General Education Writing

Written, Oral, and Multimodal Communication

Students matriculating prior to Fall 2023 are enrolled in SAGES - the Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship

Students matriculating in Fall 2023 and later will be enrolled in a new set of Unified General Education Requirements (UGER). The new Written, Oral, and Multimodal Communication (WOMC) requirement (part of the UGER) are described below. 

WOMC Requirement for Students

Students must pass the following sequence of courses:

  • An Academic Inquiry Seminar (3 credit-hours) during their first year of enrollment;
  • Two Communication-Intensive Courses (at least 3 credit-hours each);
  • A Disciplinary Communication Course (3 credit-hours); and
  • A Capstone Project Course (at least 3 credit-hours).

All courses offered to satisfy the WOMC requirement are designed to provide opportunities to develop their reading, writing, and communication skills in the context of course topics and disciplinary approaches that align with students' majors and post-graduation goals. The WOMC communication sequence works toward a set of programmatic student learning outcomes. As they progress through their WOMC courses, students reflect on their development as writers and upload documents to their Experience Portfolio.

 
UGER Writing & Communication Sequence At-a-Glance
Course Writing/Communication Goals & Expectations
Academic Inquiry Seminar (3 cr) Introduction to academic inquiry; focus on developing effective writing processes & entering academic conversations; majority of instruction addresses writing & communication.
Communication Intensive
(2 @ 3cr)
Writing & communication activities are used to explore course topics; focus on refining writing processes & composing research-based arguments; consistent writing/communication instruction.
Disciplinary Communication
(3 cr)
Introduction to disciplinary forms of communication; focus on discipline-specific skills/genres & entering disciplinary conversations; intentional writing/ communication instruction.
Capstone Experience
(3 cr)
Independent research, scholarship, and/or creative activity; focus on project-specific skills/genres & communicating knowledge to the public; individualized writing/communication instruction.
Experience Portfolio Collection of artifacts that demonstrate development of writing/communication proficiency; includes materials from each writing/communication course in the sequence.

 

For Students Who Matriculated before Fall 2023

The Office of Undergraduate Studies has provided the guidance about how you may use courses designed & approved for the UGER to fulfill your current SAGES, physical education, and school-specific general education requirements.

In particular, UGER Communication-Intensive courses "map" onto SAGES University Seminars based on the department offering the UGER CI course. Undergraduate Studies has provided a list of this mapping, for your reference.

For Faculty

For faculty developing writing/communication courses for the new UGER, please visit our UGER Resources for Faculty page.