Brandeis First Year Experience
Objectives
The Brandeis First Year Experience aims to introduce new students to faculty and their different disciplinary perspectives, to model civil discourse, and to encourage participation in the rich intellectual, co-curricular life of the university. The First Year Experience includes completion of the University Writing Seminar (UWS), during which students will attend a Critical Conversation.
First Year Writing
The First Year Writing Program at Brandeis University is the foundation of the University Writing Program. The University Writing Seminar introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding.
The program offers a selection of topic-driven seminars that challenge students to formulate meaningful arguments, support them with observations and evidence, and convey them clearly and persuasively. In so doing, students will engage with writing as an integral part of academic and professional life, recognizing its value and utility as well as its capacity to foster an engaged citizenry through critical thinking and discussion. By instilling and strengthening flexible writing and research skills, the program invites students to participate in the intellectual discourses of the University. Each seminar addresses the distinct discursive requirements of various disciplines, including the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Students thus learn to write effectively and confidently in any field or profession.
UWS Learning Goals
Students will be able to:
- Understand writing as a recursive process of thinking and communication.
- Articulate elements of effective writing and integrate them into their own work.
- Participate in critical conversations by responding to openings, problems or contradictions in existing scholarship.
- Assess their own and others’ writing with respect to audience and purpose.
- Generate original questions and pursue independent research.
- Identify and evaluate sources and use them responsibly.
- Develop awareness of disciplinary differences in writing and adapt their writing to different genres and contexts.
How to Fulfill the Requirement
The requirement will be satisfied by completing one University Writing Seminar (UWS) in the student's first year, during which the student attends a Critical Conversation.
Courses of Instruction
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
Students are offered a selection of topic-driven seminars that challenge them to formulate meaningful ideas, support them with evidence and analysis and convey them clearly and persuasively. Every seminar teaches transferable writing skills that students will use across the Brandeis curriculum and beyond. Students select and complete a UWS during their first year at Brandeis.
As part of the seminar, students attend one or more Critical Conversations in which faculty from different departments meet to discuss a topic chosen for that academic year. This part of the course brings first-year students into direct contact with scholarly discourse and the variety of ways in which Brandeis faculty engage with each other and the world. Students are invited to continue the conversations in follow-up, small-group discussions. Each University Writing Seminar also assigns an experiential-learning activity to expand the boundaries of the conventional classroom.