About the Writing Center - About Writing Emphasis Courses

About Writing Emphasis Courses
Writing Emphasis courses here at West Chester University utilize formal and informal writing assignments in order to provide discipline-specific writing instruction to the student. There are a wide variety of writing emphasis courses available to students, and students at West Chester University must meet the university’s General Education requirements by taking a certain number of writing emphasis courses. The policy is as follows:

NOTE: WRT 120 and WRT 200+ do not count as writing emphasis courses. Writing emphasis courses may simultaneously fulfill another degree requirement. Writing emphasis courses may not be transferred to West Chester University.

Why do students need to take Writing Emphasis courses?
There is a very close connection between writing and thinking. The two are so close that sometimes what might be thought of as a writing mode is actually a way of thinking! This being the case, it has been found that students who write as part of a course learn more effectively than if they were simply passively taking in lectures. Writing allows the students to become originators, synthesizers, and producers of thought. Writing also promotes better memory by helping students to reinforce the concepts they are learning.

How to find Writing Emphasis courses
There are two main ways to find a writing emphasis course. The first is by looking in the course catalog for the upcoming semester and locating a class with a ‘W’ next to the course title. The ‘W’ is a symbol designating that course as a Writing Emphasis course. The second way is by accessing the online course schedule, which can also be located through My West Chester, and choosing "Writing Emphasis" in the Department menu. When you click "submit" it will generate a listing of all the Writing Emphasis courses offered in the upcoming semester.