Program Structure
The First-year Program comprises both the Fall and Spring semesters and includes:
First-Year Seminar (FYP 1001 - 3 credits; generally two 75 – minute meetings per week) or Castle Scholars First-Year Seminar (3 credits)
First-Year Seminars are topical or thematic, reflecting faculty interests and/or expertise. Seminar topics and themes are diverse and reflect the broad spectrum of the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum. First-Year Seminars are not survey or introductory lecture courses in any particular discipline, but rather are seminar-style, participatory and topical. All seminars count towards the fulfillment of college-wide requirements and some may carry departmental credit. Most First Year Seminars fulfill an Inquiry pillar.
First-Year Writing I & II (FYP 1003/1004 - 3 credits each; generally two 75 – minute meetings per week)
Each section of First-Year Writing provides thorough instruction in composition with the aim of enabling students to develop the writing skills necessary for college-level study. The course includes an intensive review of English grammar, as well as academic style and structure; it examines strategies for written analysis, persuasion, and argumentation. Instruction emphasizes revising, editing and drafting skills. In direct coordination with the First-Year Seminar, students learn to recognize connections between critical thinking and successful academic writing.
An introduction to Information Literacy is embedded within the First-Year Writing sequence: this includes library tours, introduction to information resources, and approaches to scholarly research.
By the end of the year-long sequence of Seminar and Writing courses, students are able to:
Demonstrate the ability to write clearly and with grammatical accuracy in English;
Produce written work that has been improved by supervised revision for style and content through multiple drafts and/or sequential assignments;
Engage critically with primary and secondary sources, while following both ethical and formatting guidelines for quoting, paraphrasing and citing this material; and
Employ the vocabulary, concepts and compositional techniques appropriate to the academic discipline(s) reflected in their First Year Seminar topic.