Writing 340 is a 3-credit advanced writing course for students who feel most comfortable conducting academic writing in a language other than English. Students are encouraged to take this course prior to or after an Upper-Level Writing Requirement course to fully develop their professional and academic writing skills through an extended period of time. It is a particularly useful course for transfer students who just arrived at the university from another institution and need preparation for advanced writing. This course develops upper-level multilingual students’ ability to communicate complex and discipline-specific materials clearly and effectively to an academic and professional audience.
The components of this course, which include regular class discussions, workshops, reading assignments, forum posts, annotated bibliography, conference proposals and research papers, are designed to help students develop written fluency and improve their command over the rhetorical and linguistic conventions of English that are common to a variety of academic disciplines. To address students’ needs to work on topics in their discipline, this course includes workshop sessions where students gather in small interest groups where they analyze research articles in their own disciplines. This course also stresses the increased significance of revision to become effective academic and professional writers.
While this course focuses primarily on the continued development of academic reading and writing skills, it also recognizes the need for effective oral communication and public speaking skills in students’ academic and professional success. Ways to engage with the audience, the craft of making successful presentations and the etiquette of interacting with peers and professors are also discussed in workshops.
This small-sized class also has a strong emphasis on meeting students’ individual needs. Students receive individual attention in this course, and they also participate in a supportive class community.