College Writing Programs was created in 1992 to provide first-year writing instruction to Berkeley students, helping them meet the entry level and first year writing requirements while developing writing and critical thinking skills required for academic work at the university. In over 30 years of teaching, CWP has helped thousands of Berkeley students develop their academic reading and writing through numerous sections of CWR1A and CWR4B every semester. And our program continues to grow: In spring of 2023, we are running over 40 sections of CWR1A and over 20 sections of CWR4B.
However, these foundational classes only tell part of our story. Since the department’s founding, CWP faculty and directors have worked to build a program that offers a robust array of writing classes, including Writing in the Biological Sciences, Public Speaking, Academic Writing for Multilingual Students, Creative Nonfiction, Short fiction, Poetry, and Dramatic Writing. In addition, CWP regularly hosts colloquia, workshops, and other events, such as the Chiang Research Festival and Berkeley Writers at Work.
This year, we celebrate 30 years of writing instruction at UC Berkeley with a look at our history and exciting plans for future classes and events.
Award winning writing and more!
We're proud of the writing achievements of our students, for work done in our classes and for what they do after they move on from CWP. For example, students submitting outstanding research projects for CWR4B (Reading, Composition, and Research) are encouraged to apply for the Charlene Conrad Liebau Library Prize for Undergraduate Research.
Teachers, Writers, and Scholars
College Writing Programs faculty bring experience from varied disciplines to the teaching of composition at UC Berkeley. In both teaching and course design, our faculty draw from backgrounds in Creative Writing, Rhetoric, Second Language Acquisition, Literature, Linguistics, Theater, and more.
2016-present: Maggie Sokolik, CWP
2009-2016: Jane Stanley, CWP (retired)
2006-2009: Katherine Snyder, English
2003-2006: Daniel F. Melia, Rhetoric (retired)
2000-2003: Kevin Padian, Integrative Biology (retired)
1999-2000: Robert Brentano, History (deceased)
1995-1999: Glynda A. Hull, Graduate School of Education
1992-1995: Arthur J. Quinn, Rhetoric (deceased)
1992
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CWP is founded and offers CWR1A & CW1
1993
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CWP offers a Summer Bridge course through 2017
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CWP offers CW300, a pedagogy course for GSIs teaching Reading and Composition across campus
1994
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Summer ESL Workshop begins now known as Summer English Language Studies (SELS)
1997
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CWP hosts inaugural Berkeley Writers at Work (BWAW)
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Monthly CWP lunchtime Brown Bag series launches (through 2015)
1999
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The Summer Reading List becomes an annual list
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CW151: Intro to Principles of Professional Communication first taught and initially cross-listed with Haas
2002
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CWP commits to the hiring of long term faculty
2003
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CWP moves to Wheeler Hall upper and lower mezzanines
2004
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CWP founds and hosts the Symposium on Multilingual Student Writers attended by 100+ faculty (runs for 5 years)
2005
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CWP offers a Public Speaking course CW10A
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CWP offers both 4-unit Reading and Composition courses: CWR4A & CWR4B - distinguished by its research portfolio
2006
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CWP Lecturer and Director of SELS Maggie Sokolik leaves CWP to become Director of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering Technical Writing program for 4 years
2009
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Jane Stanley officially named first in-house CWP Director after 9 years as Associate Director
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CWP offers a second Public Speaking course: CW10B: Advanced Public Speaking
2011
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CWP offers its first creative writing course: CW130: Introduction to the Craft of Creative Writing
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CWP offers its first American cultures (AC) course: CW50/150AC: Researching Water in the West
2012
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CWP offers its first American Cultures Engaged Scholars course CW50/150AC with Community Partner & Bishop Paiute Tribal Elder Harry Williams
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CWP adds a second American Cultures (AC) course CW25AC: Reading in and about US Education Institutions
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CWP adds a third public speaking course: CW20: Advanced Oral Communication for International Students
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CWP's Summer Creative Writing Workshop runs for two summers
2014
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CWR4B Research Festival launched by CWP lecturers Sim Chiang, Ryan Sloan and students in their two classes
2015
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CWP expanding enrollments and course offerings lead to the hiring of CWP's first Enrollment Manager Mike Palmer
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CWP collaborates with Berkeley Library to host the growing CWR4B Research Festival in Moffitt with 200+ students
2016
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CWP offices temporary relocated to Hearst Gymnasium during the renovation of Wheeler Hall
2017
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CWP hires Maggie Sokolik as Director after a year as Interim Director
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Chiang CWR4B Research Festival is named in honor of festival founder and CWP lecturer emerita Sim Chiang
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CWP collaborates with the Academic Innovation Studio to offer Digital Dialogues on pedagogy (through Fall 2019)
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CWP, along with Foreign Languages, is awarded a Teaching with Primary Sources grant from the Library of Congress
2018
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CWP unveils a Teaching English to Multilingual Students minor program in collaboration with School of Education
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CWP engages with the Berkeley Changemaker Initiative
2019
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Summer Creative Workshops relaunch
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5th Anniversary of Chiang CWR4B Research Festival
2020
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All courses, as well as the Chiang CWR4B Research Festival, go remote on March 10th
2021
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CWP returns to in-person instruction for most courses with a few remaining remote and others hybrid
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CWP offers CW11: Berkeley Changemaker Public Speaking course with 200 students
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Pat Steenland of CWP, Rick Kern & Vesna Rodic of French, and Ramona Naddaff of Rhetoric are awarded a Berkeley Discover Departmental Award for the First Step Discovery Project
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CWP hosts the UC Writing Programs Conference virtually with 400+ faculty from all 9 UC campuses with Writing Programs
2022
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CWP faculty administer and score the last UC-wide Analytic Writing Placement Exam (AWPE) on the Berkeley campus
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CWP lecturers teach 40% of Reading and Composition on campus in addition to numerous electives
2023
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CWR4A course description now officially includes a capstone project
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CWP continues to be "the heart of writing instruction at UC Berkeley" with 40+ faculty and 64 courses on the books
2024
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CWP publishes inaugural issue of literary journal Peregrine
Hearst Gymnasium, CWP's home during the renovation of Wheeler Hall in 2017-2018
Dwinelle Annex, CWP's first home on campus
Art Quinn, first director of CWP