IVC Writing Program

The IVC Writing Program focuses the conventions and expectations of college-level reading and writing as they reflect the essential skills of critical thinking, and the careful reading, analysis and interpretation of texts.

Effective argument depends upon carefully organized and developed thought. Therefore, our courses emphasize the development of specific, focused arguments in essays that are clear, persuasive and logically ordered. Since good writing also involves critical reading, our classes spend a lot of time reading, discussing and understanding various kinds of texts, and responding to them in written assignments.

Our students do a lot of reading and writing, including essays and shorter informal assignments both in and out of class. Using ideas developed in class and group discussions, through techniques such as freewriting and brainstorming, and in informal writing assignments and drafts, students work toward developed, coherent essays with unified paragraphs and effective, grammatically correct, structurally sound sentences. Typically, our courses place a strong emphasis on classroom discussion, in-class writing, and discussion and review of writing projects in small groups.