Core modules
3 required
Writing Pedagogy · Feedback & Assessment · Discipline-Specific Writing
Electives
Choose 1 of 4 during the beta
Multimodal Writing · WAC Strategies · AI in Writing · Multilingual Writers
Time commitment
19 to 28 hours
Core modules 4 to 6 hours each, one elective 3 to 4 hours, capstone 4 to 6 hours, over six to eight weeks
Capstone
Writing-intensive syllabus or curriculum plan
Submitted with a pedagogical rationale
What this certificate addresses
Teaching writing means making a series of decisions: what writing is for, who it is for, and when and how to step into a student's development as a writer. This certificate gives you the theory and the practical vocabulary to make those decisions on purpose. It draws on expressivist, cognitivist, and social-constructivist frameworks; on genre theory and the rhetorical situation; on research in response and assessment; and on writing-across-the-curriculum scholarship that connects discipline-specific genre knowledge to pedagogical design.
The three core modules build on one another. Module 1 lays out the foundational frameworks and asks you to audit your own assumptions about writing before you design for students. Module 2 treats feedback and assessment as the place where students see your teaching of writing, since your comments tell them what you value in writing. Module 3 applies the DAPOE framework to discipline-specific writing instruction. Its DAPOE design workshop feeds directly into the capstone, which has its own page. During the beta, one elective lets you go further in the area closest to your teaching, and the other three stay open to anyone who wants more.
Core modules
The required sequence
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1
Foundations of Writing Pedagogy
The three major theoretical frameworks in writing pedagogy (expressivist, cognitivist, and social-constructivist) and how each shapes assignment design, classroom practice, and instructor response. Includes an audit of your own pedagogical assumptions and a rhetorical situation assignment review.
Weeks 1–2 · ~4–6 hours
Open Module 1 workbook -
2
Feedback and Assessment in Writing
The four CWSP response styles (reader-based, criterion-based, question-based, and descriptive) and how each positions the student as a writer. Includes a rubric critique and redesign, and a peer review protocol exercise built around the response practices that help students revise.
Weeks 3–4 · ~4–6 hours
Open Module 2 workbook -
3
Discipline-Specific Writing Instruction
The DAPOE framework (directions, audience, purpose, objectives, evaluation) as an analytical tool for understanding the genre conventions of disciplinary writing and designing assignments that teach those conventions explicitly. The capstone activity, a full DAPOE assignment design, feeds directly into the Certificate Completion portfolio.
Weeks 5–6 · ~4–6 hours
Open Module 3 workbook
Electives
Choose one of four
Each elective workbook includes content sections, activities, a branded artifact builder, and auto-save. Electives 1 and 3 are focused introductions that point to the Digital Communication Certificate for fuller treatment. Electives 2 and 4 are full workbooks.
Elective 1
Multimodal and Digital Writing
A focused introduction to multimodal assignment design: analyzing texts across modes, designing low-stakes multimodal tasks, and seeing why rhetorical questions matter more once students generate images or audio with AI. Points to the Digital Communication Certificate for fuller treatment.
About 3 to 4 hours
Open Elective 1 workbookElective 2
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Strategies
Writing-to-Learn, Writing-to-Engage, and Writing-in-the-Disciplines as a three-part framework for integrating low-stakes and formal writing into any course. Includes a menu of seven WAC activity types, a design exercise, and an implementation planning tool.
About 3 to 4 hours
Open Elective 2 workbookElective 3
AI in Writing Instruction
The Writing WITH AI, Not FOR AI framework (Cole), applied to assignment design and course policy. Includes a side-by-side task exploration and a policy-plus-redesign exercise. Points to the Digital Communication Certificate for the full AI literacy treatment.
About 3 to 4 hours
Open Elective 3 workbookElective 4
Inclusive Practices for Multilingual Writers
Asset-based and deficit-based orientations, code-switching and code-meshing, and the minimal marking principle applied to three L2 student writing excerpts across graduate engineering, undergraduate sociology, and upper-division public health. Includes a discipline-specific support plan and student-facing syllabus statement.
About 3 to 4 hours
Open Elective 4 workbookCapstone
Develop a writing-intensive syllabus or curriculum plan
Your capstone is a writing-intensive syllabus or course-level curriculum plan built on CWSP practice: deliberate assignment sequencing, a formative feedback strategy, and attention to disciplinary genres. You submit it with a pedagogical rationale that connects your design choices to the frameworks from the three core modules. The DAPOE assignment you designed in Module 3 feeds directly into this document. Plan on 4 to 6 hours. CWSP reviews your capstone and then emails your certificate. Open the capstone page
Also in the C²TC Program
Electives 1 and 3 connect directly to the Digital Communication Certificate, which covers multimodal rhetoric and AI literacy in full. Instructors who complete both certificates see how communication pedagogy fits together across modes.
Questions? Contact Kirsti Cole at CWSP.