The First-Year Writing Program provides undergraduate students with coursework required to fulfill the University General Education Communication requirements in Writing and consists of two courses: College Writing I (WRIT 105) and College Writing II (WRIT 106). Both courses are offered in traditional, online, and hybrid Course Formats.
The Purpose of First-Year Writing Courses
First-Year Writing courses, which collectively fulfill the general education requirements in Reading and Writing, ask students to write argumentative essays based on intellectual prose and contemporary issues. Our full sequence of courses (WRIT 105 and 106) are concerned with the kind of intellectual inquiry that drives learning in school, work, and everyday life. The writing students do in the First-Year Writing Program is meant to sustain and continue their development as writers for the length of their college careers and beyond.
College Writing I (WRIT 105)
This course is a writing-intensive workshop designed to develop thinking and writing abilities through frequent writing assignments based on critical response to intellectually challenging questions. We emphasize the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, using peer and teacher critique, editing and proofreading. Each assignment undergoes a series of drafts and revisions, and at least one of which includes external research beyond assigned course readings. In lieu of a final exam, students complete a portfolio of revised writing. The central goal of WRIT 105, College Writing I is not just to help students to become effective writers of intellectual arguments, but to also provide them with the critical thinking and research skills that are instrumental to a successful university education. Combined with WRIT 106, College Writing I meets the Gen Ed 2002 Communication Requirement in Writing/Literature. It also meets the 1983 General Education Requirement (GER)-Communication in Writing. Class size: 19.
College Writing II (WRIT 106)
College Writing II builds on the writing strategies taught in College Writing I and extends the goal of helping students to become effective writers of intellectual arguments in response to genre- and discipline-based works from a variety of fields. Students continue to practice and develop as writers, but the focus in this course is on reading and interpreting a diversity of texts across multiple modes. Each assignment undergoes a series of drafts and revisions, including at least one documented essay that engages students in their own process of academic research, is required. The central goal of WRIT 106, College Writing II, is to help students expand upon their critical thinking and writing skills and build an appreciation of a diversity of intellectual texts. Class size: 19.
What WRIT Course Format is best for me?
Take a look at the Course Formats for more detailed descriptions of traditional, hybrid, and online course formats.