Western’s First-Year-Writing (FYW) program offers around 80 courses every year, including English 100 (Introduction to College Writing) and English 101 (Writing Your Way Through WWU). These courses are constantly evolving, with new topics and fresh kinds of writing assignments added every year. In them, you’ll learn to create complex, inventive texts in response to the things you discover through your own original research and critical reading skills. They are capped at only 15 students for English 100 and 24 students for English 101, which allows us to give the level of personal attention you need in order to develop as a writer, which is never a cookie-cutter process. You’ll learn to create complex, inventive texts in response to the things you discover through your own original research. We hope you will feel, as we do, that FYW is an essential part of the Western experience.

Check out this video about what to expect from your FYW experience. It speaks specifically about the English 101 class, but it should give you a sense of what your first year will be like regardless of where you start your journey.

Visit the About page to learn more about Western’s FYW program, including our mission, values, and assessment standards.

Hover over the Courses tab to visit the pages for each FYW course, English 100 and English 101.

Visit the Exemption page to learn about how to satisfy the English 101 course requirement if you have already taken a similar class at a previous college or university.