Writing Program

The Georgetown University Writing Program serves the campus in four ways:

  1. Coordinating the required first-year writing course, WRIT-015: Writing and Culture Seminar
  2. Assisting undergraduate programs with the Integrated Writing requirement within the major
  3. Providing one-on-one support to students at all levels through the Georgetown Writing Center
  4. Offering advanced and graduate courses and mentoring on writing and rhetoric within the Department of English

Program Leadership

Jason “J” Palmeri (they/them) is professor of English and Director of the Writing Program. Palmeri coordinates the first year writing program and also provides to support to faculty across campus in integrating writing into their courses in ways that enhance student learning. As a scholar, Palmeri focuses on the history and theory of writing pedagogy, multimodal rhetorics, digital humanities, and queer literacies. Palmeri has published two books about the technologically-mediated history of English instruction: Remixing Composition: A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy (Southern Illinois UP, 2012) and 100 Years of New Media Pedagogy (University of Michigan Press, 2021).

Elizabeth Catchmark is assistant teaching professor and the director of the Writing Center. Catchmark previously served as an assistant director of the University of Maryland’s Academic Writing Program and a faculty fellow for the Professional Writing Program. She also independently developed and delivered a tutor-training program for the Petey Greene Program, which supports incarcerated learners. Catchmark received her B.A.s from Penn State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Her work in writing program administration focuses on linguistic justice in the teaching and tutoring of English, while her doctoral work examined health justice in the long Black freedom struggle. She has research expertise in linguistic diversity, Black studies and the medical humanities.

WRIT 1150: The Writing and Culture Seminar focuses primarily on strengthening student writing through attention to the writing process, rhetorical analysis, writing as a tool for inquiry, and attention to genre, style, and form. While WRIT-015 allows for a wide range of approaches, themes, and course readings, all sections address a core set of course goals and guidelines that emphasize writing as a rigorous, iterative intellectual process.

WRIT 1150 is required of all undergraduates as part of the Georgetown Core. Students will receive credit for this course if they have earned a 5 on the AP exams in English Literature and Composition or English Language and Composition, or a 6 or 7 on the International Baccalaureate English A exam.

The Writing Program also offers courses in professional writing and public humanities on the Main Campus and at the Capitol Applied Learning Lab downtown. 

The Georgetown M.A. program trains students in the teaching of writing through a combination of coursework, direct individual and group mentoring, and hands-on, practical experience in apprentice-teaching and peer-tutoring settings. Students have the opportunity to take graduate-level courses on writing, rhetoric, and the teaching of writing, and they may choose to complete a thesis project focused on writing, rhetoric, or pedagogy. Graduates of our program go on to doctoral studies in rhetoric and writing as well as to teaching positions at local colleges, public and private schools, and community organizations.

The Georgetown University Writing Center is a free resource open to all enrolled Georgetown students. Graduate and undergraduate students trained in teaching writing assist students from every program (graduate, undergraduate, School of Continuing Studies, and summer programs) at any stage of the composing process.

For more information about the Georgetown University Writing Program, please visit their website.