A College Edge seminar for incoming transfer students

The stories we tell about ourselves as writers are deeply connected to the stories we tell about the places we inhabit. Designed specifically for incoming transfer students, this course offers a unique opportunity to reflect on your writing experiences so far while learning, researching, and writing about the University of Washington campus as your new academic home.

Stories shape how we understand ourselves, others, and our sense of belonging. By the time students transfer to UW, they often carry well-developed stories about their abilities as writers, stories shaped by prior institutions, expectations, successes, frustrations, and transitions. These stories may include confidence or uncertainty, pride or hesitation, and increasingly, evolving relationships with AI as a writing tool. Such narratives are powerful, and they influence how we approach writing, learning, and participation in academic life.

In this course, we pause to examine those stories. You will reflect on your writing life to date while exploring how being at UW offers a chance to reorient your relationship to writing at the same time that you are orienting yourself to a new campus and community. The goal is to help you build on your prior experiences so you can become a more confident and effective writer, reader, researcher, and learner at UW.

As part of this work, the course invites thoughtful engagement with AI. You will reflect on how AI both reveals and shapes writing practices, and use it as a lens for examining your habits, assumptions, and values as a writer. Our focus is on ethical, creative, and intentional growth, not replacement of human voice or judgment.

This seminar also emphasizes place-based learning and community building. You will explore areas of the UW campus that interest you, conduct field-based research, and collaborate with classmates to create guided tours and maps that share what you have learned. These projects help transfer students become familiar with campus resources while building connections with peers.

Course Curriculum and Features

The first half of the course focuses on reflecting on your relationship to writing and how writing is shaped by the places where it happens. The second half centers on a field-based research project that provides hands-on experience observing, researching, and writing about specific areas of the UW campus. Throughout the course, you will become familiar with campus writing centers, libraries, AI tools, and online research resources.

Learning Goals and Activities

ARTSCI 160 supports students in:

• Increasing writing fluency

• Practicing inquiry-based writing processes that support college-level work

• Becoming familiar with the UW campus and writing resources

• Developing metacognitive skills, including self-assessment, reflection, and transfer of learning strategies

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Instructor
Professor Anis Bawarshi, UW Department of English

History of ARTSCI 160: My Writing Story (formerly English 108)

In 2004, Professor John Webster established English 108 as a bridge course for incoming undergraduates interested in reflecting on and strengthening their writing. Over the past two decades, English 108 has supported generations of UW students as they begin their academic journeys, offering a sustained introduction to college-level writing. As Professor Anis Bawarshi continues in his role as Director of English 108, we extend deep gratitude to Professor Webster for his extraordinary contributions to teaching, learning, and writing instruction at the University of Washington.

Professor Webster has taught at UW since 1972, specializing in Early Modern literature, literary theory, rhetoric and composition, and pedagogical practice. He has received both the English Department’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2000) and the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2009). His leadership in writing education includes directing the Expository Writing Program, co-directing the Puget Sound Writing Project, serving on the Modern Language Association’s Executive Committee for Teaching as a Profession, directing the Literary London Study Abroad program, and serving as Director of Writing for the College of Arts and Sciences, where he helped found and develop the Odegaard Writing and Research Center (OWRC).