Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
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Tier I Writing at Michigan State University

    The overall goal of Tier I writing is to prepare students for the kinds of writing they will be called upon to produce academically, professionally, personally and publicly.

    In our courses, students receive instruction and practice in drafting, revising and completing papers of various lengths, based upon sources that challenge them to seek new information and to reflect upon its relevance to their own observations and experiences. Necessarily, our courses are reading courses as much as they are writing courses, and these two activities tend to permeate each other. Ultimately, they are courses in critical thinking as students learn to question and connect, to analyze and synthesize.

    Doing well in your WRA course will prepare you for the writing you will do in your other classes. Receiving a 2.0 or above is required to move on to your IAH A course. Students who receive a 1.0 or 1.5 in their 100-level 100-level Tier I WRA course are required to either 1) repeat the course before taking their IAH A course, or 2) enroll in AL 201, a 2-credit writing tutorial, concurrently with their IAH A course. See the official University requirements in the Academic Programs Catalog for more information (http://www.reg.msu.edu/read/UCC/Updated/undgredgrreq.pdf).

    The University Tier II Writing requirement is met later in the student's curriculum, within the student's major. Please direct questions about the Tier II writing requirement to the advising staff within the specific department for the major in which you are enrolled, or in which you plan to enroll.

    What happened to ATL?

    As of July 1, 2003, the Department of American Thought and Language is the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC). The change in name and mission will not affect students who have completed their first-year writing requirement--the Tier I writing requirement, which is fulfilled by successful completion of one 100-level ATL course (e.g., ATL 110, ATL 125, ATL 140).

    Tier I Writing
    Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
    Kathleen Geissler, Chair
    Michigan State University
    235 Bessey Hall
    East Lansing, Michigan 48824

    Phone: 517/355-2400
    Fax: 517/353-5250

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