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Your First-Year Writing requirements can be met by:

  • Registering for ENGW 1102, ENGW 1111, ENGW 1113, or ENGW 1114
  • AP transfer credit
  • Completing ENGW 1111 Honors (placement by the Honors program)
  • Completing both ENGW 1110 & ENGW 1111 (placement by the General Studies Program)

Guided Self-Placement Steps

See if you’ve registered for ENGW 1102ENGW 1111, ENGW 1113, ENGW 1114, and read the course descriptions

Due First Day of Class

Write a 2-3 page letter to your instructor where you introduce your writing history and your expectations for the course. Please look up your instructor’s name so that you can address your recipient appropriately. Consider the following:

  • What experiences have made you feel successful as a writer?
  • What experiences have made you lose confidence as a writer?
  • After looking at the student learning goals and course descriptions, what do you think the course you enrolled in will entail?
  • If you selected ENGW 1113, ENGW 1114, or ENGW 1102, why did you choose this course?
  • What are you the most excited about and what are you the most uncertain about with this course?
  • Is there anything else you’d like your instructor to know?

Bring your letter to the first day of class unless your instructor has requested another form of submission. This writing assignment is ungraded but required in order to pass the class.

If you believe that your current course placement is not a good fit for you, contact your advisor as soon as possible.

Many students assume that First-Year Writing will be similar to their high school literature or AP English courses. However, it is quite different. While you will expand on some of the skills learned in those courses, you’ll also be learning rhetorical flexibility (how to write for different audiences in different situations) by writing in a variety of genres and media.

You and your academic advisor may have chosen a FYW course already. We want to ensure that each student is aware of their options as early as possible through a process of guided self-placement

Self-placement means that you have agency over which course or courses you want to take. 

Guided means the Writing Program directors, your advisors, and your instructors are here to help you make that decision.