Letter from the Director
Dear First-Year Student, On behalf of the faculty of the English Department, I am delighted to welcome you to English 100, a key part of UW-Madison's General Education program. English 100, or Freshman Composition, provides you with extensive practice in, and reflection on, the kinds of reading and writing that professors will ask of you in courses here and that employers will expect of you once you graduate. The course is designed to challenge you: we ask you to read texts closely and critically; we ask you to challenge the ideas of others, including your classmates; and we ask you to develop complicated and nuanced arguments of your own. The English 100 Program is supported by a wide range of resources, beginning with our staff. Our instructors are graduate teaching assistants from a variety of disciplines at UW-Madison, who are writers themselves and trained to teach writing at the college level. There are also two Assistant Directors (Cydney Alexis and Matthew Capdevielle), each of whom has experience teaching writing and is available to help you if you have problems that you feel are not being addressed by your TA. Other resources include the English 100 Tutorial Program and workshops offered through the Writing Center. Finally, as the Interim Director of the course, I am available to help you if you still feel stuck after trying the resources above. I invite you to browse this site. You will find here information about the structure of English 100 classes, tips on how to succeed in the course, links to writing resources and opportunities at UW to publish your writing, on-line tutorials that supplement what you will be doing in class, and answers to many of the questions we get about the course. Finally, I wish you the most success in your writing and your courses at Wisconsin. Sincerely, Michael Bernard-Donals
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