<p>That's what people are saying...</p>
<p>Not true. My son had an A in writing 140 last semester and so did at least 2 others in his class.</p>
<p>out of how many students, may i ask?</p>
<p>Many people say it depends on your interest in writing, if you like writing then getting an A in something you enjoy is easier</p>
<p>It is an intense class but my son has passed on a few tips that helped him. Do not write your paper the night before. Go in to office hours and meet with your professor. Show the professor your paper and ask if you are covering the main points. My son even sent drafts off his paper to the professor by email and he would let him know if he needed to expand on any points, tense etc. Go to the writing center. they are very helpful. The first paper is always a shock. My son’s first paper was a C minus and he considers himself a pretty good writer. Each paper you do is weighted more than the others so that is helpful to remember.</p>
<p>My son also received an A in Writing 140 fall semester 2009- and is an excellent writer. There were only 2 A’s in his class- most strong writers received A-… or lower. He supposedly had one of the tougher professors. He also had a lot of contact with his teacher- and did a LOT of rewrites. He must be an above average student for this class because his professor submitted one of his papers for some USC writing contest…which he didn’t win btw- so there are obviously even more talented writers at USC! It is definately not a class where you can slack off and throw something together and do well- but it is a possible-albeit somewhat difficult goal.</p>
<p>Can I make it become pass/no pass instead of Letter Grade in the beginning of the term…X_X I’m afraid that I can’t handle because I’m not that great of a writer…:(</p>
<p>No, both writing classes must be taken for grades.</p>
<p>S isn’t a great writer but got an A-. Go to class, reach out to the prof & TA’s, be willing to rewrite. It’s a good opportunity to use the resources at your disposal.</p>
<p>My son said that the difficulty of the instructors varied- but most students did fairly well if they utilized the resources that were available- and truly put in the time. Ironically his instructor preferred that the student to come directly to them instead of the writing center because the tutors sometimes were not always aware of what the instructors were looking for in the paper. Don’t despair- you will become a much more proficient writer- and you will be offered help(if you seek it out). Seek out help, work hard, rewrite- and I am sure that you will do fine!</p>
<p>Son has done AP Eng Lit. Hopefully he will be able to manage.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on the GE Cat 6/Writ 140 combo? He registers on Tuesday with hundreds of other Int’l students during the orientation. Fingers crossed all goes well.</p>
<p>horrible class with a terrible grading policy. got a C in that class yet I graduated with a 3.6 overall. had an A- in Writing 340 as well. </p>
<p>Never want to take writing140 again and I pity the poor souls that have to go through it. Tips to anyone taking it - suck up to the teacher as much as you can. Also I can guarantee your first paper will be a poor grade - this is practically departmental policy with no regard to the quality of your writing.</p>
<p>The class is more about figuring out what your teacher wants and pandering to that as opposed to being a good writer. I’m still very bitter about it if you can’t tell.</p>
<p>haha agreed, the instructors grade harshly. i got a B in WRIT140 (including a C/C+ on my first paper). but in all my upperdiv humanities courses, apparently my profs liked my writing since i never got lower than an A- on any midterm or final essay.</p>
<p>Yeah this class is terrible - I mostly get anywhere from B+ - A+ on my classes everywhere else except in writing classes… although by the end I worked up to an A-… haha.</p>
<p>I’m in TO, and WRIT 140 is one of the main reasons that I chose to join the program. The equivalent, CORE 111, has better instructors, a better format, and better grading. That said, WRIT 140 is not a class that you should try to do well in simply by writing well. It won’t work. I helped a lot of my friends with a lot of essays, and the key to doing well was sucking up to the TAs, making all the changes that they recommend to the essays, and really focusing on structure (paragraph- and sentence-level) and grammar.</p>
<p>Look up how an essay should be structured, read some sample essays online, whatever. Don’t write the essays as you wrote them in high school; it won’t work. And always have someone nitpick them for you. If something is grammatically questionable, change it. If it’s unclear, fix that.</p>
<p>And expect a bad grade on your first paper. It’s not a big deal because it is worth very little. Each subsequent paper is worth more. Don’t worry too much, though.</p>
<p>And as far as course selection goes, I personally thought the topics that people had to write about in the courses that fulfilled the diversity requirement were terrible. You can fulfill that with any other GE. There’s no reason to combine it with social issues unless that’s something that really interests you.</p>
<p>nberg, can you suggest some decent GE/Writ options? Son is registering tomorrow…thanks. He likes Phil, Astr, Psyc but not history.</p>
<p>I found IR adn writ 140 to be an excellent combo, interesting classes, great professors (i didnt have TAs for writ 140 tho?), i just felt that these two classes mixed very very well. I had a pretty enjoyable experience and i even ended up with a 97 RAW writ 140 grade. So definitely go for this combo if you can lolz</p>
<p>okay class; crappy grading system as someone mentioned before.
I got a 5 on AP English lang, and a 4 on AP English lit, and i got a B in the class. I varied my writing style, changed all sorts of things to no avail. If you are lucky and they happen to like your writing style, then it might not be so bad.
And the prompts were the worst I have seen…like ever. </p>
<p>My best advice is to take the class pairing with something you are actually interested in. Because you are you going to be in hell writing, you might as well be writing about something you are interested in (although chances are the prompts are going to be terrible and very marginally related).</p>
<p>Anyone heard anything about Writing 130? My son is music student and allowed/about to take that course instead, a section restricted to music students.</p>
<p>my writing 140 class just ended, and i ended up with an A. in fact, i only had one paper where i didn’t get at least an a- on. basically, the most important part is getting to know your professor’s writing style. once you get a sense of what they look for, it’s not a bad class. i pulled a couple of late nights, but it’s not too terrible.
also, go to the writing center. your professors will appreciate it.</p>