The Writing Intensive Program assumes that writing is the process by which disciplinary knowledge is constituted, the process by which one "comes to know" knowledge, and the process by which that knowledge is vetted. Hence, to teach writing is to teach the "ways of knowing" unique to any discipline: the methodology of inquiry, the conventions of evidence, the mode of presentation.

Such a pedagogical goal, then, assumes that the most effective way to improve student writing is to do so within the context of disciplinary demands, under the tutelage of committed faculty across the campus, who are willing and able to articulate those conventions.