ATWP 135: Academic Reading and Writing

ATWP 135: Academic Reading and Writing is the one course every UVic undergrad should take. It is essential to helping students with the transition from secondary school to post-secondary school.  It will make you will a better reader, critical thinker, writer, and researcher. You will reflect on your own progress ensuring things you learn in this class will stay with you for life. You will emerge from ATWP 135 a better citizen.

This course will equip you with the skills essential to undergraduate academic learning. You will:

  • learn how to summarize academic texts;
  • learn how rhetoric works, by analyzing it and employing it;
  • complete a scaffolded research project, featuring a consultation, drafts, and a peer-review; and
  • assemble a portfolio of your work.

In this class of approximately 30 students, you will complete a range of different assignments, enhance your library skills, learn about peer review, and reflect on your progress. The course is cross-disciplinary, meaning you can pursue a research project based on your own interests or major. Readings focus on academic writing and the writing process as well as your own choices regarding your research. Students typically complete seven assignments and write ~4000 words.

You will get formative and summative feedback on your writing. Key assignments are scaffolded meaning you assemble them in stages and come to understand writing as a process. Completing this course means you have satisfied the Academic Writing Requirement. In addition, it offers a library orientation, instruction in digital literacy and multi-modal composition, and a relatively small class size through which to build community and camaraderie. It is an essential stepping-stone in your university journey.

For more information, please contact the ATWP 135 Course Coordinator: