“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6
The mission of the Core Writing program is to help students develop as writers, readers, speakers, and thinkers who are equipped to make ethical and responsible choices about the most fitting way to respond to the communication situations they will meet in their lives.
As part of Samford’s General Education curriculum, Core Writing courses provide foundational opportunities for students to practice effective written communication, information literacy, oral communication, and critical thinking. These skills are obviously necessary for success in the classroom and the workplace. More importantly, however, at Samford, we see acts of writing, speaking, and listening as vehicles for reflecting and participating in God’s creative and redemptive work, stewarding the gift and power of language for the good of our communities.
Course Requirements+
The Core Writing program includes two courses, University Core Rhetoric 101 and University Core Seminar 102. All first-year Samford students take UCS 102; students may place out of UCR 101 with dual enrollment, AP credit, or sufficient scores on other standardized tests (the current catalog contains more specific details about placement).
UCR 101: Core Rhetoric
Core Rhetoric is a genre-based writing course in which students practice effective writing processes, information literacy, oral communication skills, and rhetorical flexibility by composing in different genres for different audiences and purposes. By working through a series of projects in a writing community, students develop facility in the craft of writing as they study rhetorically effective texts; generate ideas; give, receive, and respond to feedback; reflect on what has and has not worked; and revise and edit their work.
UCS 102: Core Seminar
Core Seminar is a theme-based writing and research course in which students continue developing effective writing processes, information literacy, oral communication skills, and rhetorical flexibility by using academic research and writing to craft and present ethical and responsible arguments. Each Core Seminar course has an instructor-designed theme, providing students with a central question to investigate together as they practice reading, discussing, and writing with the ideas of others. Core Seminar culminates in a poster presentation at the Celebration of Writing, held at the end of each semester.
