Provides declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge about writing, with a special focus on genre, rhetorical situation, revision, editing, and making connections between texts and one’s own perspective.
What is it? Writing 1 is taken in the winter quarter of the first year and asks students to write in diverse genres, rather than only “the five-paragraph essay” and thesis-driven genres. Students learn to shift their writing between purposes, audiences, and genres. This course asks students to think about their writing processes and make plans for how to improve their skills and carry them into future classes. Writing 1 provides a small class size (20 students) and more hands-on support for success, including tutors.
Who is it for? The majority of first-year students place into Writing 1. Writing 1 is for students who are capable readers and writers and also know that they need time or support to meet college-level writing expectations.
What is the workload? In Writing 1, students read a range of texts, including scholarly articles/chapters and readings about how to write effectively in a variety of situations. Classroom time is spent processing difficult readings that are likely new to students. Students write 3-4 major projects, typically of about 1,000-1500 words per project.
Note: Effective winter 2024, College 1 is no longer a prerequisite to taking Writing 1 or 1E.
Course outcomes:
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- Demonstrate understanding of the purpose-driven nature of academic writing.
- Identify and use rhetorical concepts (such as audience, purpose, context, or genre) to analyze and write about a variety of texts.
- Use strategies such as response, analysis, interpretation, or critique to produce purpose-driven writing that draws connections between texts and student writers’ perspectives.
- Support their ideas through the use of appropriately acknowledged texts and, as appropriate, examples, personal experience, and/or observations.
- Compose projects through multiple drafts using both writer- and reader-based strategies and revising for focus, quality of content, and/or coherence. Implement strategies to edit work according to genre and disciplinary conventions such as arrangement, language use, mechanics, or documentation style.
- Reflect cognitively and metacognitively on processes for writing and analysis, building on strengths and addressing weaknesses.
Catalog description: Provides declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge about writing, with a special focus on genre, rhetorical situation, revision, editing, and making connections between texts and one’s own perspective.