Programs

In the Creative Writing Program at Ohio State, students work closely in small class settings and in private conference with publishing practitioners of the craft. Our six core creative writing faculty — along with dozens of MFA GTAs and one affiliated faculty member specializing in screenwriting and story engineering — teach upper-level undergraduates and competitively-admitted MFA students in the primary genres of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction.

Undergraduates may apply to work with faculty in our creative writing concentration, completing a chapbook-length thesis before graduation, or they may opt for a minor in creative writing. Graduate students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing work for three years on their manuscripts, with full financial support, before defending their theses in an MFA exam.

All students are encouraged to take professionalization courses: a literary editing and publishing course using Ohio State's nationally-recognized literary magazine, The Journal, as an on-site laboratory; and weekend workshops with three annual visiting writers. Recent and upcoming visitors include Nicole Sealey, Laura van den Berg, Dan Kois, Danez Smith and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Most of our students pursue their own careers as publishing writers after graduation, and many find employment as teachers, editors and arts administrators.

Learn more

To learn more about creative writing faculty and course offerings, visit the Faculty Expertise in Creative Writing webpage.

Would you like to learn how to create a video, record a podcast or build a website? Tell stories in digital environments, build interactive objects, or study large writing databases? Whether you are interested in a humanities-based approach to understanding digital media or want to develop production skills to support your career goals, the Digital Media Studies Program faculty and course offerings can meet your needs.

With support from faculty in a range of disciplines and programs like the Digital Media Project, Ohio State's Digital Media Studies Program is a national leader in research on the effects and best uses of new media technologies. Our program spans all specializations of English studies — writing and rhetoric studies, disability studies, literature, literacy studies, film studies, and the digital humanities. Our curricular offerings connect faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students through cutting-edge projects that combine theory and criticism with digital audio and video production, graphic design and website design.

Additionally, digital media studies scholars bring their expertise to communities beyond the university. Students and faculty have developed new media initiatives with local schools, community literacy programs and national educational venues that make use of new tools to reach audiences online and off.

Learn more

To learn more about the Disability Studies Program faculty, course offerings and affiliated groups, visit its Faculty Expertise page. You can also check out the digital media resources we offer through the Digital Media Project.

The Ohio State University Disability Studies Program, established in 1997, emphasizes interdisciplinary and intersectional work in disability studies. We treat disability as a political, cultural and social process, placing as much importance on structures, relations and representations as on individual bodies. We value collaborative research and learning, and each year, we are visited by distinguished scholars and activists. Recent visitors sponsored by the Disability Studies Program include Liat Ben-Moshe, Diana Louis, Jay Dolmage, Aimi Hamraie, Mimi Khúc, Ann Fox, Sami Schalk, Jina Kim and Michael Montoya.

Our program features an engaged group of faculty, caring advisors, and passionate students. We regularly collaborate with student groups including the Disability Studies Graduate Student Association, Graduate Association for Mental Health Action and Advocacy, DISCO Graduate Caucus and Abilities: An Alliance of People With and Without Disabilities. 

The Disability Studies Program offers an undergraduate minor in disability studies and a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in disability studies. 

Learn more

To learn more about disability studies faculty, undergraduate and graduate course offerings, student organizations, independent studies and more, visit the Faculty Expertise in Disability Studies webpage.

The First-Year Writing Program at The Ohio State University consists of the courses English 1110.01, English 1110.02 and English 1110.03. All three of these courses fulfill the university’s first General Education Writing and Related Skills requirement, though each is structured slightly differently to respond to the needs of a range of students.

English 1110.01

The most commonly offered version of the course. It is a course in analytical thinking and writing that asks students to compose a range of scaffolded writing assignments leading to a longer researched essay. That essay will demonstrate students’ capabilities of developing a compelling idea, using outside resources effectively and appropriately and honoring conventions of academic writing. In addition, students compose a multimodal presentation that grows from their research and engages a public—rather than an academic—audience.

English 1110.02

Fulfills the same expectations as 1110.01, but the focus of the students’ reading and analysis is literary. Students will read and respond to poetry, short fiction, memoir, creative non-fiction, graphic fiction and other genres as a means of developing their own ideas in academic writing and presentation.

English 1110.03

Available by placement only. Its curriculum matches that of 1110.01, but the class features smaller enrollment, an experienced instructor and additional support outside of class.

The goals of the FYWP align with those of the State of Ohio Department of Higher Education’s guidelines for the Ohio Transfer Module.

1. Rhetorical knowledge

Throughout the first course, students should practice reading and writing in several genres. By the end of their first writing course, students should: 

• Understand how genre conventions shaped the texts they read and should shape the texts they compose
• Understand the possibilities of electronic media/technologies for composing and publishing texts for a variety of audiences
• Compose texts that:
  • Have a clear purpose
  • Respond to the needs of intended audiences
  • Assume an appropriate stance
  • Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, style and level of formality
  • Use appropriate conventions of format and structure

2. Critical thinking, reading and writing

By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to: 

• Use reading and writing for inquiry, learning, thinking and communicating
• Locate and evaluate secondary research materials, including visual texts such as photographs, videos, or other materials
• Analyze relationships among writer, text, and audience in various kinds of texts
• Use various critical thinking strategies to analyze texts

3. Knowledge of composing processes

By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to:

• Recognize that writing is a flexible, recursive process that typically involves a series of activities, including generating ideas and text, drafting, revising and editing
• Understand that writing is often collaborative and social. To demonstrate that understanding, students should be able to:
  • Work with others to improve their own and others’ texts
  • Balance the advantages of relying on others with taking responsibility for their own work
  • Apply this understanding and recognition to produce successive drafts of increasing quality
  • Use electronic environments to support writing tasks such as drafting, reviewing, revising, editing and sharing texts.

4. Knowledge of conventions

By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to: 

• Recognize genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone and mechanics employed in a variety of popular forms
• Learn to control syntax, grammar, punctuation and spelling through practice in composing and revising
• Select and employ appropriate conventions for structure, paragraphing, mechanics and format in their own writing
• Acknowledge the work of others when appropriate
• Use standard documentation format as needed

5. Minimal course requirements

By the end of their first writing course, students will have written: 

• A variety of texts with opportunities for response and revision
• A minimum of 5,000 total words of formal, edited text
• Frequent “low stakes” assignments, such as journals, reading responses and in-class efforts

Program Assessment

In the summer of 2018, the FYWP completed a program assessment process initiated by the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee. The report of that assessment and accompanying documentation can be found here: 

First-Year Writing Program 2021-2022 Leadership Team

Scott DeWitt, Director of First-Year Writing

Ashleigh Hardin, Associate Director of First-Year Writing

Evan DeCarlo, Graduate Student Writing Program Administrator

Tamara Mahadin, Graduate Student Writing Program Administrator

Lord Denney’s Players, the English department’s theatre company, was founded in 2014 to give Ohio State undergraduates, graduate students, staff and faculty in all fields of study an opportunity to engage in experiential learning and research in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Our work uses theatre as a lab space to explore knotty issues of textual transmission and literary history that have long-vexed scholars, and because of this focus, our productions are internationally indexed and peer reviewed in top-tier journals. 

The Popular Culture Studies Minor is intended for students interested in developing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of popular culture. The goal of the interdisciplinary minor in popular culture studies is to provide tools for undergraduates to build bridges between the popular, public and material cultures of their daily lives and the cultures that are the traditional objects of study of the university.

The minor in popular culture studies will connect the complementing individual department resources, providing interested students with a unique program for the study historical and global popular culture, and offering a wide array of research tools, theoretical frameworks, methodologies and intellectual foundations with which to approach this dynamic field of study.

Visit the popular culture studies minor website for information about the minor, minor courses and about popular culture studies events on campus.

Project Narrative is a cluster of faculty, visiting scholars and graduate students who work on narrative and narrative theory. With ten core faculty and over forty affiliated faculty from across the humanities and social sciences at Ohio State, PN offers an extensive community of narrative scholars unparalleled anywhere else in the United States.

Project Narrative sponsors lectures, colloquia and conferences at Ohio State, bringing specialists from all over the world to discuss developments in narrative theory. Every year PN hosts visiting scholars as well as the Project Narrative Summer Institute, a professional development opportunity for faculty and advanced graduate students wanting to explore the usefulness of narrative theory in their teaching and research. 

The PN core faculty offer courses on narrative in the English department at graduate and undergraduate levels. They serve as advisors to graduate students working on many periods and genres, including digital media, the novel, nonfictional narrative, film and TVm and comics. Core faculty specialize in approaches including formalist narratology, cognitive and mind-centered narrative theory, neuroscientific studies of narrative, ethnographic narrative, visual narrative, feminist and queer narrative theory, ethnic and post-colonial studies of narrative and rhetorical narrative theory.

Learn more

Visit the Project Narrative webpage.

Vice Chair for Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy, Christa Teston

Ohio State's Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy Program has a proud history as a national leader in scholarship and teaching on cultural theories and practices of reading, writing, composing, communicating and consuming and producing media. Students interested in WRL and its intersections with medicine, science, queer studies, feminist studies, human rights studies, disability studies, critical race studies and posthuman studies will find many opportunities to participate in reading groups, graduate workshops, symposia and lecture series in these areas.  

Rhetoric

Rhetoric scholars at Ohio State ask how discourse works, and students in rhetoric enjoy a wide range of options for the study of rhetorical culture as shaped by class, race, gender, sexuality, disability, religion and local context. We take up historical investigations into rhetorical practices; theoretical exploration of rhetorical situations, functions, norms and boundaries; and critical analysis of rhetorical strategies and choices within and across texts. All these modes of inquiry help us to understand how discourse works as an interaction as well as a technology of cultural production. Students interested in rhetoric and gaming have the opportunity to participate in the recently formed Rhetoric, Politics and Gaming (RPG): A series of lectures, discussions and workshops centered around video games and gaming culture.  

Composition

Composition faculty and graduate students engage a wide range of critical, historical and pedagogical issues in their research including historical and archival inquiry into the teaching of writing; writing program administration; case study investigations of undergraduate writers; business, professional, and technical writing; writing center theory and practice; online pedagogies; and theoretical studies of writing in higher education contexts. Compositionists at Ohio State also engage in and study community writing practices, like the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives and the Literacy Narratives of Black Columbus project, that inform their research and teaching.  Graduate students interested in online writing pedagogy have the opportunity to teach and research fully online sections of first-year writing or online-hybrid sections of second-year writing. These online sections make extensive use of Writers Exchange, an online peer review platform built, developed and maintained by Ohio State faculty, graduate students and staff.

Literacy

Literacy studies’ primary concern lies in the study and understanding of reading and writing in their inseparable interrelationships. By 'reading,' we refer to the ways in which we establish comprehension and make meaning across diverse modes of communication. By 'writing,' we refer to the ways in which expression and communication take place across media, technologies and symbolic systems. We see this as central to the arts and humanities, but also to the sciences, engineering, medicine and the professions. Literacy studies at Ohio State is characterized by its focus on critical, comparative and historical approaches. From means of acquiring literacy to modes of practice and patterns of impact, we study literacy and literacies in their many social, cultural, political and economic contexts. The Ohio State program is distinguished by its direct connection with LiteracyStudies@OSU, a university-wide interdisciplinary initiative. LiteracyStudies@OSU sponsors a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (GIS) in Literacy Studies; a number of working groups including science, health and medicine, translation; the History of the Book program; speakers series; and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar in Literacy Studies.

These areas of concentration are supported by our program’s commitment to the study and use of digital media for teaching and research purposes. The Digital Media Project offers state of the art technology and expert staff support to teachers and students. In addition to these resources, the Digital Union provides easy-to-use audio and video recording studios. Scholars and teachers interested in exploring digital literacy practices are invited to attend and teach in Digital Media and Composition, a two-week summer institute that attends to digital media studies in both theory and practice.

In addition to our academic research and productions, WRL at Ohio State is truly a scholarly community. In addition to participating in English departmental functions, our WRL faculty, staff and students also meet regularly to review and revise WRL curricula, discuss recent research and socialize casually.

Learn more

To learn more about WRL faculty expertise, undergraduate and graduate programs and course offerings, visit the Faculty Expertise in Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy webpage. 

Second-Year Writing (English 2367):  Writing and Social Diversity in the U.S. Experience

In this three-hour, second-level writing course for which English 1110 is a prerequisite, you will continue to develop and refine the skills in analysis, research, and composition that you practiced in English 1110. This course emphasizes persuasive and researched writing, revision, and composing in various forms and media. In addition, you will build upon and improve your mastery of academic writing with and from sources; refine your ability to synthesize information; create arguments about a variety of discursive, visual, and/or cultural artifacts; and become more proficient with and sophisticated in your research strategies and employment of the conventions of standard academic discourses. Second-year writing extends and refines expository writing and analytical reading skills with a focus on issues related to social diversity in the United States.

Only one 2367 decimal subdivision may be taken for credit. Prereq: 1110.01 (110.01), and Sophomore standing; or EM credit for 1110.01 (110.01) or equivalent.

There are eight versions of 2367 offered by the Department of English. All versions satisfy the General Education Credit (GEC) for Written Communication (Level 2). Some versions also satisfy the GEC for Literature (2367.02) and Social Diversity in the United States (2367.01, .02, .05, .06, .07S, .08).

• English 2367.01: Language, Identity, and Culture in the U.S. Experience
• English 2367.02: Literature in the U.S. Experience

• English 2367.03: Documentary in the U.S. Experience
• English 2367.04: Technology and Science in the U.S. Experience
• English 2367.05: The U.S. Folk Experience
• English 2367.06: Composing Disability in the U.S.
• English 2367.07S: Literacy Narratives of Black Columbus (service learning)
• English 2367.08: The U.S. Experience: Writing About Video Games

Second-year writing must meet the following outcomes:

1. Rhetorical Knowledge

Throughout the second course, students should build upon these foundational outcomes from the first course:

• Understand how genre conventions shaped the texts they read and should shape the texts they compose.
• Understand the possibilities of electronic media/technologies for composing and publishing texts for a variety of audiences.
• Compose texts that:
• Have a clear purpose.
• Respond to the needs of intended audiences.
• Assume an appropriate stance.
• Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, style, and level of formality.
• Use appropriate conventions of format and structure.

In addition, by the end of the second course, students should be able to

• Analyze argumentative strategies and persuasive appeals.
• Employ appropriate argumentative strategies and persuasive appeals in their writing.

2. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Throughout the second course, students should build upon these foundational outcomes from the first course:

• Use reading and writing for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating.
• Locate and evaluate secondary research materials, including visual texts such as photographs, videos, or other materials.
• Analyze relationships among writer, text, and audience in various kinds of texts.
• Use various critical thinking strategies to analyze texts.

In addition, by the end of the second course, students should be able to

• Find and evaluate appropriate material from electronic and other sources.
• Locate, evaluate, organize, and use primary and secondary research material. Secondary research material should be collected from various sources, including journal articles and other scholarly texts found in library databases, other official databases (e.g., federal government databases), and informal electronic networks and internet sources.
• Analyze and critique sources in their writing.
• Juxtapose and integrate ideas and arguments from sources.
• Develop a clear line of argument that incorporates ideas and evidence from sources.
• Use strategies—such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign—to compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from appropriate sources.

3. Knowledge of Composing Processes

Throughout the second course, students should build upon these foundational outcomes from the first course:

• Recognize that writing is a flexible, recursive process that typically involves a series of activities, including generating ideas and text, drafting, revising, and editing.
• Understand that writing is often collaborative and social. To demonstrate that understanding, students should be able to
  • Work with others to improve their own and others’ texts.
  • Balance the advantages of relying on others with taking responsibility for their own work.
• Apply this understanding and recognition to produce successive drafts of increasing quality.
• Use electronic environments to support writing tasks such as drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts. 

4. Knowledge of Conventions

Throughout the second course, students should build upon these foundational outcomes from the first course:

• Recognize the genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics employed in a variety of popular forums.
• Learn to control syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling through practice in composing and revising.
• Select and employ appropriate conventions for structure, paragraphing, mechanics, and format in their own writing.
• Acknowledge the work of others when appropriate.
• Use a standard documentation format as needed.

In addition, by the end of the second course, students should be able to

• Understand why genre conventions vary.
• Recognize the genre conventions employed by various academic disciplines.
• Employ appropriate textual conventions for incorporating ideas from sources (e.g., introducing and incorporating quotations; quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing).

5. Minimal Course Requirements

By the end of their second writing course, students will have written

• A variety of texts, including at least one researched essay, with opportunities for response and revision.
• A minimum of 5000 total words of formal, edited text.
• Frequent “low-stakes” assignments, such as journals, reading responses, and in-class efforts.

GE Statements

As a second-level writing course at OSU, all decimalizations of English 2367 fulfill the following GE category and should include this language verbatim:

GE Writing and Communication-Level 2

Goals:  Students are skilled in written communication and expression, reading, critical thinking, oral expression, and visual expression. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

• Through critical analysis, discussion, and writing, students demonstrate the ability to read carefully and express ideas effectively. 

• Students apply written, oral, and visual communication skills and conventions of academic discourse to the challenges of a specific discipline.  

• Students access and use information critically and analytically. 

Sections meeting the Social Diversity requirement — .01, .02, .05, .06, .07S, .08

GE Diversity-Social Diversity in the United States

Goals:  Students understand the pluralistic nature of institutions, society, and culture in the United States and across the world in order to become educated, productive, and principled citizens.  

Expected Learning Outcomes:

• Students describe and evaluate the roles of such categories as race, gender and sexuality, disability, class, ethnicity, and religion in the pluralistic institutions and cultures of the United States. 

• Students recognize the role of social diversity in shaping their own attitudes and values regarding appreciation, tolerance, and equality of others.

And for those sections meeting the Literature requirement — ONLY .02

GE Literature

Goals:  Students evaluate significant texts in order to develop capacities for aesthetic and historical response and judgment; interpretation and evaluation; and critical listening, reading, seeing, thinking, and writing.  

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

• Students analyze, interpret, and critique significant literary works. 

• Through reading, discussing, and writing about literature, students appraise and evaluate the personal and social values of their own and other cultures.

Second-Year Writing Program 2020-2021 Leadership Team

Professor Beverly J. Moss, Director

Cristina Rivera, Graduate Associate