Do your students need Adobe Creative Cloud?

First-Year Writing and Research Seminars

Home > Teaching > Planning Your Course > First-Year Writing and Research Seminars

Overview

First-year Gallatin students build academic writing skills in a two-semester sequence, beginning with a Writing Seminar in the fall and continuing with a Research Seminar in the spring. The first semester focuses on the analytical essay, and the second semester focuses on the research paper. Both introduce writing as a way of exploring and understanding ideas, and emphasize writing as a process. Both focus on a subject of the instructor’s choice. Coursework balances thematic content with an introduction to writing and research practices relevant to the course’s disciplinary frameworks. In class, workshops that guide students through the writing and revision process complement seminar-style discussion of course readings.

First-Year Writing Seminar (FYWS)

The first-semester seminar aims to help each student discover their own voice as an academic writer. Students learn to engage in analytic readings of course materials through seminar-style discussions central throughout the Gallatin curriculum. A particular focus on the writing process guides students in crafting dialogic response to course texts. Students explore the various stages of the writing process, including freewriting, drafting, revising, and polishing, including through classes devoted to peer workshop.

Three to four essays of three to eight pages are recommended. A brief introduction to research is optional.

First-Year Research Seminar (FYRS)

While the second-semester seminar offers students the opportunity to hone the writing skills developed in the first semester, its primary focus is teaching the skills needed to conduct college-level research. The course is still process-oriented: students continue to freewrite and to revise their work; workshops remain a feature of the course. A significant portion of the course is devoted to exploring how to formulate research questions, how to evaluate and to choose appropriate source materials, and how to engage in productive dialogue with other scholarship.

These seminars typically include at least one guided visit to Bobst Library to help students learn the basic skills of library research—not just how to find books and to use databases but also how and when to meet with research librarians and archive specialists.

Two to three short essays and a research essay of perhaps eight to twelve pages are recommended.

⌇FYWS SAMPLE SYLLABI

Gallatin maintains a repository of over 2,500 sample syllabi through NYU's Faculty Digital Archive. Below is a selection of First-Year Writing syllabi from this collection, which is restricted to members of the Gallatin community:

Sample First-Year Writing Seminar syllabus (PDF), by Kristoffer Diaz
Sample First-Year Writing Seminar syllabus (PDF), by Eugene Vydrin
Sample First-Year Writing Seminar syllabus (PDF), by Hallie Franks

⌇FYRS SAMPLY SYLLABI

Gallatin maintains a repository of over 2,500 sample syllabi through NYU's Faculty Digital Archive. Below is a selection of First-Year Research Seminar syllabi from this collection, which is restricted to members of the Gallatin community:

Sample First-Year Research Seminar syllabus (PDF), by Anne DeWitt
Sample First-Year Research Seminar syllabus (PDF), by Shatima Jones
Sample First-Year Research Seminar syllabus (PDF), by Eugenia Kisin

⌇FYWS SAMPLE LEARNING GOALS

Gain an introductory-level but sophisticated understanding of the approaches to the course topic, using writing as a means to develop critical and creative thinking while elaborating problems within theoretical, methodological, and historical frameworks.
Closely examine primary works of literature, art, philosophy, and/or politics on the registers of content and form and connect them to contemporary issues, questions, and debates.
Pose and answer interpretive questions to develop original insights and develop critical thinking skills.
Learn how to construct critical arguments by: finding and using textual analysis to argue a point grounded in specific and supportive literary evidence, articulating compelling claims and counterarguments both in writing and the classroom, and developing rhetorical and persuasive strategies.
Practice and improve writing skills through a variety of writing exercises, which may include: short responses, thesis building, response papers, or comparative analyses.
Improve writing through peer review, the process of drafting and revising, incorporating instructor feedback, and synthesizing techniques learned over the course of the semester.
Cultivate personal and transferable writing practices as writers and scholars.

⌇FYRS SAMPLE LEARNING GOALS

Acquire an understanding of the basic methodological options for conducting research within different disciplines, which might include: collecting and analyzing data, using library resources to locate sources, archival engagement, conducting oral histories, and close looking/listening.
Practice public speaking, presentation skills, and fielding feedback from peers in order to develop the ability to communicate confidently as critical speakers and writers
Engage in the multiple stages of writing a formal research paper, from free writing to forming research questions to gathering and evaluating resources, outlining and drafting an essay, performing peer review, and finalizing an argument that makes a contribution to existing knowledge on the topic through engagement with multiple sources.
Learn to develop a research proposal that displays an understanding of the relationship between the nature of the research question and the research methods used to answer it.
Cultivate a sense of curiosity and individual engagement with a topic of choice; a sense of accountability to oneself, one’s research, and one’s peers; and a sense of intersectional criticality that can inform one’s academic and personal engagements.

Writing Support for Students

GALLATIN RESOURCES

Students can sign up to meet with a Peer Writing Assistant at the Gallatin Writing Center for help with writing assignments as needed.
Sustained writing help is available through the Gabler Writing Partners program, which pairs Gallatin students who would like writing support with a peer who has been trained to provide it for weekly meetings throughout the year. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Contact Allyson Paty at allyson.paty@nyu.edu about current availability.

NYU RESOURCES

Gallatin students also have access to the university-wide Writing Center, Writing Partners, and the Academic Resource Center (including Tutoring and Learning opportunities).
For students who need English-language support:
- English Connections NYC
- The English-Speaking Union
- Office of Global Services Events & Resources

Resources from Gallatin Faculty

A guide to asking scholarly questions, by Andrew Romig
An essay checklist by Stacy Pies
A peer-review form by Elizabeth Benninger
A peer review form by Chris Trogan
A mid-semester First-Year Research Seminar exercise by Chris Trogan
A library scavenger hunt by Andrew Romig
A list of archives in New York City from Margaret Galvan
Four exercises from Anne DeWitt: analysis, motive, thesis ranking, and line of thinking.
“Kill the Five-Paragraph Essay” by John Warner (Inside Higher Ed, 2016), recommended by Sara Murphy
Examples of exceptional student work from First-Year Writing and First-Year Research Seminars can be found on Confluence.
The Library, Research, and Information Literacy module was developed by Bobst librarians in collaboration with Jenny Kijowski for Gallatin faculty. It is available to be plugged into your Brightspace course site in order to equip students with these critical skills. Email Jenny Kijowski at jenny.kijowski@nyu.edu for more information.

Additional Resources

WRITING & RESEARCH GUIDEBOOKS

How Scholars Write by Aaron Ritzenberg and Sue Mendelsohn (Oxford University Press, 2021)
The Oxford Guide to Library Research, Fourth Edition, by Thomas Mann (Oxford University Press, 2015)
They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Fifth Edition, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton, 2021)
Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg (Knopf, 2012)
The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White, with illustrations by Maira Kalman (Penguin Press 2005)

WRITING & RESEARCH RESOURCES FROM OTHER INSTITUTIONS

UW-Madison Writer’s Handbook includes broad overviews to the elements of academic writing and writing process, with guides to crafting an argument, writing process, working with sources, citation, and writing mechanics.
Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning includes writing handouts that break down the elements of an academic paper, from introductions to body paragraphs to making argumentative transitions.
Harvard College Writing Center Writing Resources includes detailed strategies for essay writing, beginning with how to interpret a prompt.
Stanford’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric Includes sample classroom activities (note: some are specific to Stanford’s program requirements, whereas others could be easily adapted for other contexts)
USC Libraries offers a virtual tutorial in crafting research questions across a variety of disciplines from the humanities to science and statistics.
The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics offers a list of New York City archives, libraries, and open access digital collections.

On GENERATIVE AI

NYU’s university-wide guidelines
NYU Libraries’ guide to Generative AI Tools for Academic Research
NYU Libraries’ Emerging AI Tools for Teaching and Learning from NYU Shanghai, in particular Suggestions for Teaching and Learning
The Digital Education Council’s “AI Literacy for All” offers helpful frameworks to situate your own pedagogical values and develop guidelines.
"Teaching: Can AI actually help students write authentically?" and "Teaching: How to encourage students to write without AI,” both from the Chronicle of Higher Education

Page updated

Report abuse