The Writing Intensive Requirement applies to students who are working toward the BA degree for a major in the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. A Writing Intensive (WI) class calls for 5,000 words of revised writing. Each class caps at a maximum of 22 students. The majority of writing assignments allow students sufficient time to plan, write, revise, and (if they wish) visit the Writing Center.
- Students entering fall 2018 or later must complete two courses designated as WI.
- Students entering between fall 2016 and summer 2018 must complete one course designated as WI.
The WI course (or courses, depending on your bulletin year) must be taken after satisfactory completion of WSC 002 and at least 30 semester hours, including transfer credit hours, and may not include courses designed for first-year students (e.g., FYC clusters and seminars, HUHC Culture and Expression).
See the BA requirements in the Bulletin: Writing Intensive (WI) Courses
- The Writing Intensive tag applies to individual sections of a course, not to the course itself. For example, a department may offer five sections of a course, three of which carry the WI tag and two which do not carry the tag. Similarly, a section may carry the WI tag during one semester, but not the next semester.
- To view sections that carry the WI tag in each semester, go to "Look up Classes" in the portal, select the semester, and then select Writing Intensive Course from the Distribution and Attribute Type list. After registering for a WI course, you can check your degree audit to confirm that the course is applied to the WI category.
For Instructors
- View the resource guide for teaching writing intensive courses.
- View the Faculty Handbook for the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences General Education and Distribution Requirements.
- A WI class calls for 5,000 words of revised writing. Each class caps at a maximum of 22 students. The majority of writing assignments should allow students sufficient time to plan, write, revise, and (if they wish) visit the Writing Center.
- The WI designation is attached to sections, not courses. For example, four sections of a course could run without the WI tag, while the fifth runs with it.
- Some departments may wish to increase the semester hours in WI courses (e.g., a course that normally runs at 3 credits may run at 4 credits) to accommodate requirements for content coverage as well as writing instruction.
- If you have questions about WI courses, please contact the HCLAS dean's office at 516-463-5410.