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Description:

The writing-intensive First Year Seminar introduces students to writing as a process, writing as a mode of learning, and academic writing forms and skills.  As such, it also partially fulfills the Written Communication requirement (p. 18) in the Liberal Studies Curriculum.  First Year Seminars will have a cap of 15 to allow the instructor time to respond to student writing each week and meet individually with students to discuss their writing. 

Through reading, writing, and discussion, First Year Seminar courses use a wide range of topics to explore broad, interdisciplinary questions in the liberal arts and sciences.   The small class size also encourages students to work cooperatively, creating a community of learners.  By emphasizing engaged participation, the seminars help students learn how to take responsibility for their own education.

Guidelines:

1. First-Year Seminars focus on various topics, but they are all similar in their emphasis on discussion and their extensive use of writing.
2. Topics encourage examination of large questions, have an interdisciplinary dimension, and provoke reflection on diversity.
3. Courses require frequent writing, at least twice a week. This includes:
   1. Various kinds of informal writing designed to encourage active reading and discussion (e.g., freewriting, journals, reading or lecture summaries, commentaries, annotations, question-and-response).
   2. Preparatory stages of writing for formal papers (topic-generating exercises, reading notes, proposals, outlines, drafts).
   3. Formal papers: a minimum of 3, totaling 10-20 pages.  Formal papers must include at least one analytical/persuasive essay, but may also include other prose forms.
4. Courses provide clear, written criteria for assessment and discussion of writing and must make use of texts and student models demonstrating those criteria.
5. Courses include weekly opportunities for feedback on writing, from peers and the instructor (e.g., written comments, small-group discussions, workshops, individual conferences).
6. Courses include revisions involving feedback.
7. Courses introduce research skills and citation forms, in collaboration with Library staff.
8. Courses address academic integrity, plagiarism, and the College’s polices in this regard.

First Year Seminar Learning Outcomes:

Students will demonstrate:

The ability to engage in active learning at the college level.

The ability to use writing as a tool for learning.

An understanding of what makes “good writing” for a general academic audience.

The ability to manage the writing process (prewriting, drafting, feedback, revision, editing, and proofreading) to produce finished products.

The ability to give others feedback on their writing.

The ability to use feedback to revise.

The ability to generate a thesis on their own and support it with convincing evidence and reasoning in a formal academic essay that has cohesion, coherence, and voice.

An understanding of academic integrity and the ability to integrate and cite sources.

A knowledge of basic research skills.

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