Writing in courses across the curriculum can help students:

• develop critical thinking skills
• decrease writing anxiety
• view writing as an important life and learning skill
• improve retention and understanding of course material
• connect with course material
• become familiar with writing conventions of particular career fields

Writing Intensive Courses (WIC) at Ferris are non-freshman-level courses that include a substantial amount of writing. These courses partially satisfy the communication competence general education requirement.

General criteria for WIC courses:

• students write the equivalent of four 3-5 page papers
• students receive instruction in the role of writing in professional/academic settings, strategies for determining document style, effective writing techniques for different audiences, and organizing papers for various purposes.
• students may write in a variety of forms, including correspondence, memoranda, proposals, reports, logs, descriptions, observations, creative writing, journals, and many other forms of course-related assignments.

Support for WIC courses includes:

• The FSU Writing Center  provides assistance for students writing in any course; the Writing Center Web site includes information for faculty on writing, as well as online handbooks and other reference materials.
• Current WIC courses and members of the Writing Intensive Course committee.
• WIC liaisons from the Languages and Literature department.  Each content area has a designated liaison to provide information about writing and writing in content courses.

Reasons to Write in a Content Class	Designing Effective Writing Assignments	Sample Assignments
FSU Writing-Intensive-Course Requirements	Managing and Evaluating Student Writing	Online Writing-Across-the Curriculum information

Faculty interested in having a current course designated as WIC, developing a new WIC course, or integrating writing into any course, please contact a member of the WIC committee, or the Languages and Literature department.

website updated 2/03