Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication (WRAP) teaches the foundational writing subjects (CI-HWs) in CMS/W, and collaborates with MIT faculty and departments to teach written, oral, and visual communication to over 4000 students a year in more than 100 communication-intensive subjects. We also teach both semester-long subjects and specialized workshops on a variety of communication topics for graduate students in a variety of departments.
WRAP is the recipient of the 2021 CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence Award.
Our Mission
Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication is devoted to teaching students how to analyze and produce effective communication. Communicating effectively as a professional–to colleagues, managers, potential funders, and the public–requires conceptual knowledge about how to explain complex and specialized information and how to persuade an audience in many different fields, social contexts, and media. In addition to technical knowledge, MIT graduates need to know how to analyze audiences and attend to differences in discourse conventions, how to analyze and produce specialized genres and forms of argumentation, and how to compose, evaluate, and integrate oral, written, visual, and digital modes of communication. WRAP researches these concepts and professional practices, develops new pedagogy, and assesses how students learn, apply, and transfer this knowledge.
MIT’s Communication Requirement provides the backbone for this learning process, by requiring each student to take two subjects designated as communication-intensive in SHASS (CI-Hs), and two more in their major (CI-Ms). Students can also choose or be required to take, as one of their CI-H subjects, a class that focuses specifically on rhetoric, writing, and communication as the core content (CI-HWs).
To assess the writing abilities of incoming students and ensure students’ communication instruction begins at an appropriate level, WRAP develops and administers the First-Year Essay Evaluation and the Graduate Writing Exam.
Read more about the history of Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication at MIT, and about our program philosophy.
Faculty: Please visit our Teaching Writing and Communication site for more information on collaborating with WRAP lecturers, developing a Communication-Intensive subject, and integrating communication instruction into your classes. Our Research section offers an overview of central theories and empirical studies in Writing and Communication Studies, as well as an introduction to WRAP’s ongoing research projects.
To request to teach with a Writing Advisor in a CI-H subject, please submit a proposal at this site.
To explore how WRAP can provide communication instruction for graduate students in your program, please email wrap@mit.edu
Students: Find information about the First-Year Essay Evaluation (FEE) or the Graduate Writing Exam, or visit the Writing and Communication Center for individualized consultations on your writing.
Where to find us:
The Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication main offices and meeting rooms are located in E18, 2nd floor, and the classroom is on the first floor of E17. Some lecturers have offices in other buildings, so please check the MIT directory for specific information.
To reach us, please email wrap@mit.edu or call (617) 253-3039.