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First-Year Writing Seminar

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Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier should refer to the First-Year Seminar page and the Writing Proficiency page. The information below pertains to students who start at Northwestern after Spring 2023.

Weinberg students begin fulfilling their Written and Oral Expression requirements in the winter or spring of their first year with a First-Year Writing Seminar. First-Year Writing Seminars are topically-driven classes taught by faculty members in every Weinberg department. They pay special attention to the process of writing and revision and invite students to expand their definitions of writing and to reflect on the complex role that writing plays in forming knowledge and identities.

First-Year Writing Seminars may not be counted toward Weinberg College’s foundational discipline requirement areas, and most departments and programs exclude them from counting toward major and minor requirements.

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

One of the four Weinberg College learning goals is Express. The first-year writing seminars focus on the fundamentals of effective, college-level written communication. Students learn how to use the four interlocking elements of written expression:

  • Pose the question. Writing often takes as its starting point a puzzle, contradiction, or problem. What will be explained, described, or explored?
  • Find the evidence. Rarely do facts speak for themselves. What do we know and how do we know it?
  • Make the argument. Writing can defend a position and build a case in any number of ways. What is the clearest and most convincing interpretation of the evidence?
  • Develop the voice. An author's style makes a piece of writing suitable to a particular purpose. What is the most effective way to articulate the argument to a particular audience?

Students learn to understand and apply these elements through their own writing and that of other authors. As they do so, they engage in activities and practices designed to introduce concepts foundational to writing in college and beyond:

  • Writing is a social and rhetorical activity.
  • Reflection and revision are central to improvement.
  • Writing must be learned and is not perfectible.
  • Failure can be an important and effective part of the process.

Fulfilling the First-year writing Seminar Requirement

  • Students should take the First-Year Writing Seminar in either winter or spring quarter of their first year. If a First-Year Writing Seminar is not completed with a grade of at least D by the end of spring quarter of the first year, the student plan to take English 105-0 or 205-0 as soon as possible as a substitute.
  • Students who interschool transfer into Weinberg effective during their first year should plan to take a First-Year Writing Seminar in winter or spring quarter of their first year. Students who interschool transfer into Weinberg after the first year should plan to take English 105-0 or 205-0 as soon as possible as a substitute. The one exception to this: students who completed both ENGLISH 106-1 and 106-2 (half-credit courses for Engineering students) are considered to have completed the First-Year Writing Seminar
  • The First-Year Writing Seminar will be waived for students who transfer to Northwestern from another college or university.

Tools for Planning First-Year Courses