Thank you for taking the First Year Writing Decision Tool!
The student profiles included in your copy of the decision tool were individually selected for you based on your responses. However, we know that some students benefit from reading the profiles of students who might be in slightly different situations to them. To that end, we’ve included all of our student profiles below to help aid you in your decision of which first-year writing course to take.
The following profiles will not match your experience perfectly. Instead, they are meant as examples of how students who may share some experience(s) analogous to your own, and some experiences different from your own, decided what first-year writing class to take. As you read them, you might consider which of the experiences you share with the students in the profiles should weigh most heavily.
Becca went to a U.S. high school where the primary instruction was in English. She did a good amount of writing in her junior and senior year: she wrote some analytical papers in her English classes, a longer research paper her senior year, and wrote regular short, in-class essays in history. She had regular textbook reading, but also read novels, plays, and poems in her English class, and read primary sources in history class, like excerpts from John Locke and W.E.B. Dubois. At home, she read for pleasure, including romance novels and memoirs, several subscription culture and comedy blogs, and read the news online several times a week. She doesn’t quite know how hard “college-level writing” will be. her high school teachers made a big deal about how different college writing would be, but she has usually gotten good grades on writing assignments in the past. She thinks WRI 109 or WRI 111 would be good choices for her, but ultimately decides, based on her writing and reading experience in high school, that she is ready for the pace of WRI 111 and that it would progress her more quickly to her other academic goals. Becca registers for WRI 111.
Andréia thinks of herself as a writer. She keeps a journal, and likes to write stories and poems on her own. She went to a high school where the primary language of instruction was English, but speaks English and Portuguese at home. Her high school had a strong writing focus–all of her social science and English classes gave explicit instruction in writing and she wrote often. She took challenging humanities and social science classes (English, history, social studies) and read lots of different kinds of texts–popular essays, novels, plays, speeches and other primary sources in history, etc. Her senior year, she designed her own extended research project for which she read several peer-reviewed scholarly articles. Her teachers required her to write multiple drafts of papers, and they talked a lot about research practices, what makes a source “trustworthy,” citation,quotation, and paraphrase. She also took a creative writing elective her senior year that she really enjoyed. She’s not sure what writing in college will be like, but she isn’t overly nervous about it. Actually, she’s even a little excited to hear new perspectives on writing and to write in news ways. She decides to register for WRI 111 and is interested in taking WRI 210 and 212 as electives in the future.
Corrine was born in London; her Mom travels internationally for work and is based in Beijing. Her family lives outside of Beijing in a community with lots of expats from Europe and the Americas. She speaks English at home, but is friends with people in her neighborhood and at school who speak lots of different languages. She just graduated from a language-immersion high school modeled on the U.K. system, where half of her instruction was in English and half in Mandarin. When she is in the city center, she tries to speak Mandarin as much as possible to practice. Her high school was very challenging and she wrote often. She wrote in English or Mandarin depending on the assignment. She doesn’t feel very familiar with American academic writing, but also thinks of herself as “a strong writer.” She thinks 109 or 111 would be equally good fits for her and will make her registration decision based on what times work best for her schedule and what course descriptions look most interesting to her.
Yi went to high school in Guangzhou and speaks Cantonese at home, but the primary language of instruction at her high school was Mandarin. She has learned English in school since she was little. She did well on the TOEFL and has written some short papers in English in her high school English classes. She usually got good grades on her papers in Mandarin, but feels unsure about how the American style of academic writing will be different. She has heard from some friends that have gone to American colleges that it took them longer to do the reading and writing assignments in their first year because they were still getting used to learning entirely in English. Yi thinks she would benefit from having more time to complete reading and writing assignments and registers for WRI 109.
Annika is from The Netherlands and speaks Dutch at home, but moved outside of Paris to work with a tennis trainer in high school. The first two years of high school, the primary language of her instruction was French, but she took English classes. She traveled to tournaments the last two years of high school, and did her coursework online–her father administered her coursework. She did do some writing some writing in her online classes the last two years of high school, but it was mostly in Dutch. She kept taking English classes, and did well on the TOEFL, but has written very little in English , and never more than a few pages at a time. Annika is unsure which course to register for and decides to reach out to the Writing Program to talk more about what course is best for her.
Caroline wrote a lot the last two years of high school. She generally felt confident turning in in her writing across different classes. The feedback she got from her instructors made sense to her and was more-or-less in line with her own sense of her work. She read diverse texts in high school, read frequently, and did well understanding the reading assignments. Caroline doesn’t like to feel rushed; she likes to take her time with assignments in order to do her best work. She would often start her writing assignments before her friends to be sure to give herself enough time. She also thinks she will be getting used to a lot of new things her first year in college academically and otherwise. While she thinks she could do okay in WRI 111, she thinks the WRI 109/110 sequence fits her learning style better and decides to register for WRI 109.
Shaan went to high school in the town of Concord outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. he did really well in school and was at the top of his class. Most of his reading was out of textbooks, and sometimes short handouts, but he did read some poems and short stories in English class. He wrote fairly frequently in the last two years of high school, but mostly in-class writing and short papers. While he tended to do well on essay tests, when the assignment was to write an analytical or research paper, he wouldn’t do as well as he would on other kinds of assignments. Shaan doesn’t typically like to read for fun, but will read a book on his own every now and then if someone recommends something that sounds interesting to him. He does attend a bible study most weeks where he practices deep reading with others. He thinks of himself as a good student, but thinks he might like more time to practice his writing skills as he makes the transition to college-level writing. He isn’t sure whether WRI 109 or WRI 111 would be best for him, so he looks at his other answers to the questionnaire as well as the available course descriptions to help him make his decision.
Charles did okay in school, but he and most of his friends didn’t really spend a lot of time on their schoolwork. He has lots of interests, and works hard at the things he loves. He likes to draw, read comics, and watch anime. He helps at his brother’s barber shop on weekends cleaning and running the register, and he plays varsity soccer. He didn’t do a lot of reading or writing junior and senior year. Even though schoolwork (and writing especially) feels like a burden, he always does what he needs to–he gets his assignments in on time and complete–but his grades on writing assignments tended to be mixed. A lot of times, he felt like he misunderstood or missed something important in a reading assignment. Charles decides he wants more time to work on assignments as he makes the transition to college writing and registers for WRI 109.
Laurent speaks Haitian creole and standard English at home. He loves to read, and reads novels on his own in English all the time. He writes in his journal almost every day. He didn’t have to write a lot for school, but when he did write, he did well on the assignments. He didn’t have to read pee-reviewed academic articles in school, but he did read a wide variety of texts in and out of school. Everyone in his family are big readers. He doesn’t necessarily feel confident about the transition to college writing and reading, but does like to write and read, and is curious about what college writing will be like. He thinks some of the writing and reading he might do in college could be fun or interesting. He isn’t sure what course would be best for him, so he reaches out to the Writing Program to talk about what course to take.
Yuri wants to take a lighter course load his first semester, and also doesn’t want to take a writing course and his FYS in the same semester. He thinks he might want to join a club, and have time to socialize and take some down time while he adjusts to college life. He decides to register for WRI 111.
Mark thinks he might like to rush second semester and also is on the debate team, so he will be traveling and preparing for debate events often. He wants to take the average load of around 15 credit hours because he thinks he might like to double-major, but also knows a lot of time will be taken up by debate and Greek life. He isn’t sure whether WRI 109 or WRI 111 would be best, so he uses his other responses to the questionnaire to make his decision.
Frederick, Katie, Julia, Charmaine, Kristen, and Mark all met on move-in day and decide to order some take-out and compare notes on registration in their dorm’s lounge.
Frederick explains that he is red-shirted on the soccer team, and while he has regular practices, tutoring, and training, he won’t be traveling much with the team, so he has decided to register for WRI 111 in the off season. Katie, on the other hand, shares that she is on the basketball team, has similar commitments as Frederick, but will be traveling with the team, so she decided to take WRI 109.
Julia tells the group that she is on the golf team and plays all year in locations in and out of state, so she decided to take WRI 109. Charmaine chimes in that she will also be traveling some with the marching band and will play at events both semesters, so she decided to take WRI 109, too.
Kristen shares that she has a part-time job off campus and works more than ten hours per week. Mark says that he can sympathize with the time commitments Kristen has in addition to her school work as his family lives close to campus and he will have babysit his brothers and sisters most weekday afternoons before his parents get home from work. Both Kristen and Mark decided to enroll in WRI 109.
Noelle, Samantha, Arthie, and Hafsah met during pre-orientation and started talking about what classes they registered for in the fall.
Noelle is pre-med and is taking two science classes with labs her first semester. Samantha is an engineering student who will have a heavy course load to progress in her engineering courses and also make good progress on her divisional requirements. They both decided to register for WRI 109.
Like Samantha, Arthie is an engineering student, but wants to complete the College Writing Requirement as soon as possible, so they decided to register for WRI 111 in the fall. Hafsah, who is pre-med, also decided to take WRI 111, but explained that given the other college requirements she wanted to take in the fall, including FYS 100, she plans to register for WRI 111 in the spring, instead.
All four students agreed that either pathway seems like a great way to fulfill the College Writing Requirement and promised to check in with one another about how their respective writing seminars go.