Writing Intensive Courses

• Writing Intensive Course Graduation Requirement
• WI Syllabus Checklist for Faculty PDF

The Writing Intensive (WI) sections of courses infuse more writing as well as different types of writing activities into subjects across the curriculum. This effort integrates critical thinking and writing processes into classroom activities, the underlying assumption being that writing is closely linked with critical thinking and that in presenting students with significant writing assignments and in creating an environment where students often write and revise their writing, we can promote students’ general cognitive and intellectual growth. Writing assignments serve not only to enhance students’ writing proficiency, but also to help students master the content and process goals of a course. WI courses aim to accomplish the following:

• To transform students from passive learners to active learners;
  
  
• To facilitate learners’ engagement with disciplinary subject matter;
  
  
• To create a classroom context that encourages inquiry and exploration;
  
  
• To assign writing as a means of helping students achieve the instructor’s content and process goals for the course, i.e., employing a writing-to-learn strategy;
  
  
• To improve students’ writing through constant practice.

Each student is required to pass two WI sections in order to graduate from BCC. WI courses are also recommended to prepare students to pass the CUNY Proficiency Exam (CPE), which is a requirement for graduation and/or transferring to a CUNY four year college's upper division course for all students entering Fall 1999 and after.

The WI courses offered for the current semester are listed in the Registration Guide and Schedule of Classes.