University Writing
Last updated: August 24, 2023 at 9:40 AM
Objectives
First-year students entering in the fall of 2009 and thereafter must satisfactorily complete one UWS course, one writing intensive course, and either a second writing intensive course or an oral communication course. For students entering Brandeis beginning fall 2019, the writing intensive requirement will be fulfilled for through coursework taken in the completion of their major, or through other options described in the requirements for the major.
Some students will be notified that they have been placed in a composition class (COMP), based on an evaluation of their writing proficiency. The composition class is taken in the first semester; students must then take a UWS in their second semester. All students who are placed in COMP may choose to complete a writing test in early June via email to challenge their placement.
Certain students whose native language is not English may be required to have their English writing skills evaluated and to have an interview during Orientation, before the beginning of classes. On the basis of this evaluation, students may be advised to sign up for an individual, noncredit tutorial in the English as a Second Language program to supplement their work in composition, UWS or other writing or oral communication courses.
Transfer students may have their credits evaluated to see whether they have successfully completed the necessary course to satisfy the first-year writing requirement. If they have not, they may be eligible for alternative ways to complete this requirement based on their transfer credit record, with written approval from the Registrar's office and University Writing.
The writing intensive or oral communication components of this requirement are normally completed in a student's second or third year. Writing intensive and oral communication courses, which are offered in departments throughout the university, are based in academic disciplines and include writing or oral communication as an integral part of the course work.
Writing intensive courses involve frequent writing assignments, opportunities for rewriting and consultations with the instructor. Oral communication courses involve instruction, feedback and at least two assignments to develop oral communication skills. Writing intensive and oral communication courses may serve multiple purposes, advancing students toward majors, minors, non-Western and comparative studies or distribution requirements. Courses numbered at the 90 level shall not be eligible for a writing-intensive or oral communication designation.
Courses that satisfy the requirement in a particular semester are designated "wi" in the Schedule of Classes for that semester. A list of writing intensive courses is available in the Courses of Instruction.
Courses of Instruction
University Writing
COMP 1a Composition
Prerequisite: Placement by the University Writing Program. Successful completion of this course does NOT satisfy the first-year writing requirement. Enrollment limited to non-native English speakers.
A course in the fundamentals of writing, required as a prerequisite to the first-year writing requirement for selected students identified by the University Writing Program. Offered in the fall and spring semesters.
Staff
COMP 1b Composition
Prerequisite: Placement by the University Writing Program. Successful completion of this course does NOT satisfy the first-year writing requirement. Enrollment open to native English speakers.
A course in the fundamentals of writing, required as a prerequisite to the first-year writing requirement for selected students identified by the University Writing Program. Offered in the fall and spring semesters.
Staff
UWS 1a - 49b University Writing Seminar
University writing seminars (UWS) focus on strategies and techniques of college-level argument taught through the exploration of a subject. UWS teaches transferrable writing skills (defining a thesis, assessing and analyzing evidence, introducing and developing an argument) that students will employ and continue to develop throughout their academic and professional lives. In three papers of increasing complexity (25 pages total), students learn to frame analytical questions, make original claims, structure complex ideas, integrate sources of various kinds and revise for greater cogency and clarity. One of the UWS assignments is linked to required attendance at one of two Critical Conversations offered each semester. Students will learn how to assess the quality of an argument and its counter-arguments, model civil discourse and critical analysis.
Each course assigns a close reading in which the student brings out non-obvious nuances of a prose passage, a lens essay in which one particular text and another at a higher level of abstraction reflect upon each other and each deepen one's sense of the meaning of the other, and a research paper in which the student must engage the ongoing scholarly conversation about a text, problem, or theme examined in the course. Students prepare for each of the three major essays through short predraft assignments as well as through drafts that faculty comment on in writing and discuss with the student in individual conferences. Students examine their own writing in draft workshops and in small groups. The course also teaches basic skills of research, from using the library to appropriate citation of sources.
Staff
HUM/UWS 1a Tragedy: Love and Death in the Creative Imagination
Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows.
How do you turn catastrophe into art - and why? This first-year seminar in the humanities addresses such elemental questions, especially those centering on love and death. How does literature catch hold of catastrophic experiences and make them intelligible or even beautiful? Should misery even be beautiful? By exploring the tragic tradition in literature across many eras, cultures, genres, and languages, this course looks for basic patterns. Usually offered every year.
John Burt and Steve Dowden
HUM/UWS 2a Crime and Punishment: Justice and Criminality from Plato to Serial
Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows. Formerly offered as COML/HOI 103a.
Examines concepts of criminality, justice, and punishment in Western humanist traditions. We will trace conversations about jurisprudence in literature, philosophy, political theory, and legal studies. Topics include democracy and the origins of justice, narrating criminality, and the aesthetic force mobilized by criminal trials. This course also involves observing local courtroom proceedings and doing research in historical archives about significant criminal prosecutions. Usually offered every year.
Eugene Sheppard and David Sherman
HUM/UWS 3a Drawing upon Literature
Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows. Studio fee: $75 per semester. Formerly offered as FA/RECS 118b.
An interdisciplinary team-taught course bringing together the practice of studio art and the study of literature. Students use Russian fiction and poetry (and some critical theory) as source material for the creation of visual images: drawings in various media, watercolors, prints, and photographs. The nature of narrative, as it crosses disciplines, will be a focus of our curriculum. We will read works of fiction by such writers as Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Babel and Nabokov to consider the role of artists as major literary characters, and how works of art function as iconography. Usually offered every year.
Susan Lichtman and Robin Feuer Miller