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About

Writing, Identity, and Power

Writing, Identity, and Power (ENGLWRIT 111; formerly called Basic Writing) is an intensive reading and writing course designed for students who need additional preparation before taking College Writing. This four-credit course is a part of General Education at University of Massachusetts Amherst, carrying Interdisciplinary (I) and Diversity: United States (DU) designations, and it is overseen by the University Writing Committee, which reviews first-year writing at the University every five years.

Englwrit 111: Writing, Identity, and Power provides students the opportunity to:

  • Build awareness of different disciplinary perspectives on writing, identity, and power.
  • Understand how writing is socially and culturally situated, and how the ways in which writing practices are valued are tied to larger systems of power and privilege.
  • Explicitly include and sustain culturally and linguistically diverse approaches to writing.
  • Develop effective composing and reading practices to use in future contexts, including College Writing 112.
  • Implement strategies to develop complex ideas while discovering new ones in the composing process.
  • Take part in composing projects which cross traditional disciplinary borders of argumentation, language use, and genre.
  • Become familiar with composing technologies (word processing, digital publication, etc.) available to UMass Amherst students. 

By writing, reading, and engaging in discussion across the semester, you will be able to:

  • Use terms and concepts related to linguistic diversity to analyze personal experience as well as primary and secondary sources. 
  • Use the writing process to substantially develop and revise your thinking, in which your understanding of an idea evolves or extends.
  • Identify and apply writing and research practices used across academic disciplines.
  • Synthesize ideas and claims across a range of texts and sources.
  • Use citation practices that represent diverse sources of information and acknowledgement of intellectual property.
  • Show in written reflection which writing strategies you will develop and apply beyond the course.

These courses use Open Educational Resources and/or library content.

For assistance enrolling in Writing, Identity, and Power or more information about this course, please contact Anne Bello, Administrative Director of the Writing Program.