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Writing Requirements

At Colby College, writing is a crucial component of a liberal arts education. 

Starting with the College’s required first-year writing courses (W1), world-class faculty, staff, and peer writing tutors help students to develop rhetorical flexibility, adaptability, and analytical ability. In addition, through their major studies and (optionally) W2 and W3 courses, students will become accomplished in the particular types of writing and research most important to their majors.

First-Year Writing

All students, with the exception of incoming transfer students who have completed an equivalent course before entering Colby, must take a first-year writing course (designated W1) at Colby during their first year. These courses fulfill the first-year writing distribution requirement.

W1 courses have a wide variety of themes, and they are offered through many different departments across the curriculum from the Department of Writing (WD) to Physics (PH), English (EN), and Psychology (PS), just to name a few. All W1 courses share a strong emphasis on drafting, argument development, and revision; close focus on individual writing skills and needs; required writing in a variety of forms; frequent professor and peer feedback; and exploration of the ethical, critical, and formal expectations for written work in college.

Writing Across the Curriculum 

The Writing Department leads Colby’s Writing Across the Curriculum program. Its faculty support students’ writing through the Farnham Writers’ Center and Multilingual Writing Specialist (Dr. Chaoran Wang), help faculty develop writing-intensive courses, and provide writing- and communications-related programming for faculty and staff.

Faculty in many departments offer writing-intensive courses that are designated W2 (intermediate level) and W3 (more advanced) in the catalogue. W2 and W3 courses are not required for graduation from Colby. (Though some departments require specific W2 and/or W3 courses as part of their majors.) W2 and W3 courses teach “writing in the disciplines,” which means the kinds of writing, research, and communication practices they emphasize reflect the goals and conventions of particular academic disciplines and the departments in which they are listed.