UW20 is a one-semester intensive writing course designed to help freshmen learn to write sophisticated academic papers.

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The joint purposes for this course are to strengthen every GW student’s ability to write clearly and effectively at the university and in other arenas, and to emphasize the importance of strong writing for success in all academic, public, and professional enterprises that require critical thought and communication. This course will be required of all freshmen entering the university.

Course Description: Practice in the processes and techniques of academic writing, drawing upon stimulating topics of current intellectual interest that will invigorate students’ writing. The course focuses on framing important questions, constructing an argument through identifying and discussing both supportive and contradictory evidence, accommodating a variety of purposes and audiences, and using the ideas of other writers appropriately. The value of revision for clear expression is a constant emphasis; review of conventions for syntax, grammar, and punctuation is incorporated as necessary.

Objectives: In order to prepare students for rigorous academic writing projects across the range of disciplines offered at GW, the course strives to develop or extend the following skills:

• Capacity for critical reading and for analytic thinking that examines assumptions and evidence, in both scholarly texts and informed public commentary.
  
• Ability to explore information resources – through both the traditional library and emerging technological sources – to use them effectively, and to acknowledge them correctly.
  
• A functional grasp of rhetorical principles: the purpose or genre of each piece of writing, the expectations of various audiences, and the use of formats, evidence, tones, lengths, and levels of formality appropriate to a range of contexts.
  
• Practice in the writing tasks of framing sound questions or hypotheses, analyzing and synthesizing information that can be brought to bear on the chosen question, preparing and repeatedly revising drafts to achieve clarity and coherence of argument, and citing others’ work with integrity.
  
• The habit and discipline of careful editing and proofreading to ensure that final drafts are essentially free of errors in grammar, syntax, usage, paragraphing, punctuation, and spelling.

Requirements: 25-30 pages of finished writing, developed through pre-draft preparation, drafts, and revisions based on instructor’s advice and classmates’ comments. Each student will complete at least three writing assignments of increasing complexity. Papers will be based on assigned texts and often on additional reading; although instructors will develop assignments that reflect a variety of academic writing projects, one paper will require significant research. Class attendance is required, with limited excused absences; class participation is essential to performance and affects the final grade.

Primary readings are chosen from authentic, effective prose that addresses the course topic and invites students’ responses. A rhetoric handbook, chosen from a small group approved by the Writing Program Committee, will also be employed.

Research component:   Each section of UW20 is assigned a librarian from the Gelman Library System and assessments have shown that students profit from his or involvement by gaining the skills and confidence as researchers that will serve them well throughout their college career.  As they participate in class sessions throughout the semester, librarians help students develop core information literacy skills, improving their ability to locate, evaluate, and use information as independent, life-long learners.  Collaborating with the course instructor, the librarian conducts in-class sessions on various aspects of research, such as topic formulation, search strategy, and the evaluation of sources.  In addition, the librarian may meet regularly with students in one-on-one and small group settings, to provide guidance as students work through their research projects.

Credit Hours: 4 credits.

Course Sections and Enrollment Cap: All sections of UW 20 will have a maximum enrollment of 15 and will meet for 200 minutes per week.

Grading: A-F.

Guidelines for approximate weighting of products and performance:

• at least 70% of the final course grade based upon written work, including a developed capacity for successful revision;
  
• no more than 10% of the course grade based on quizzes and/or skills tests;
  
• up to 20% of the course grade based on participation in class activities such as discussion, workshops, small group work, and listserve postings.

Grading Scale: A grade of C- or above in UW20 indicates that the student is prepared to write solid academic essays in later upper-division, writing-intensive courses. Students must pass UW20 with a grade of C- or above in order to receive credit for the course. If a UW20 student is not prepared for the next level of university writing, the instructor will award the student a grade of R (for Repeat.)  The R grade is reserved for students who work hard in the course, complete the main course assignments, but will still benefit from additional UW20 writing instruction. The student will not receive credit for the course; however, the R will not factor into the student's GPA.  Students who do not complete the course materials, who are consistently absent from class, or who violate other expectations of academic behavior, will be awarded an F.

Plagiarism Policy: UW20 is designed to teach you to write and research responsibly and ethically. To learn strategies for researching, compiling, and presenting your arguments, you must complete all stages of the work yourself: taking the words of others, or presenting the ideas of others as your own not only prohibits you from learning the skills of academic research, it also is a violation of the University's Code of Academic Integrity. The University defines academic dishonesty as "cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one's own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information." You can find more information about the Code of Academic Integrity at http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity . The minimum penalty for such offenses, whether on rough or final drafts, is to fail the assignment; the more common penalty is to fail the course.

UW20 and the University Literacy Requirement: Students will satisfy their literacy requirement by taking University Writing 20 (a four-credit, four-hour course) in their first year; AND two "Writing in the Disciplines" (WID) courses.  These are regular, content-area courses that include a writing component and will be offered by a variety of departments and programs throughout the university.  Ideally, students will complete WID courses during their sophomore and junior years.