PWR Principles
PWR courses focus on writers and their processes
PWR courses encourage students to reflect on how their previous writing experience has shaped their attitudes toward writing as well as their writing habits and behaviors. We believe that this reflection leads to greater self-awareness and self-knowledge that can help writers develop confidence along with more effective strategies in approaching writing assignments. Specifically, this emphasis on process leads to students writing drafts of all major assignments and revising those drafts after receiving detailed feedback from both instructors and peers.
PWR courses are courses on writing
We focus on argument, its research-based support and delivery, and its range of modes and media. We teach students to recognize, analyze, create, and use rhetorical elements of argument across a range of academic and professional genres and media.
Writing abilities develop slowly and recursively
Stanford students come to campus as experienced writers, though with a wide array of writing habits and practices, some of which may not serve them well in responding to writing assignments at the university. Specifically, students share with their PWR instructors that they often have not crafted research-based essays of the length and complexity expected in PWR. While academic work in the quarter system moves at a fast pace, complex research-based writing requires writers to slow down, taking time to engage with sources and develop their understanding of their subject and the views of others who have studied and written about the subject. “Recursivity” refers to the creative process of revision, which in PWR involves much more than sentence-level editing. Instead, revision guides writers to continue their engagement with complex ideas and arguments, writing their way toward deeper understanding. This practice of slowing down and revising with care will deepen students’ intellectual experiences during their time in PWR courses, during their years at Stanford, and as professionals in whatever career they decide to pursue.
Writing well requires revising
Students in PWR classes write and revise their way through each major assignment, getting started with preparatory exploratory activities and interactions, then generating a full draft, and, after peer reviews and instructor feedback, working through an intensive revision of the draft.
Writing develops best under the careful guidance of a skilled instructor
PWR classes remain small to foster substantial interactions between students and instructors. PWR instructors meet in conference with each student several times each quarter and offer substantial written and/or oral feedback on drafts of each major assignment.
Instructors keep the focus on writing
PWR instructors articulate each writing task clearly and support students’ work through classroom activities, at-home work, focused exercises addressing specific rhetorical and writing skills, and class discussions – all of which help students respond effectively to assignments.
Students learn to write best by focusing on topics of interest to them
Students can choose PWR courses that match their interests and then work with instructors and each other to develop appropriate topics for research connected to their chosen course theme.
These goals and principles are widely shared around the country and the globe. In the United States, two organizations, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) have worked to articulate a shared understanding of outcomes for first-year writing programs. PWR’s goals and principles draw heavily on the CCCC and WPA statements.
Related Information
The Council of Writing Program Administrators Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition.
This Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing has been developed by the National Council of Teachers of English, the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and the National Writing Project.