Skip to Content

UO Composition Program

About Us 

The Composition Program operates within the English Department

Faculty in the Composition Program teach lower- and upper-division writing to over 7000 students per year across over 100 classrooms per term. Our foundational 100-level writing courses are required of all UO students, taught by award-winning teachers comprised of both graduate employees (GEs) who have completed an intensive year-long training and experienced instructors from writing-related fields. 

In the Composition Program, we support student learning through these Program-wide learning outcomes: 

Writing in Context 
Develop arguments in multiple genres that are relevant to students and to the audiences to
which they’re addressed. 

Research and Inquiry 
Engage with primary, scholarly, and public sources to enrich a process of inquiry and inform
students’ writing. 

Analysis 
Analyze how writers reflect, challenge, and transform their discourse communities, including in
their relationship to formal and stylistic conventions. 

Agency and Positionality 
Recognize lived experience as a source of authority in writing, reading, and discourse. 

Feedback and Revision 
Give and receive constructive feedback; revise based on feedback, further research, and
reflection. 

Transferring Skills 
Apply the processes and strategies of writing to engage with new contexts and communities in
the University of Oregon and beyond it. 

Contact Us

For general questions related to the policies and procedures of the Composition Program, please email us at composition@uoregon.edu

Emily Simnitt
Interim Director of Composition
541-346-3517
esimnitt@uoregon.edu 

Melissa Bowers
Associate Director Academic Support, ASU #3
541-346-1506
bowersm@uoregon.edu 

Rebecca Schultz
Composition Program Coordinator
541-346-1543
schultzr@uoregon.edu 

Additional Contacts

UO Comp Director