Welcome to the Karen Merritt Writing Program (also affectionately known as "the MWP"), and to those students joining in Fall 2026, congratulations on your acceptance and on choosing UC Merced as your educational home for the next four years. I'm delighted that you chose UC Merced, and that you will be 
enrolled in one of our writing courses.
At the Merritt Writing Program, writing is one of the most powerful ways to communicate and develop while in college. Our faculty, many of whom have teaching and research awards, encourage students to cultivate organized thinking, persuasive argument, and fair, balanced representation of ideas and sources, and to present their messages in whatever medium is necessary to convey their thoughts efficiently. Through our small class sizes, you will encounter faculty who will know your name, give you ample feedback on your writing, and encourage you to broaden your writing skills in new ways.
If writing and getting feedback on your work makes you feel nervous, know you are good company. Almost every student who walks into our classrooms feels some version of that uncertainty, and almost every student leaves their WRI 001 or WRI 010/H course with more confidence than what they arrived with at the beginning of the semester. You will also find that many faculty, some of whom are published academic and creative writers, experience various levels of comfort and uncertainty about their prose during the writing process. Growth in writing rarely happens in one semester, one year, or even through using the same habits that led to earlier successes with good grades, publication acceptances, or feelings of productivity and pride. For each writer, what matters is working on the writing craft a little bit each day, seeking feedback from trusted peers, from the University Writing Center consultants, talking with librarians at the Univeristy Library for help with locating information, or through office hours with your instructor, and a willingness to see your work differently and to let go of what does not work to make room for prose that will.
In WRI 001 and WRI 010/H, you can expect to find classes that feel more like workshops with lively activities to stimulate and inspire your writing practices over lectures and discussion circles. You will have conversations with peers, one-on-one time with your instructor, and opportunities to revise your writing in response to real peer and faculty feedback rather than getting a grade and moving on. Your instructor will expect you to think critically about issues that matter, write for different audiences and purposes, and connect your questions and research to fields and communities beyond the classroom. The habits of mind you develop in first-year writing will serve you no matter what you decide to study for your major or where your path may take you after you graduate from UC Merced.
I still remember my first-year writing classes and the hours it took to choose a topic, search library databases for research, and begin drafting in a very blank Word document. I also struggled to develop sentences that conveyed main ideas concisely and that readers connected with enough to keep reading. I share this to suggest that developing enduring writing processes will bring discomfort, and that the time you dedicate to honing how you communicate to others is a gift you give your future self.
My inbox is open all year, and I'd love to hear how your semester is going, what you are working on, or where you are finding your footing as a writer. There are many wonderful opportunities for undergraduate research and publication, and I'd be happy to connect you with UC Merced's Undergraduate Research Journal or journals in the field of writing that accept undergraduate research.
I welcome you to the Merritt Writing Program, and I am looking forward to learning what you will write this year!
Warmly,
Dr. Estee Beck
Director, Merritt Writing Program
Associate Professor
ebeck2@ucmerced.edu
