Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Tech Awarded Certificate of Excellence

Posted December 14, 2021

The Writing and Communication Program (WCP), a unit in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC), was selected as one of eight recipients of the 2021-2022 Writing Program Certificate of Excellence. The award, administered by the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), recognizes exemplary college writing programs.

“The Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Tech is defined by its effort to provide its students and faculty with innovative, human-centered perspectives at the intersection of humanities, arts, social sciences, and STEM,” the CCCC selection committee stated in a press release. “Moreover, the committee felt this was a strong innovation program comprised of award-winning educators, researchers, and students who draw on the benefits of a technologically focused research program and an impactful liberal arts experience.”

To be eligible for this award, programs must meet the following criteria:

• Demonstrate that the program imaginatively addresses the needs and opportunities of its students, instructors, institution, and locale
• Offer exemplary ongoing professional development for faculty of all ranks, including adjunct/contingent faculty; treat contingent faculty respectfully, humanely, and professionally
• Use the current best practices in the field
• Show that the program administrator (chair, director, coordinator, etc.) has academic credentials in writing
• Use effective, ongoing assessment
• Use effective placement procedures
• Create appropriate class sizes
• Model diversity and/or serve diverse communities

The writing committee for the award application included Marion L. Brittain Fellows Jeff Howard, Danielle Gilman, Shane Snyder, and Jonathan Shelley, as well as Andy Frazee, senior academic professional and director of the WCP.

“One of my major goals as WCP executive director is to bring attention to the amazing work we do here at Georgia Tech in the hopes of raising national awareness of intentional, mission-driven teaching postdoc programs as an ethical and intellectually vibrant way of staffing a writing program,” said Melissa Ianetta, executive director of WCP and interim chair for the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. “This award goes well towards that goal.”

WCP provides approximately 5,000 students with instruction in multimodal composition, business and technical communication, and research writing for undergraduate thesis projects each year. Defining features of the WCP are the Naugle Communication Center and the Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship, which offers three-year, highly selective postdoctoral teaching fellowships to 35 Ph.D. recipients who wish to develop professionally and innovate in areas of teaching, research, and service.

The Certificate of Excellence is only the most recent award for the program. Previously, the WCP was recognized with the 2020 Diversity Champion Unit Award and the 2021 Regent’s Teaching Excellence Award for Department or Program.

WCP will be recognized for this latest honor during the 2022 CCCC Awards Presentation. For more information about the CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence, including past winners, visit the CCCC website.

The CCCC is a constituent organization within the  National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The Writing and Communication Program (WCP) in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.