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Overview

Brandeis students must fulfill the following undergraduate writing requirements:

• First year: University Writing Seminar (UWS) (full-credit courses).
• Beyond the first year: Two Writing Intensive courses, one of which may be an Oral Communications class.

Composition

Composition is a full-credit course intended to introduce and firmly establish the foundations of writing as a means of expression, argumentation, and intellectual exploration.  This course cultivates the basic reading and writing techniques fundamental to both academic writing at the University and writing tasks in the world at large.  The Director of University Writing recommends selected students to Composition each semester as a prerequisite to enrolling in a University Writing Seminar.  Students who are recommended to take Composition in the fall semester of their first year will be notified over the summer. For more information regarding Composition, see the FAQ. Successful completion of this course does NOT satisfy the first-year writing requirement.

First-Year Seminar (FYS)

First Year Seminars are taught by faculty members, and are meant to introduce students to college-level intellectual analysis. This class is optional.  

University Writing Seminar (UWS)

The UWS is a full-credit course specifically dedicated to writing as a subject in its own right; it treats writing as a multifaceted art and gives students an opportunity to study and experiment with a broad range of writing styles.  Areas of attention include argumentation, critical reading, essay structure, revising, research skills and proper documentation.  UWS courses are taught by specially trained graduate students and focus on teaching academic writing skills using a variety of reading and writing assignments. Aside from two hours per week of classroom instruction, students meet individually with their instructors for one-on-one tutorials. All first-year students will complete a UWS course. You can find UWS course descriptions here.

Writing Intensive (WI)

WI courses, offered across the curriculum, combine instruction in particular subject matter with close attention to writing. They require more writing than the usual course, and focus on developing skills in drafting, revising and fine-tuning your writing within a discipline (e.g., economics, history, math). Review the list of WI courses in the online University Bulletin.

Writing Intensive courses are upper-level courses that are offered in departments throughout the university. Normally taken in a student's second or third year, these courses are based in a specific academic discipline and require frequent or regular attention to writing and instruction in the skills of academic writing.

The list of courses that satisfy the Writing Intensive requirement changes each year. The following list should be considered preliminary; courses that satisfy the requirement in a particular semester are designated "wi" in the Schedule of Classes for that semester. When there is a conflict between this Bulletin and the Schedule of Classes regarding the designation of a course as writing intensive, the information in the Schedule of Classes takes precedence. To find classes offered in a semester that are designated as "wi," search for the attribute of "genr/wi." Consult with the Director of University Writing if in doubt about whether a course satisfies the requirement in a specific semester.

More information

For more information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page.