Freshman Composition

Freshman Composition is a challenging English course that most students take as part of their degree program. Basically, students write essays about readings. The course is called Freshman Composition because it is usually taken by freshmen and the main activity is writing. To enroll, students must first pass a placement essay examination. If their writing skills are weak, then students take either ESL courses or remedial English courses first. Freshman Composition students read different types of texts: essays, newspaper or magazine articles, and literature such as short stories, poems, or novels. Often, textbooks contain collections of readings. Most of the course work involves writing essay-length compositions about a reading. Students learn to summarize, paraphrase, analyze, and evaluate reading. Strong organizational and grammatical skills are needed to pass the course. In addition, many Freshman Composition courses have a standardized exit examination, which students must pass to pass the course. Many students consider the class one of the most challenging college courses because of the volume and difficulty of the writing and reading.