First-Year Writing Program

The First-Year Writing Program is a two-course sequence (ENG 111, ENG 121) that introduces students to reading, reasoning, research, and writing skills necessary for success in every other class they take at Lehman College.  

Students study writing as a process of inquiry, discovery, drafting, and revision; teaching them how to add their unique voices and arguments to ongoing conversations and debates about the world’s most pressing social, political, ethical, cultural, and historical puzzles.  

The curriculum is culturally responsive and reflective, centering writing as an inclusive social practice. Students will learn how to cultivate their curiosity and develop critical aptitudes to become skilled communicators on print and digital media to a variety of audiences, skills that will serve them long after college. 

The Courses 

ENG 111 introduces students to forms of writing, including scholarly research, in which students develop reasoned perspectives, ideas, and arguments by gathering, accurately citing, and interpreting evidence drawn from textual, visual, historical, and quantitative sources. Students develop their analytical and expressive skills by learning to write personal, narrative, and argument-driven essays. Reflecting the media-rich environment of the modern world, students also learn to use, adapt, and produce content for audiences in and out of academia.  

ENG 121 teaches students to compose a research essay, focusing on pressing social, political, and ethical questions and problems impacting our world today. They learn to build arguments based on qualitative and quantitative information and develop familiarity with a variety of theoretical approaches along with more advanced knowledge of academic citation practices. They enter ongoing scholarly conversations while learning to write for both academic and wider audiences in digital and analog forms, expanding on and experimenting with the traditional form of “the essay.” 

Results 

Students in ENG 111 and 121: 

• become familiar with writing as a social practice, develop confidence in their perspectives and voices, adding them to ongoing social, political, ethical, and cultural debates impacting our world today 

• learn to craft persuasive essays and essayistic media for a variety of audiences in print and digital mediums 

• develop skills in studying, representing, interpreting, and citing a variety of sources (text, image, data, etc.) from multiple disciplinary perspectives 

• come to see writing as a process of inquiry, discovery, drafting, and revision 

• engage in independent and collaborative learning, acquiring skills in oral presentation, debate, and peer review 

• explore our identities as writers, thinkers, students, and members of democratic societies in assignments that reflect on and celebrate the diverse communities of Lehman College and its Bronx home.