From 1979-2004, the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth was the home of the Capital Writing Project (CWP).

Established in 1978, the CWP was one of the 160 sites of the National Writing Project (NWP), the largest staff development project for teachers in the country, and was one of the seven state sites of the Virginia Writing Project. Its geographic region included Richmond, Virginia, and the area districts of Hanover, Chesterfield, Goochland, and Henrico counties. The CWP was located within a teaching/learning community highly diverse in ethnicities and socio-economic conditions.

The Capital Writing Project aimed to improve the teaching of writing across the disciplines from kindergarten through college and university—both public and private schools—and believed that the best teachers of teachers are other teachers.