Goals and outline of first-year writing
(WCT 001-C-01 & 03; Instructor: D. Christopher Gabbard)
| First year writing at Stanford: Welcome to Stanford and the Stanford Writing Program. When you enroll in your Writing and Critical Thinking course this year, you will be participating in one of Stanford's oldest traditions: first-year writing has been taught at Stanford since its founding and was the first requirement put in place by the University. You will also be engaging in a highly intensive course devoted to the arts and crafts necessary to communicate your ideas with clarity and cogency. As you work toward these goals, you can expect meticulous and consistent personal attention from your writing instructor.
Small writing classes: WCT classes enroll no more than 15 students, and all classes operate as seminars in which your participation will be crucial. Often your work will include close reading of and responding to the writing of classmates; these workshops will be augmented by a minimum of three private conferences you will have with your instructor during the term. Best of all, we can guarantee that the hard work you, your classmates, and your instructor do will pay off both personally and professionally: whether you plan to be an engineer or a poet, a computer scientist or a social scientist, a business executive or a filmmaker, a strong writing ability will play a major role in your future successes. Goals: The goals of the first-year writing program are simple to state: we aim to guide Stanford's first-year students in writing academic arguments and research-based essays, using rhetorical principles that will enable them to enter courses in many fields, analyze the discourses they find there, and, on the basis of their analyses, begin to participate effectively in those discourses, whether oral or written. |
Goals: The goals of the first-year writing program are simple to state: we aim to guide Stanford's first-year students in writing academic arguments and research-based essays, using rhetorical principles that will enable them to enter courses in many fields, analyze the discourses they find there, and, on the basis of their analyses, begin to participate effectively in those discourses, whether oral or written. The first and second quarters: The first quarter of WCT focuses on elements of academic argument--understanding a writer's stance, developing a supportable thesis, discovering and developing proofs, making appropriate organizational and stylistic choices, and writing for a range of audiences. The second quarter focuses on research-based writing, including the effective use of print and non-print sources, primary and secondary sources, and data based on fieldwork. Students in writing 3, an accelerated course, focus most attention on carrying out fairly extensive research and using it as the basis for a polished and persuasive essay. Writing & Discussion: As a general rule, you can expect to carry out four major writing assignments in each term of WCT work, varying from 5 to 18 pages in length, and to work hard on revising each piece of writing. These assignments will involve close readings of a range of texts as well as identifying, evaluating, and using multiple sources in support of academic and research-based arguments. In-class discussions on the nature of intellectual property (and plagiarism), on how to read with an increasingly critical eye, and on how to integrate and cite sources will provide some of the most important academic learning experiences during your first year of work at Stanford. |
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last modified: 09/25/00