FYW Unit Guidelines

In Spring of 2023, the First Year Writing Committee decided to implement Unit Guidelines for our first year writing sequence. We would like all new FYW assignments at City Tech to be written following these guidelines. These are meant to be capacious, meaning we want faculty to have the space and freedom to teach texts and topics they find interesting. At the same time, we want First Year Writing at City Tech to be cohesive. We’d like all students to come out of the program having had a similar experience, in order that their transition to 1121 is somewhat seamless and that they are learning writing tactics that are useful to them in school, at work and in their communities. *

Please note that for every unit, we’ve provided example assignments. The model courses also provide semester-long sequences that fit within these guidelines.

1101 Unit Guidelines 

Unit One:  Personal Narrative 

Students write a narrative. In most cases, they will be reflecting on their relationship to language and/ or education.  

Key Skills and Processes: Paragraphing; active reading; annotating; proofreading; concrete, significant detail; essay structure; writing process.

Readings for faculty:

Assignment examples: Language narrative, Multimodal language narrative,  education narrative, intellectual home.

Unit Two: Research as Process of Discovery

Students research, starting with a question or a hypothesis. Students do not begin the project with a thesis, but rather come to a conclusion after doing research driven by inquiry and curiosity.  

 Note: the current mainstream model course includes a short unit on procrastination and other affective barriers to learning that teaches specific reading skills between units 1 and 2. 

Key Skills and Processes: Active reading; paraphrasing/ summary; analyzing sources; evaluating sources; integrating quotations; summary; rhetorical analysis (including speaker, genre, audience, purpose) 

Readings for faculty:

Examples: Reflective Annotated Bibliography, (more forthcoming) 

Unit Three: Genre and Audience

Students examine how choice of genre affects their message and how we choose specific genres to reach specific  audiences. 

Key Skills and Processes: Learning to identify writing conventions associated with specific genres; beginning to develop fluency with contemporary modes of composing; thesis or organizing idea. 

Readings for Faculty:

Examples: Model Course Unit 3, Re-Vision , Genre Determination Project

Note: Unit 4 in 1101 is a final portfolio, which includes revisions of all major units, and a final reflection.  

1121 Unit Guidelines:

1121 Unit One: Discourse and Community

Students examine how communication (through language and other means) changes depending what community we are in—and what community we are talking to. 

Key Skills and Processes: Thesis or organizing idea; annotation; organization; paragraphing; quotation.

Readings for Faculty:

Assignment examples: Portrait of a Word, Art and Community, Discourse Community (Speech or Letter) 

1121 Unit Two: Real-World Research

Students use their own experience as well as research to create a text* in a genre they might see in their future academic lives, their careers or their communities. They use a variety of both library and non-library research methods to create this text. (*at the professor’s discretion, the text can be multimodal)

Key Skills and Processes: Research; thesis or organizing idea; introductions and conclusions.

Readings for Faculty: 

Examples: Finding Your Beat: Writing a Feature Article, Op-Ed/ Opinion Article

1121 Unit Three: Remix, Redux, Translation 

Students revise something they have written previously in the semester to fit a new audience, and in doing so, choose a new (and multimodal) genre to fit that audience. Students examine how content, language, and sometimes even meaning change as we change modes, audiences and genres. 

Key Skills and Processes:  Identifying an appropriate genre for your audience; multimodal writing; review of thesis or organizing idea/ organization/ quotation/ introductions and conclusions– what do these ingredients look like in various genres? 

Readings for Faculty:

Examples: New Audience, New Genre, Multimodal Remix Assignment , (many more from Baruch here) 

 Note: Unit 4 in 1121 is a final portfolio, which includes revisions of all major units, and a final reflection.  

*Note that these guidelines are strongly encouraged by the First Year Writing Committee, which advises on curricular decisions for FYW. This is not a departmental policy. We do, however, believe that adherence to these guidelines will benefit our students. If you believe the units or the guidelines should be altered, please attend a meeting of the First Year Writing Committee or contact the Office of FYW to join the conversation. We’re open to changes!