Every spring term, the Writing Intensive Curriculum program hosts the WIC Culture of Writing Awards in the Disciplines (COWA). These awards promote an academic culture at OSU that values the teaching, practice, and modeling of writing excellence across the disciplines. WIC’S COWA encourage our undergraduates and broader community to value the unique qualities of excellent writing within the disciplines.

Winners receive a $100 prize: $50 from the WIC Program, and $50 from the nominating unit. Winners will also be invited to submit their papers to ScholarsArchive@OSU, Oregon State’s thesis and dissertation archive.

COWA Winners 2024

This year, 26 Oregon State University students across 25 majors have received a Culture of Writing Award for their outstanding disciplinary writing. One COWA recipient is a co-written effort by students Gareth Miller, Rabecka Moffit, Sara Vanaken. Another COWA recipient, Joseph Takach, was nominated by two different faculty members for two separate writing projects.

Congratulations to all of this year’s COWA winners:

Any paper that was written by an OSU student for an undergraduate course (including non-WIC courses) is eligible for COWA nomination. COWA nominees are nominated by participating departments. While the nomination process takes place within each unit, COWA awardees are selected by faculty within each discipline.