At Wittenberg, students must receive credit for seven writing-intensive courses in order to graduate. Two of those courses must be in the student's major. Writing-intensive courses are designated by a "W" in the course catalog.

A writing-intensive course includes writing as an integral part of teaching and learning, with class time devoted to the discussion of the writing process and assignments designed to reinforce and develop writing skills. Students in these classes are encouraged to generate preliminary writing (e.g. brainstorming, outlines, early drafts) and are given direction and/or feedback in the process of developing assignments. Students complete a minimum of 4,000 words (approximately 16 pages) in final draft form.  This word count serves as a general indicator of the importance of writing in the course and must be balanced by the other qualitative criteria of writing-intensive classes. 

When it comes time to assess the writing, the professor in a W course will be recording two grades for each student. If a student has met the expectations for writing proficiency, the grade report will show a “W” next to the letter grade for the class. Students who do not earn writing credit will not receive the “W” and will not be able to count that course among the seven needed to satisfy the writing requirement. (So,it is possible to pass a course but not receive writing credit for it.) If an instructor has concerns at midterm about whether a student will earn writing credit in a course, the letters “NC” will appear on the student’s midterm grade report.  If this happens, the student should meet with the instructor as soon as possible to talk about how to address the situation.

For Faculty: Information on Writing-Intensive Course Proposals