Special Topics

Having successfully completed their composition courses in community college, transfer students possess the writing skills necessary to academic success. Still, research shows that many transfer students arrive at the university lacking familiarity with the conventions of research and writing in their chosen major.

This course is designed to help transfer students succeed in discipline-specific research and writing tasks at UC Berkeley. To achieve this goal, “Writing in the University” is broken into three parts, each with specific learning objectives. In part one, students read and discuss scholarship in writing studies and rhetoric to develop a framework for understanding conventions of writing. In part two, students identify exemplary writing and writers in their discipline, and research what it means to write successfully in their major. In part three, students analyze the generic conventions for writing in their discipline to produce an essay that identifies challenges and opportunities specific to their major and to their experience as transfer students.