WBIS & Writing Intensive Courses
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Students seeking a degree from UW Oshkosh must complete 6 credits of composition with an average grade of C or better. For most students, this will include WBIS (taken in the first year of studies) and Advanced Composition (taken in the third or fourth year). In order to maintain the continuity of writing instruction in our program, students' second year experience in general education literature courses will also be writing-intensive.

Transfer students should contact the admissions office with questions about course placement.

WBIS
WRITING BASED INQUIRY SEMINAR

WRITING INTENSIVE 200 LEVEL LITERATURE COURSES

ADVANCED COMPOSITION

Link to WBIS website
 

Beginning in the Fall of 2001, every UW Oshkosh student is required to complete a Writing-Based Inquiry Seminar (WBIS) as part of the general education requirements. Each WBIS will be centered on a theme chosen by the instructor, and these themes may vary across different sections of the same course. Themes are announced prior to registration, so that students may register for a course that closely fits their interests. These seminars will be writing-intensive and will be designed to help students develop their analytical writing abilities. The seminars will also utilize student-centered, interactive teaching strategies.

Students in each WBIS section, regardless of theme, will compose a minimum of 5000 words per semester (approximately 20 typed, double-spaced pages).

Link to Writing Intensive Literature website
 

Students in each section of 200 level literature, regardless of course title, will compose a minimum of 4000 words per semester in a variety of formal and informal assignments; at least half of this word requirement (2000 words) will receive feedback from the instructor.

Link to Advanced Composition website
 

Advanced Composition will help students become effective, persuasive, and ethical writers. Not only will they study the forms of discourse that are used by writers to describe knowledge and theories in various disciplines (including expressive, informational, scientific, literary, and persuasive forms of written prose), they will be aware of the consequences of using those forms for an audience (the ethics of discourse). Process and revision are essential components of every section; students will incorporate feedback from their instructors and peers in order to produce final papers from earlier drafts. Essays should achieve a level of sophistication, creativity, and audience awareness well beyond that of first-year writers enrolled in WBIS.