The Iowa Writing Project (IWP) records reflect the work of the organization from 1968 to 2018, with its contents providing insight into IWP administrative work, instructional material, workshops, and more. The materials were collected and used by former IWP director, James S. Davis, both before and after the organization became affiliated with UNI. Davis directed the IWP on behalf of its Advisory Board, Steering Committee, and partnering organizations. These materials were generated under these collaborative efforts and work. The collection is loosely arranged into groupings. The contents of these groupings are found in multiple folders across the collection; as such, researchers may need to consult multiple folders and boxes. Likewise, there is overlap in material across series.

The administrative files series represents and documents the work of the IWP and includes materials such as reports, financial records, correspondence, conference information, meeting minutes, and notes. The resources series consists primarily of journal articles and handouts, probably used in the course of Davis’ work and IWP instruction. The Teaching Materials series consists of materials used in teaching courses, workshops, etc., and includes syllabi, assignment information, and Davis’ teaching notes. The Hispanic Story Project series contains materials related strictly to that project and its goals. The Audiovisual / Photographs series consists of cassette tapes, photographs, slides, and DVDs. Topics represented in this series include IWP seminars and workshops along with other presentations. Photographs and slides are also included in the collection.

Please note that some of the materials appear to be from Davis’ teaching duties at the University of Northern Iowa. These materials were not separated from the collection. There is also a group of materials that arrived together under the label "J.S. Davis archive files." These were kept together.

The following series and materials were acquired in 2022. The series titles and file arrangement were created directly from the donor’s labeling information and order of materials.

The Carver Trust Project - Writing School for Transformation series focuses on the Iowa Writing Project's "Writing to Learn, Learning To Transform" initiative. It includes course information and syallbi; the Carver program application / project proposal for the Writing to Learn initiative; and more. Some of the materials include handwritten notes / annotations.

The Writing from Historical Documents series contains materials from the Iowa Writing Project course in which participants worked with archivists and engaged with primary sources at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Participants picked an area of research to support "any kind of writing" in which they were interested. Materials are related to course work and programming, along with correspondence and general information about the Hoover Library at that time.

The Iowa Writing Project Board and Leadership series consists of files related to various administrative aspects of the Iowa Writing Project, such as workshops, board meetings, and conferences. Types of materials include resources, notes, syllabi, correspondence, and workshop-specific files.

The IWP influence on other courses grouping consists solely of materials from courses taught by James Davis and contains syllabi, class discussion notes / articles used, and Davis' handwritten class notes.

Finally, the Miscellaenous series includes materials primarily from and related to the National Writing Project and the Iowa Writing Project’s connection to it. Much of the NWP-related files in this series belonged to Jim Davis, some of which include his handwritten notes. Included in this series are notes and assorted NWP / IWP administrative files such as site data, correspondence, agendas, reports, surveys, and more.