Program Overview

Introduction to the First-Year Writing Seminar

The First-Year Writing seminar (FWS) is designed to encourage students to understand the value of writing as an intellectual and personal tool for living. This seminar goes beyond the conventional notion of writing for grades or completing requirements, focusing instead on the discovery of new insights, orientation to broader conversations, and the creation of positive change.

Program Overview

In the FWS, students participate in small, workshop-centered seminars where they develop and practice skills in writing and research. Each seminar is a 15-person workshop that helps students devise effective writing processes for various purposes and audiences, including academic writing. The program allows students to work creatively on a range of writing tasks, engage in conversations with other writers, and receive productive feedback.

Learning Objectives

The primary goals of the FWS include teaching students a variety of strategies to practice in different writing situations and providing them with the tools and incentive to continue writing after the course has ended. Students learn to write rhetorically, understand the conventions and tropes of relevant discourses, and engage with current arguments.

Learning Outcomes

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, and respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations.
• Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating, and understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks.
• 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, and understand writing as an open process.
• Knowledge of Conventions: Learn common formats for different kinds of texts, develop knowledge of genre conventions, and practice appropriate means of documenting their work.
• Ability to Compose in Electronic Environments: Use electronic environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts, and understand the differences in rhetorical strategies and affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts.

Writing Core Requirement

Students may fulfill their Writing Core requirement through a BC Summer course with the ENGL1010 course number. However, the Writing Core requirement cannot be fulfilled over the summer at other institutions or in Study Abroad programs.