This FIQWS course are broken up into two equal parts: a topic seminar and a writing seminar. These two FIQWS seminars are closely linked. There will be significant interaction, both in class and online, between seminar instructors and students. You will receive individual grades for each section of the course, and they are worth three credits each (for a total of six credits.)
A description of the topic seminar will be included in a separate syllabus distributed by your topic section instructor.
The writing seminar will introduce and hone skills that increase and ease the production of strong analytic writing. Structured classroom practices will work toward building a writing community that fosters the development of unique voices built around a set of shared values about writing and the work that writers do. Participation as a member of the writing community requires that your writing be public within the classroom. The purpose of sharing writing is to get a sense that academic writing is more than a matter of private student/instructor communication. Writing that has a real sense of audience, tends to have a real purpose, which in turn is the foundation for all effective writing.
The purpose of the writing seminar is to help invent, identify and/or develop a writing process that will sustain your work both in academic, professional, and personal settings. As such, the focus of every class period will be writing. There will be extensive in-class writing periods supplemented by assessment and peer review. The writing you produce will be the main texts for the class to use for review.