About the John S. Knight Institute

The John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines at Cornell University supports writing seminars and writing intensive courses in a broad spectrum of academic disciplines and at all levels of undergraduate education; it also engages in a variety of outreach activities. Through advances in a changing field, it has maintained its reputation as one of the premier writing program in the country, seeding the idea of teaching writing by training future professors in every field -- from Chemistry to Comparative Literature, Classics to Mathematics, Biology to Development Sociology, Engineering and Ecology -- to teach writing within their disciplines.

An Introduction

The Knight Institute coordinates the First-Year Writing Seminar Program, which serves the vast majority of first-year students at Cornell. It also has developed advanced-writing initiatives: it coordinates Writing in the Majors, an upper-level program, and supports courses on expository writing. The Knight Institute is also home to the Writing Workshop, which offers tutorial writing classes and tutoring services. In all, more than thirty-five academic departments and programs offer courses associated with the Knight Institute's programs.

The strength of the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines was recognized in September 2000 by the Time/Princeton Review when it designated Cornell the Private Research University "College of the Year" on the basis of its writing-in-the-disciplines approach. Support for the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines goes toward these renowned initiatives, including our Writing Centers, the Writing in the Majors program, writing outreach, and prizes recognizing both student and instructor excellence, the Knight Award for Writing Exercises and the Knight Prize for Writing in the Majors.

Knight Institute Locations:

The Knight Institute has two main locations on the Cornell University campus: 174 Rockefeller Hall and M101 McGraw Hall. The map embedded below shows both locations as blue markers. Please consult our directory for the specific office locations of individual faculty members.