A foundation of reading and writing will help you be successful. The Department of Student Transitions offers a literacy course, paired with a first-year seminar course, that will help you build the reading and writing skills you need to be successful in college. This course, Foundations of College Literacy (UNIV 0370) is designed to help you with the following skills:
- Active, critical, and deep college-level reading skills that allow you to tackle any type of reading assignment in a first-year seminar course.
- College-level writing skills that allow you to answer any type of writing prompt or occasion in a first-year seminar course.
What is Foundations of College Literacy?
More specifically, Foundations of College Literacy is not only designed to prepare you for your first-year seminar course, but also to practice and enhance the reading and writing skills necessary to succeed in all of your college coursework. The ability to read and absorb written information, and then to use this information to write clearly and critically, are necessary college skills and life skills can only be acquired with practice. This course will help you explore and enjoy this process and become a better reader and writer by learning more about it. Also, this course will treat reading and writing as complementary disciplines, exposing you to the techniques involved in understanding college-level texts and utilizing these acquired comprehension techniques to improve your own writing. The course is not counted toward a degree requirement. For more information, Click on sample syllabus.
Currently, we pair the following first-year seminar courses with UNIV 0370: Foundations of College Literacy
| FYS Course Number | FYS Course Name | FYS Course Syllabus | Literacy Syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL 1373 | The Art of Being Human | ENGL 1373 | UNIV 0370 |
| HIST 1375 | Eating History | HIST 1375 | UNIV 0370 |
| PHIL 1373 | Here Be Monsters! | PHIL 1373 | UNIV 0370 |
| PHIL 1373 | Thinking Through the Graphic Novel | PHIL 1373 |
Who takes Foundations of College Literacy?
Students whose Reading ACT (or equivalent) score fall below a 22 or whose English ACT (or equivalent) score fall below an 18 are required to take a Foundations of College Literacy course. However, anyone who wants to improve their reading and writing skills and practice those skills in a credit-bearing first-year seminar course are encouraged to enroll. Please note, though, that the course does not count toward a degree requirement.
What do students say about Foundations of College Literacy?
“This course and [the professor] both helped me be more successful as a first time college student.”
“This class helps fill in the gaps of things you […] learned in high school about writing. This class will help you learn how [to] make yourself a better writer…”