First-Year Writing Program
The University of Tampa’s First-Year Writing Program (FYWP) helps students:
- discover their identities as writers
- understand themselves as part of a community of writers
- develop their academic writing skills
- become confident, successful writers in college and beyond
FYWP courses:
- employ writing as a mode of learning, rather than as merely a means of assessment
- promote and enhance high-level intellectual and rhetorical skills in reading, thinking, and writing
- help students to read, analyze, and appreciate multiple genres, including but not limited to academic and literary texts. Other genres represented may include journalism, Web media, visual texts, advertising, historical documents, speeches and letters
- prepare students to write in multiple genres and for a variety of audiences
- encourage self-expression through clear, confident, purposeful and meaningful prose
- foster the orientation towards inquiry that produces academic writing
- cultivate a sense of shared endeavor and collaboration among a community of writers
- foster an awareness of and appreciation for nuances of language usage and the careful, eloquent crafting of written language
For more information, contact Dr. Mary Jane Schenck, professor of English and writing, at
mjschenck@ut.edu or (813) 253-3333 x 3669. Her office is located in Plant Hall, Rm. 440.
Placement Process
All students are initially placed into either English 100 or English 101. Placement for most students is determined by SAT or ACT scores. International students are placed first by the TOEFL score, then by any applicable SAT or ACT scores.
During orientation, students will write a diagnostic-placement essay, which will be used to verify appropriate placement. If the diagnostic placement essay clearly demonstrates that the student has been placed into an inappropriate course, the student will be directed to the Advising Office to change her/his schedule.