"If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them." - George Orwell
The Department of English's First-Year Writing Program (FYWP) aims to help students find their voices in the academic community. This means addressing and thinking about a variety of different academic audiences and the expectations of those audiences, including writing conventions, mechanics, and the proper use and integration of outside sources.
It's our hope that this focus will extend to your eventual employment in a professional community, with its own audiences and expectations that must be met.
Find and Develop Your Voice
FYWP also helps students find and develop their voices as members of the civic community. You come to UNO with particular academic and vocational goals in mind. However, you will leave UNO with more than a degree in English, business, or biology. You will enter a job, with all the responsibilities that workplace entails, and you will also enter a world full of conversations about various problems and possible solutions.
As you can see, you're entering a classroom experience that's not just about learning writing "skills." In this course, you will encounter ideas of all kinds—ideas that matter—and you will be offered the opportunity to respond to those ideas. In a very real way, then, this class is not only about how you write. It's about who you are, what you think, and how you communicate through writing.
You're embarking on a project of discovery, finding your place among a community of writers and thinkers.