“Maroon and Write” is Mississippi State University’s new writing-to-learn quality enhancement plan (QEP). The QEP is a required component of the re-accreditation process for the university from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. 
Every accredited higher education institution must develop a project that promises to enhance the educational experience on campus.  
Deborah Lee, co-chair of the Maroon and Write marketing and communications committee, said in an email the QEP Selection Taskforce spoke with faculty, staff and students about what is done well at MSU and what could be improved. 
“From this broad-based discussion, the campus chose writing as the topic for our QEP. Accreditation is an important process that guarantees the educational quality of the institution for both students and potential employers,” Lee said. “Writing is an important skill, whether you’re writing a tweet, a blog or a research report. The Maroon and Write Project is designed to help MSU students build the writing skills they need to succeed in a course and a career.”
Florida State University’s research professor Kathleen Yancey spoke on Wednesday with MSU faculty about writing-across-the-curriculum strategies faculty can incorporate in their classes. As faculty learn new strategies to teach writing, they will use them in their classes across all curriculum in the university. The goal of the QEP is to improve undergraduate student writing at MSU.
Connie Forde, department head of MSU Instructional Systems and Workforce Development, said events such as Yancey’s visit go hand in hand with the QEP Maroon and Write initiative. 
“The committee will be planning many things and Dr. Yancey talked to us today about some ideas to bring faculty and students alike into writing. And not just including writing in classes, but also including it in the co-curricular part of the institution,” Forde said.
English department head Rich Raymond said in June 2013 MSU conducted the first “Maroon Institute for Writing Excellence” (MIWE), a month-long workshop designed to prepare professors from across the curriculum to use in-class and out-of-class writing assignments to help students learn material. 
“This fall, three of the nine MIWE professors are using these new writing-centered approaches to their courses in literature, forestry and marketing. The other six will do likewise this coming spring semester in their respective QEP courses,” Raymond said. “Using the workshop format, participants in MIWE read articles in learning theory, cognitive theory and composition theory. They processed their reading in reader-response journals, one of the writing-to-learn strategies they will be teaching their students.“
Hillary Richardson, instructional services librarian at MSU libraries said she liked the QEP because improving students’ writing abilities is a major undertaking on any campus. 
“I think the QEP is about altering how people think about writing. In my experience, a lot of students think that writing good, or writing well, is something that they have to ‘get out of the way’ in composition classes, but learning how to communicate with someone through writing is a lifelong endeavor, and I think the QEP is one thing that will reinforce that,” Richardson said.
Raymond said the Maroon and Write QEP is planned to extend for five years.
“At the end of this period, members of the QEP Development Committee hope that we will have moved well down the road toward establishing a culture of writing, a community of professors and students who embrace writing as the best way to learn,” Raymond said. 
For more information about MSU’s QEP, visit facebook.com/QEPMSU or follow the plan on Twitter.