage.

Faculty interested in writing and teaching support are encouraged to visit the College Writing homepage. Professor Andrea Scott directs the faculty-facing College Writing Program, which oversees our student-facing Writing Center.