Guidelines for SWS Descriptions

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.)

  1. All SWS 105 topic descriptions must incorporate the following opening fragment: An exploration of four communication competencies: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. 
  2. 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.
  3. 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.”
  4. 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.”
  5. Write in the present tense (e.g., “Students investigate…,” not “Students will investigate…”).
  6. Do not include instructor names.
  7. Use the word “course” sparingly.