Please refer to the guidelines below when writing or revising descriptions for SWS classes. (For other courses, please see the general guidelines for course descriptions.)
- All SWS 105 topic descriptions must incorporate the following opening fragment: An exploration of four communication competencies: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
- All SWS 105 topic descriptions should include no more than 3-4 sentences about the course topic’s connections to communication competencies. Remember that the primary audience for these descriptions is first-year students, and avoid discipline-specific jargon or specialized terms.
- All SWS 105 topic descriptions must open with “An exploration of four communication competencies: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.” and incorporate the following closing sentence: “The use of reading and listening to interpret ideas of others and form one’s own ideas will be applied toward thesis-driven written and spoken texts.”
- All SWS 202 topic descriptions must open with “An exploration of oral communication competencies” and incorporate the following closing sentence: “The use of reading and listening to interpret ideas of others and form one’s own ideas will be applied toward thesis-driven spoken texts.
- All SWS 205 topic descriptions must open with “An exploraration of research-informed communication (reading, writing, speaking, and listening).; and incorporate the following closing sentence: “Students engage with ideas by reading and listening to academic sources and build on those ideas by producing thesis-driven written and spoken texts.”
- Write in the present tense (e.g., “Students investigate…,” not “Students will investigate…”).
- Do not include instructor names.
- Use the word “course” sparingly.