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Technical communication is essential for a career in physics, but communication skills are often not explicitly taught in physics undergraduate curricula. As a starting point for curricular integration, we investigated where and how writing is currently occurring in the core undergraduate physics courses at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We examined course materials to identify where writing is explicitly or implicitly referenced, the genres that were assigned, and writing concepts that were represented. Analyzing course materials allowed us to identify a wide range of activities and assignments related to writing. We observed that implicit references to writing are prevalent, writing activities are weighted toward upper-level classes, and the most common genres are related to laboratory activities. Writing concepts that occurred frequently in upper-level laboratory courses correspond to disciplinary values of precision and clarity, while concepts of novelty and evidence were infrequent. This type of assessment can help identify gaps in the curriculum, allowing us to be more deliberate about how we develop students’ communication skills.