First Year Writing FAQs

All UW 1020 courses taught during the regular academic year are scheduled on the Mount Vernon campus. Find out more about what the Mount Vernon campus has to offer!

UW1020 classes are interactive, vibrant, and above all collaborative spaces where you will read together, write together, and learn to talk about complex texts and ideas. Sections are capped at 17 students to create an opportunity to develop strong relationships--sometimes deep friendships-- with one another as well as with your instructor. Each theme-specific section becomes a learning community, where all members explore practical and philosophical questions about forms of writing and research, and use writing to investigate compelling questions. Together you will encounter the astonishing variety and possibility inherent in writing and research in the twenty-first century.

When a group of people gathers regularly to exchange knowledge and consider ideas together, they form a learning community. Learning communities benefit from discussion of how participants agree with one another, how they disagree, how they approach topics from varied angles, and how they draw on their experiences and backgrounds to inform their views of the world. In UW1020, you’ll join a learning community that will strive to be inclusive, vibrant, and mutually empowering.

While UW1020 sections have different themes, they all work toward the same broader goals: identifying compelling questions within a field and creating new knowledge by working closely with your peers. Each section will examine writing genres related to that theme and will guide you in developing complex research projects. Each section will interrogate the ethical responsibilities integral to such work. Each section may take on these broader goals through different assignments and methods, since writing itself varies because of purpose and context—indeed, that is one of the central messages of the course.

Everyone writes a lot in UW1020, even your teachers! In each UW1020 section students complete multiple writing projects that incorporate multiple drafts and peer review. Each UW1020 features a significant research project. However, students in the same section may write a different amount, depending on their choices such as how many notes they take as they conduct research, how much they write for each other in peer reviews, and how many drafts they compose for each assigned reflection or project.

UW1020 does more than a traditional (3 credit) composition class: to create original research about compelling questions, you will need to read and write more. The fourth credit provides additional instruction time, and provides additional university credit for the time students put into practicing writing and research. This credit shows up on the schedule of classes as “on-line,” but this is asynchronous work.

The research, critical thinking, and rhetorical skills that you learn in UW1020 will materially contribute to your success in other GW courses.  While you may not write the same kinds of essays in those courses, you will draw on your skills of understanding audience, thinking critically about structure, and working through a successful writing process to develop those projects.

Beyond college, the ability to communicate effectively and think critically about the uses and provenance of information is fundamental to a wide variety of professional workplaces.  Awareness of the needs of your audience, the capacity to listen generously and persuade effectively are also important elements that maintain the vitality of our communities.

As you have noticed, each UW1020 is organized around a specific theme; you will join a learning community to research and write about this theme all semester. If your first choice is full, consider how other topics might connect to or expand your varied interests, and stay open to themes you may not have considered at first. Many students are pleasantly surprised by how compelling they find a theme they didn’t initially consider. Most UW1020 course themes encourage students to develop projects that they can customize according to their interests.  Most fall 1020 course themes are repeated in the spring, although this is not guaranteed.

No. All students should take UW1020 in their first year at GW; approximately half of the first year class will take UW1020 in the fall and half in the spring. There are benefits to both schedules. Taking UW1020 in the Fall puts a class on your schedule that has a small size that can make it easier to meet classmates when you are new on campus. Taking UW1020 in the Spring gives you a chance to hear from peers about what the different topics were like, and to get your bearings at GW before taking on a 4-credit course. Both choices are good.

No. The only way to add or drop a section of UW1020 is through the Banner system. UW1020 faculty are not permitted to sign RTF forms, and the registrar will not process your RTF.

The UWP does not overenroll sections and there are no wait lists for individual sections. Because all first year students take UW1020 it can be difficult to find an open seat after priority registration concludes. Your best option is to check the schedule frequently for newly opened seats; if you cannot find an open seat on Banner, you will need to wait until the following semester to complete the UW1020 requirement.

No. You are welcome to take a course that connects with your major or minor if you like, but UW1020 is also an opportunity to spread your wings and explore any ideas you find compelling.

Yes. Passing UW1020 is a prerequisite to receiving WID credit for a course. You may take a WID course before or simultaneously with UW1020 but you will not receive WID credit. Many students take more than the required six credits of WID before graduating.

Most composition classes offered by other colleges will not satisfy UW1020 because they are 3-credit classes and lack the rigorous contextualized research component of UW1020 courses. If, however, you took a writing course at another institution that you believe is comparable to UW1020, but GW Undergraduate Admissions did not transfer it in as satisfying UW 1020, you may apply for an exemption.

The R stands for “Repeat” and is assigned to any student who completes course work but does not earn a C-. The student will not receive credit for completing the UW1020 requirement and will need to take the course again; however, the R will not factor into the student's GPA. The R is distinguished from an F; an F is assigned to students who miss significant class activities and/or do not complete course work. 

Further questions can be emailed to program leadership at [email protected] or [email protected].