The ability to write is often overlooked in the search for more saleable skills. But becoming an engineer, a pharmacist, or a physician does not diminish the need for writing prowess.

A grant from the Davis Educational Foundation of Falmouth, Me., will help UConn students improve their writing skills. The Davis Educational Foundation was created by Elisabeth and Stanton Davis after Mr. Davis’s retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets.

The $203,000 grant from the Foundation is designated to further the teaching of writing to freshmen through UConn’s rapidly growing and increasingly popular learning communities, which bring together students of similar interests or majors.

“Learning communities give UConn a small, liberal arts college feel,” says program coordinator Melissa Foreman. “Research shows that students who become involved in their first semester are more likely to proceed to graduation. Learning communities help with integrating them into college and helping UConn feel like home.”

They now will also foster better writers, thanks to the Davis grant.

“We are in a much better position to teach them academic writing based on their interests, because we already have a clue as to what they are passionate about,” says Mary Isbell, a graduate student and Freshman English instructor who is part of the Business Connections learning community. “We are trying to get students to have original thoughts. If they care about the topics, it’s a lot easier to do.”

Nathan Ives, the Alumni Relations manager in the School of Business, says the concept is a step toward a larger goal. “The students will have to write reports if they become auditors, and they will need to be expressive,” he says. “Writing helps to precondition them to think, act, analyze.”The Davis Foundation, a public charitable foundation that supports approved undergraduate programs in the six New England states, evidently feels the same way.

“From our perspective, this project has a number of positive elements,” says Davis Foundation program officer Leanne Greeley Bond. “Support structures and personnel already in place demonstrate the University’s commitment to first-year students, and the pilots have demonstrated the effectiveness of integrating the writing seminar into the topic-based learning communities. We are pleased to assist with the training and preparation required to bring this approach to scale.”

During the academic year 2010-2011, UConn has 15 living-learning communities, and nine non-residential learning communities. They began as a grassroots effort originally defined by First Year Experience, a one-credit course that a small group of students who had the same major or area of interest took while sharing a residence hall. A pilot program incorporating Freshman English was begun last year.

Says Lisa Blansett, associate professor-in-residence and associate director of Freshman English, “We are taking all these different threads and weaving them together into the fabric to create a whole.”

For more information about supporting the Freshman Writing program, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, please contact the UConn Foundation’s development department.