Advising & Support >> Academic Services >> Writing & Speaking

Support for Writing and Public Speaking

Writing

The Penn Writing Center offers friendly, expert writing help to Penn undergraduate and graduate students. Writing tutors are trained to help students write with greater skill and confidence.

The Critical Writing Program provides a uniquely discipline-based writing curriculum for Penn undergraduates across all four schools, Students fulfill their writing requirement through Critical Writing seminars and continue to advance their scholarly and professional writing skills by enrolling in writing-intensive courses  affiliated with the Critical Writing Program. Students receive additional writing support and feedback from peer and senior tutors in our Writing Center, located in a cozy Victorian house on campus.

The Creative Writing Program offers workshops in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalistic writing, screenwriting, and playwriting. It also offers a Creative Writing minor, publishes a literary journal highlighting the work of students, faculty, and eminent alumni writers, and provides qualified English majors the opportunity to earn honors in English by submitting a creative thesis.  Throughout the year, the program invites visiting writers to Penn for readings and talks, and sponsors a University-wide writing contest each spring.

The Kelly Writers House is a historic house on Penn's campus that serves as a center for writers from Penn and the Philadelphia region at large. Each semester the Writers House hosts approximately 150 public programs and projects: poetry readings, film screenings, seminars, art exhibits and musical performances. Each week, about 500 people work, write and collaborate in its many rooms and in the "Arts Cafe." Writers House also has a strong virtual presence through live interactive webcasts and dozens of listservs, web magazines and email discussion groups.

Speaking

Communication Within the Curriculum (CWiC) is Penn's public speaking program. Its mission is to help students express themselves orally with clarity and confidence.

Speaking-intensive courses give students the opportunity to hone their public-speaking skills, and the CWiC Speaking Center offers students access to trained peer speaking advisors. These advisors provide individualized coaching for students and groups working on presentations or seeking less formal speaking guidance. Students interested in becoming speaking advisors should apply for CLST 135, the training course offered each spring. Applications are due in November.

CWiC honors students with both strong research projects and superior speaking abilities by providing those students with a public forum in which to talk about their academic work. See the CWiC website for more on Emerging Scholars Talks.