UGA’s First-Year Writing Program (FYW) introduces around 4,000 students a year to college-level academic writing. 

FYW courses engage students in writing, reading, and making sense of the world. Our program challenges students to approach multidisciplinary writing using principles of rhetoric, research, and collaboration. By practicing persuasive and informative writing in different genres and for different audiences, students will gain rhetorical skills for academic, professional, and civic life.

English 1101, the first course in our two-course sequence, teaches informational, analytical, and argumentative writing. English 1102 shifts focus to genre analysis, critical reading, and research.

Both courses in the sequence focus on developing effective writing processes informed by holistic revision, peer collaboration, and multimodal awareness. Our electronic writing environment, eLearning for Writers (eLW), was designed by our own writing instructors to foster engagement with the whole range of the writing process. 

Our assessment model, the flexible block rubric, adapts to the different kinds of writing and rhetorical situations that students encounter. Instructors select a set of program-derived blocks (such as argument, evidence, research, multimodality, etc.) that will guide students’ attention and class instruction over the course of their projects. Through rubric scores and formative and summative assessments, instructors communicate revision priorities and progress to students. 

You can read more about our classes, technologies, assessment practices, and other policies in the First-Year Writing Guide.     

If you have questions about First-Year Writing, check out our FAQ.  You can also reach us at 706-542-2128 or by emailing fywsupport@uga.edu.