First-Year Writing Seminar & Literature Core
The English Department's First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS) and Literature Core form a key part of BC's Core Curriculum. These courses are designed to complement each other by helping students to develop essential skills for a liberal arts education. Some 1,600 students take a First-Year Writing Seminar each year, and more than 2,000 enroll in the Literature Core.
The English Department requires all undergraduates who need to take FWS to do so in their first year. The English Department also strongly encourages undergraduates to take Literature Core in their first two years.
First-Year Writing Seminar
The First-Year Writing seminar (FWS) encourages students to understand why people write: not just for grades or to complete requirements but because writing is an intellectual and personal tool for living. In our small, workshop-centered seminars, students use writing to discover new insights, orient themselves to broader conversations, deepen their understanding of ideas, and create changes in service of the common good.
Each seminar is a 15-person workshop designed to help you develop and practice skills in writing and research. Over the semester you will learn to write rhetorically, devising effective writing processes for a variety of purposes and audiences, including but not limited to, academic writing. Each workshop allows you to work creatively on a variety of writing tasks and to put yourself in conversation with other writers. You鈥檒l meet regularly with your instructor to make revision plans, learn to give and receive productive feedback to other writers, and develop skills for revising essays before submitting them for evaluation. You may also work with classmates to present and "publish" your work within various classroom, campus, or internet settings.
One goal of FWS is to teach you a variety of strategies to practice in a range of writing situations which, in turn, will help you to understand and plan for subsequent writing challenges in your future academic, professional, and personal lives. Another goal of FWS is to give you the tools and the incentive to keep writing after the course has ended: in other courses, in your community, and for your own pleasure. Part of learning to write well, especially in academic settings, involves putting yourself into conversation with current arguments using the conventions and tropes of relevant discourses. In FWS you will also be introduced to library resources and will practice writing and documenting secondary research.
By the successful completion of a semester of First-Year Writing, students will be able to demonstrate:
Rhetorical Knowledge
- Focus on a purpose in their writing
- Respond to the needs of different audiences
- Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations, including but not limited to academic rhetorical situations
- Write in several genres
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
- Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating
- Understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources
- Integrate their own ideas with those of others
Writing Processes
- Be aware that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text
- Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proof-reading
- Understand writing as an open process that permits writers to use later invention and re-thinking to revise their work
- Understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
- Productively critique their own and others' works
- Balance the advantages of relying on others with the responsibility of doing their part
Knowledge of Conventions
- Learn common formats for different kinds of texts
- Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics
- Practice appropriate means of documenting their work
- Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
Ability to Compose in Electronic Environments
- Use electronic environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts
- Locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources, including scholarly library databases; other official databases (e.g., federal government databases); and informal electronic networks and internet sources
- Understand and exploit the differences in the rhetorical strategies and in the affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts.
Students may fulfill their Writing Core requirement聽through a 集美麻豆Summer course with the ENGL1010 course number. (Woods College ADEN English courses will not be counted.) However, we do not permit the Writing Core requirement to be fulfilled over the summer at other institutions聽or in Study Abroad programs.
First-Year Writing Seminar Staff
Paula Mathieu
Director
Martha Hincks
Associate Director
Dacia Gentilella
FWS Mentor & Learning Specialist
