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Program Overview

Foundations of Written Communication

Foundations of the Discipline courses amplify what you know about the world around you, what you can do with the kind of communications and problem-solving skills essential for success, and who you become as you continue learning throughout your life. The “Know, Do, Become” motto of University foundations encapsulates these overarching goals:

  • Know:  Able to employ different ways of knowing and apply key transferable concepts.
  • Do: Able to communicate well, analyze and solve novel problems, and work with others.
  • Become: Has developed into a reflective, self-motivated, lifelong learner who can actively direct their own future growth.

Build a foundation for lifelong learning by enhancing the focused study done within each major with broader study in mathematics, sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts.

University Learning Outcome: Write effectively in multiple contexts for a variety of audiences.

  • Use flexible writing process strategies to generate, develop, revise, edit, and proofread texts
  • Adopt strategies and genre that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation
  • Use inquiry-based strategies to conduct research that explores multiple and diverse ideas and perspectives, appropriate to the rhetorical context
  • Use rhetorically appropriate strategies to evaluate, represent, and respond to the ideas and research of others
  • Address readers’ biases and assumptions with well-developed evidence-based reasoning
  • Use appropriate conventions for integrating, citing, and documenting source material as well as for surface-level language and style.
  • Read, interpret, and communicate key concepts in writing and rhetoric.
  • Use reflection and self-evaluation to connect choices made in texts to audiences and purposes for which texts are intended

The First Year Writing Program

FYW aims to show you how writing is essential for learning, expressing your ideas, and communicating effectively with others. We want to help you understand how writing connects to your field of study, your life outside of campus, and the relationships you’ll build now and in the future.