WR 199

It is a one-credit tutorial that will support eligible students’ work in WR 121 and can only be taken concurrently with WR 121. The course is graded P/NP. In order to pass, students schedule and keep seven one-hour sessions with a tutor. Eligible students will be sent instructions about how to make tutorial appointments after registering for the course.

WR 121: College Composition I

WR 121 is the introductory college-level course in written reasoning. This course presents writing as a means of exploring, developing, confirming, and communicating ideas. The ideas that students write about develop from their understanding of issues encountered in readings and focused discussions. Students compose essays that support and develop a thesis, and they learn to make structural and rhetorical choices based both on the requirements of that thesis and on their knowledge of the audience. They are taught to practice open-minded inquiry into ideas, so that their writing will be based on honest and defensible reasoning. They learn how clear and effective communication is a way of showing respect for one’s audience. They learn the importance of revision in the process of written reasoning. And they learn to become better critical readers of their own and others’ prose.

WR 121low-SAT

Three sections of WR 121 are staffed by a teacher experienced in developmental writing. Although this class accomplishes the same goals as our other WR 121 courses, it is specially designed to meet the needs of students with lower test scores. Places are filled on a first come, first served basis without alphabetical priority because there are more people eligible than there is space available. Students are not required to register for these sections and can take one of the regular WR 121 sections.

WR 122: College Composition II

In addition to utilizing the concepts covered in WR 121, WR 122 focuses on specific ways to develop argumentative essays in response to the challenges of increasingly complex contexts, sophisticated competing arguments, and complicated issues. Students practice further how to develop effective theses and to support these theses with effective reasoning. The course also emphasizes critical reading, including the analysis of other people’s written reasoning. Prereq: WR 121 or equivalent.

WR 123: College Composition III (Research)

Writing 123 shares the aims of Writing 122, with the added requirement that students develop their arguments in response to independent research into the questions at issue that they are addressing in their argumentative essays. Students will practice writing documented essays based on the use of sources. Writing 123 continues the focus on revising and editing begun in Writing 121. Prereq: WR 121 or equivalent.

WR 320: Scientific and Technical Writing

WR 320 emphasizes the content, form, and style of scientific, professional, and technical writing, including reports, proposals, instructions, correspondence, and the use of graphics and documentation. Students will learn the conventions of discourse in these areas and how they result from different kinds of scientific and technical modes of inquiry. Students will apply this awareness to writing in academic as well as vocational contexts. Prereq: Completion of the University Writing Requirement and upper-division standing.

WR 321: Business Communication

WR 321 offers practice in writing and analyzing communication common to business, industry, and related professions. Students will develop a critical awareness of the conventions of discourse in these areas and how they result from interpersonal and organizational contexts encountered in these fields. As aspects of such business writing conventions, this course pays close attention to logical development and stylistic and format choices. The knowledge gained is applicable to academic as well as vocational situations. Prereq: Completion of the University Writing Requirement and upper-division standing.

WR 423/523: Advanced Composition

WR 423/523 continues the emphases of Writing 121,122, and 123 at a higher level of sophistication, with special attention to writing in relation to modes of inquiry in different academic disciplines. Sections designated 523 are open to graduate students in any discipline. Prereq: Upper-division standing and completion of the University writing requirement or instructor’s permission.

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