The College
Writing Requirement
Minimum Expectation
Learning to write well is a developmental process that occurs over time. For this reason, all Brown undergraduates must work on their writing with intention and focus at least twice during their undergraduate studies.
The Writing Requirement at Brown requires students to take at least one writing-designated (WRIT in Courses@Brown) course or any English, Literary Arts, or Comparative Literature course in semesters 1-4 as well as at least one additional qualifying writing course in semesters 5-7.
A student's Internal Academic Record will list the Writing Requirement as completed 24-48 hours after a passing grade has been entered.
Only Transfer and Resumed Undergraduate Education students may satisfy Part I of the Writing Requirement with a transfer credit from a non-Brown course taken at a previous institution. To satisfy Part I, the transfer credit must be an unassigned English, Literary Arts, or Comparative Literature course credit. Transfer and RUE students with no such prior course must take an approved course at Brown, unless they matriculated as juniors, but they have an additional two terms to do so. Transfer students who matriculated at Brown as juniors are exempted from Part I of the Writing Requirement but must satisfy Part II of the Writing Requirement at Brown, like all other undergraduates.
Students (non-transfer and non-RUE) who do not satisfy Part I of the Writing Requirement will be blocked from participating in pre-registration for their fifth semester. In order to get the registration hold lifted, the student would have to meet with an academic advising dean to devise a plan to finish Part I as soon as possible.
A student who is not listed in one of the approved concentrations below must complete a writing-designated course or any course in English, Literary Arts, or Comparative Literature. They may not use independent studies courses to satisfy the Writing Requirement unless the department offers an independent study course that is writing-designated.
To make such arrangements, a department must submit a course proposal for a new independent study course in which every section, regardless of the instructor, would meet the criteria for a writing-designated course.
Approved Alternatives to a Second Writing-Designated Course Allowed Only in Select Concentrations
Biology (including the AB/SCB, Applied Math-Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Biophysics, Computational Biology, and Health and Human Biology), German Studies concentrators, and Math concentrators may submit writing completed in the concentration to satisfy the requirement in lieu of a second writing-designated course. Writing must be approved by the end of the 7th (or penultimate) semester and will be reviewed and approved by the concentration advisor or a faculty member that they may designate in ASK. Speak with your concentration advisor for additional information.
Instructions for students and faculty in participating departments are available in the IT knowledgebase.
Students who do not satisfy Parts I and II of the Writing Requirement will not be eligible to graduate. Students who anticipate difficulty meeting these requirements in a timely way should consult with an academic advising dean for guidance by scheduling an appointment as soon as possible.
Assessment Criteria
You are required to demonstrate that you have worked on your writing across your four years at Brown. The following criteria will help you assess competence and guide you in developing your writing skills.
- Highly competent writers:
- Create coherent and well-developed responses to assignments
- Demonstrate a high level of critical and abstract thinking
- Demonstrate a sophisticated appreciation for readers’ needs
- Support their arguments with relevant, detailed and convincing evidence
- Logically sequence their paragraphs with content-based transitions
- Use appropriate diction and tone and constructively vary sentence structures
- Use correct grammar, punctuation, spelling and syntax
- Competent writers:
- Exhibit moderate ability to think critically and abstractly in response to assignments
- Clearly attempt to address intended readers’ needs
- Sufficiently organize and develop their ideas so as not to impair the readers’ understanding
- Use loosely or unclearly related examples
- Sometimes use weak transitions between paragraphs
- Depend upon basic sentence structures, phrasing and usage
- Occasionally use incorrect grammar, punctuation, spelling and syntax, but not to the point where errors impair the reader’s understanding of the text
- Writers whose work falls below the level of competence typically:
- Exhibit little or no ability to think critically or abstractly
- Fail to recognize the needs of the reader
- Fail to answer the questions asked in assignments
- Depend upon weak generalizations and undeveloped examples
- Fail to write coherent prose
- Use imprecise or inappropriate vocabulary
- Fail to demonstrate sufficient understanding of grammar, punctuation and syntax.
Available Courses
As a student at Brown, you are expected to work on your writing in your general studies and in your concentration. To that end, Brown offers a number of courses that will help you develop your writing abilities. You are encouraged to take at least one of these courses in your first year of study and at least one additional writing course in your area of concentration.
Writing-designated courses provide you with feedback about your writing and opportunities to apply that feedback on the same assignment or when completing writing assignments later in the course.
The Nonfiction Writing Program in Brown's English Department offers a number of intensive writing courses that will help you develop your abilities to write academic essays, journalism and creative nonfiction.
In Writing Fellows courses, you will improve your written communication skills through intensive work with another Brown student, called a Writing Fellow, who has been trained in composition and pedagogy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Any courses in English (ENGL), Comparative Literature (COLT), or Literary Arts (LITR), as well as any courses in other disciplines that are specifically writing-designated (WRIT).
Go to Courses@Brown. In the left hand column, scroll down to the “Curricular Programs” section. You will see a check box indicating “Writing - Designated Courses.” Selecting this checkbox will display a list of all ENGL, COLT, and LITR courses as well as courses in other departments that are writing-designated.
Yes, you can take any class S/NC at Brown, and some courses in ENGL and LITR are mandatory S/NC.
The Writing Center, embedded within the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, is a great place to start. You can make an appointment on the Writing Center’s website even if you have not written anything for your assignment yet. They can help at every stage of the writing process, and you can schedule multiple appointments during a semester to get help over time. English language support is also available to all international/multilingual students.
We also recommend reaching out to your professor to talk through specific assignments or scheduling a meeting with an academic dean who may be able to advise around different learning strategies.
If you are trying to register for classes during the pre-registration period or when registration opens at the beginning of the semester and you are seeing an error message referring to a WRIT HOLD, you will need to take the following steps.
1). Decide what writing-designated course you plan to take in the upcoming semester.
2). Email degreecompletiondeans@brown.edu with the course that you plan to take and the HOLD can be removed.
3). A degree completion dean will lift the hold, and then you will be able to register.
4). Please note that if the hold is lifted and you do not register for a writing-designated class, the registration hold will be reinstated (during the pre-registration period). Your graduation will be delayed until you complete the writing requirement if this is your last semester.
Courses@Brown will have the latest information on which courses are writing-designated and which ones are not. If the course is not considered a writing-designated course in the semester in which you took it (even if the same course is considered a writing-designated course in a different semester), then it does not satisfy the requirement. Courses are reviewed rigorously by the College Curriculum Council, and we cannot make exceptions.
Completion of the writing requirement is one of the four degree requirements at Brown, and the Center for Career Exploration advises that writing skills are key for employment in almost every field. A conversation with an advisor can help you find a course that is of interest. Please either reach out to your concentration advisor for discipline-specific recommendations or an academic dean for general or multi-disciplinary brainstorming.
Completion of the writing requirement is one of the four degree requirements at Brown, and the Center for Career Exploration advises that writing skills are key for employment in almost every field. A conversation with an advisor can help you find a course that is of interest. Please either reach out to your concentration advisor for discipline-specific recommendations or an academic dean for general or multi-disciplinary brainstorming.
Completion of the writing requirement is one of the four degree requirements at Brown, and the Center for Career Exploration advises that writing skills are key for employment in almost every field. A conversation with an advisor can help you find a course that is of interest. Please either reach out to your concentration advisor for discipline-specific recommendations or an academic dean for general or multi-disciplinary brainstorming.
There is no way to retroactively add a writing-designation to a course. Your professor can submit the syllabus for a future semester to the College Curriculum Council to have it considered for this Curricular Program, but it cannot happen retroactively. You will have to find another way to satisfy the requirement.
Because the writing requirement is an undergraduate requirement, no course with a graduate level course code can count towards the writing requirement, even if the content of the course is the same as the undergraduate version. You will have to find another way to satisfy the requirement.
Biology concentrators (including the AB/SCB, Applied Math-Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Biophysics, Computational Biology, and Health and Human Biology), German Studies concentrators, and Mathematics concentrators may submit writing completed in the concentration to satisfy the requirement in lieu of a second writing-designated course. Writing must be approved by the end of the 7th (or penultimate) semester and will be approved by the concentration advisor or a faculty member that they may designate in ASK. If you plan to utilize this method, please discuss this with your concentration advisors in advance of the 7th semester so that there are no surprises, and you avoid a WRIT HOLD that will prevent you from registering for courses during pre-registration or registration.
Please email degreecompletiondeans@brown.edu to follow up.
If you are a concentrator in one of the concentrations that allows for a WRIT upload (Biology, German Studies, or Mathematics), you may be able to use a writing assignment from an independent study to fulfill the writing requirement. After speaking with your concentration advisor, you can upload your writing to ASK for approval.
If you are not a Biology, German Studies, or Mathematics concentrator, having an independent study registered as a writing-designated course is very rare, so it is unlikely that you will be able to fulfill the writing requirement this way. If you are not sure, you can ask the registrar at registrar@brown.edu. In all likelihood, you will still have to take and pass a writing-designated course.
You may seek advanced permission from the Associate Dean for Junior/Senior Studies to complete the second writing-designated course in the 8th semester in specific circumstances. You will still incur a WRIT HOLD during pre-registration and/or registration. If you do not pass your writing-designated course in your last semester, you will not be able to graduate until you do pass a writing-designated course.
If you are an F-1 student and planning to use post-completion OPT, there are additional hurdles to passing your academic check in your last semester, as it cannot be approved until you earn a grade for the course, which may delay the post-completion application timeline. If this is the case for you, please email internationaladvising@brown.edu.
No. You must complete the writing requirement with a Brown course (or a WRIT upload as described above).
However, if you are an incoming transfer student, Resume Undergraduate Student (RUE), or student veteran who completed a course in an English, Comparative Literature, or Literary Arts department at your previous institution, we will designate that you have met the first part of the writing requirement upon enrollment at Brown. The course should carry at least 3 semester credit hours. If you completed a writing intensive or equivalent of writing-designated course at your previous school in other departments (e.g. BIOL, PHIL, HIST), unfortunately, these cannot satisfy Brown’s writing requirement.
Post-matriculation transfer credits for students who are already enrolled at Brown and take a course at another university cannot satisfy the writing requirement, without exception.
No. You must complete the first requirement in semesters 1-4 and the second requirement in semesters 5-7 to ensure that you are developing your writing over time as you reach different developmental stages of your educational journey.
An incomplete is an agreement between you and your instructor. If they agree to grade the work, no matter how much time has passed, you are able to turn in the work and earn a grade for the course, subject to approval from the Committee on Academic Standing if it has been longer than a year since the course ended. If you complete the course successfully, it would still count towards the writing requirement. If the professor is no longer able to accept INC work and the course will not earn a passing grade, then the course cannot be used for a writing requirement.
If you are a senior, please check the Academic Calendar to see when the deadline for turning in work from past semester courses is, typically in the first week of May.
One. Please contact brdd_advising@brown.edu if you have any questions about the BRDD Program and degree requirements.
BRDD students will see a blank space in either the first writing requirement or second writing requirement on their internal academic record. For BRDD students, this is normal. No action is required.
You will not graduate until you complete the writing requirement. Please contact the degree completion deans at degreecompletiondeans@brown.edu to develop a degree completion plan to meet the writing requirement.
The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning has put together several resources for instructors planning to teach writing-designated courses. You can also find more information from the College Curriculum Council on submitting a syllabus for consideration of Curricular Programs such as writing-designated courses.