Your development as a college writer begins in the first-year.
GSU’s First-year Writing Program offers three courses to help set a foundation of success during your first year.
ENGL 1000: Writing Studies 1
Writing Studies 1 serves as students’ introduction to the discipline of writing studies and the practice of writing for college. It aims to provide students with a foundational understanding of writing process and basic rhetorical principles, while making use of primary and popular source research.
Typical assignments include projects like a literacy narrative, a rhetorical analysis, and a multimodal project focused on the cohort theme of civic engagement, global citizenship, or sustainability.
ENGL 1010: Writing Studies 2
Writing Studies 2 builds on the knowledge and habits taught in Writing Studies 1 by adding complexity of understanding and by focusing the work on a more intensive understanding of disciplinary inquiry. This course serves as an entry into academic inquiry, where students learn conventions for primary and secondary research, focusing particularly on questions and concepts connected to Writing about Writing.
Typical assignments include projects like an investigation of discourse communities, a case study, and a theme-based advocacy project focused on the cohort themes.
ESEN 0999: Smart Start English
The First-year Writing Program also offers a course as part of GSU’s bridge program, Smart Start for incoming freshman called Smart Start English. As part of this two-week experience, students are introduced to writing habits that will aid students’ likelihood of success. The program also works to help students develop a growth mindset and engage in deliberate practice for writing. These ways of understanding and engaging with writing in college are designed to carry over into the first-year writing courses mentioned above.