1 Courses in the Writing Program
The Writing Program at UTSA teaches the Communication component of UTSA’s core curriculum. The UTSA General Education (Core) Curriculum provides learning inside and outside of the classroom that builds upon students’ previous experience. This program is designed to help students of all backgrounds develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be responsible community members who are successful in their educations, lives, and careers. Students will have the opportunity to develop marketable and transferable skills through the General Education Curriculum learning objectives. These components include: Oral, written, and visual communication; Ethical judgment; Teamwork; Critical and analytical skills; and Personal and social responsibility. The General Education Curriculum helps develop broad skills that can be applied to any specific major or program and allows students to see connections between various disciplines, develop respect for other cultures and points of view, and value other fields of study.
Through Freshman Composition I and II, students will be prepared for multiple skills needed in college and beyond: writing, researching, presenting, working in teams, and thinking like a college student.
WRC 1013: Freshman Composition
Freshman Composition I, an informative writing course, focuses on developing and expressing ideas clearly and effectively. Students learn to communicate with professional and academic audiences through written, oral, and visual methods by means of individual and team projects. Students review principles of the writing process, including planning, organization, development, revision, and editing. They are also introduced to rhetorical techniques and quantitative literacy. Students critically read and analyze primary and secondary texts to use in developing writing skills through practice with summary and paraphrase, analysis, and synthesis of multiple sources. The course offers students opportunities to reflect on their work, engage in library research, and practice ethical decision-making through responsible selection, use, and documentation of sources. This course, or an equivalent, is required to fulfill the Core Curriculum requirement in Communication. Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.
Required Texts:
Frasier, Christina, Darren Meritz, and Melissa Elston. From College to Career: A Handbook for Student Writers. UTSA Pressbooks, 2022. https://utsa.pressbooks.pub/fromcollegetocareer/
The Writing Program. The Writing Program Student Handbook 2024-2025. UTSA Pressbooks, 2024. https://utsa.pressbooks.pub/twphandbook
WRC 1023: Freshman Composition II
Prerequisite: WRC 1013. Building on the skills introduced in Freshman Composition I, Freshman Composition II focuses on persuasive communication and critical thinking. The course provides intensive writing practice in developing argumentative claims, addressing logical fallacies, and understanding bias and assumptions to help students write clear and effective arguments. Students will further develop the ability to communicate with professional and academic audiences through written, oral, and visual methods by means of individual and team projects. Freshman Composition II continues to develop quantitative literacy skills and to promote ethical decision-making through responsible methods of data analysis and research. The course develops students’ critical thinking skills through the analysis and evaluation of primary and secondary sources in order to create source-based arguments. The course also encourages students to think critically through self-reflection. Students may enroll in a discipline-specific section of the course, such as business, communication (documentaries or internet arguments), environmental issues, quantitative literacy, science/pseudoscience, or social sciences. This course, or an equivalent, is required to fulfill the Core Curriculum requirement in Communication. Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.
Required Texts:
Frasier, Christina, Darren Meritz, and Melissa Elston. From College to Career: A Handbook for Student Writers. UTSA Pressbooks, 2022. https://utsa.pressbooks.pub/fromcollegetocareer/
The Writing Program. The Writing Program Student Handbook 2024-2025. UTSA Pressbooks, 2024. https://utsa.pressbooks.pub/twphandbook
