Writing Requirements & FAQs

Here are all the writing-related courses students need: 

• Foundations Writing: 1 to 3 courses.
• General Education Writing Attribute: 2 courses with the Writing Attribute designation.
• Writing Emphasis in the Major: At least 1 junior or senior-level course with Writing Emphasis designation.

These are codified policies approved by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), meaning they are mandatory degree requirements.

Courses in General Education with the Writing Attribute must meet the 60% Policy: at least 60% or more of the final course grade must be based on writing tasks and assignments. These courses must also include a Signature Assignment that students can upload to their ePortfolio along with a reflection.

Writing Emphasis courses must meet the 60% Policy: 60% or more of the final course grade must be based on student writing. These are typically junior/senior-level courses where writing is central to how students demonstrate their learning in the major.

Writing Emphasis Policy in the Catalog

Writing Attribute courses are part of General Education and have additional requirements, including a Signature Assignment with specific criteria and typically an ePortfolio component. 

For Writing Emphasis courses, the 60% Policy is the primary requirement. We recommend using genres that typify your profession (like lab reports, policy briefs, or case studies) and providing clear guidance that helps students understand these genres and transfer their writing skills to professional contexts.

Research in writing studies emphasizes that learning is not determined by the number of pages a student produces, but by the depth of their engagement with the writing process.

Authentic professional writing often prioritizes specific genres and multimodal communication instead of an arbitrary page count that might not work for all disciplines. Focusing on multifaceted, scaffolded writing tasks leads to better learning outcomes than a single long assignment.

A Signature Assignment must include:

• Clear rhetorical situation: Clear directions about purpose, audience, and genre (e.g., "Write a policy memo for a city council").
• Revision requirement: Students must revise after receiving feedback from their instructor or peers.  
• Reflection component: Students must reflect on their writing process. 

Examples include reflections, presentations, research projects, service-learning projects, social, economic, or environmental justice projects, among others.

Learn more about the Signature Assignment

The ePortfolio is a digital space where students archive their major General Education assignments and reflections. The university uses this to assess student learning across the curriculum. 

Learn more about ePortfolios in General Education

The 60% Policy means that 60% or more of a course's final grade must be derived from writing tasks and assignments. This includes both informal writing-to-learn activities and writing-to-communicate assignments that scaffold writing as a process. 

We define writing expansively to give you flexibility. The Writing Attribute and Writing Emphasis 60% can include smaller writing assignments as well as sustained assignments with drafts and revisions. 

The goal is to value Writing to Learn, not just formal assessment. This includes:

• Informal/Writing to learn:
  • Discussion posts and threads
  • Reflection prompts
  • In-class writing
  • Journal entries
  • Reading responses
  • Writing data observations
• Process-based: Activities that support and sustain a larger writing assignment also contribute to that percentage. That includes:
  • Prewriting
  • Outlining
  • Researching
  • Planning
  • Drafting
  • Peer review
  • Self-assessment
  • Sustained reflection
• Formal/discipline-specific:
  • Lab reports
  • Policy brief
  • Op-eds
  • Literature reviews
  • Annotated bibliographies
  • Multimedia presentations (with scripted/written components)
• Assessment-based:
  • Written responses on quizzes or exams 

Start by auditing your current syllabus. 

You might already be closer to 60% than you think. 

Look for opportunities to convert existing assignments into writing activities: 

•  Change multiple-choice tests to short-answer questions; 

•  Grade activities that you may already assign, such as drafting, reflection, or peer review.

Revise assignments to emphasize writing

Add low-stakes writing opportunities throughout the course: 

• Create discussion posts or reading responses. 

• Break larger assignments into scaffolded steps. The goal is to make writing a regular part of how students engage with course material, not just a final assessment.

For official course designation, work with your department's curricular affairs office to update the course catalog.

Yes! 

In-class writing and discussion posts absolutely count toward the course writing requirements. 

The University of Arizona defines writing expansively to give faculty flexibility. The goal is to value writing to learn, which includes smaller, low-stakes activities. Discussion posts are great examples of that. 

Yes! 

Writing can blend text with other forms of multimodal communication.

One way to set up a good multimodal project is to make sure there's a substantial written component that you assess. 

For example, a revised script or storyboard for podcasts or videos, an infographic with detailed written blurbs, captions, and descriptions, or a comprehensive script or annotated notes for a class presentation. These approaches reflect how professionals actually communicate today, which is rarely purely text-based.

Use a disciplinary genre. 

• Choose a genre that professionals in your field actually use, such as policy memos, case studies, grant proposals, or research posters.  This helps students see the real-world application of their writing.

Provide clear guidance on the genre. 

• Explain the conventions for content, organization, design, mechanics, and citation format specific to the genre you've chosen.
• Provide examples of the chosen genre, either from authentic texts or previous students who agreed to have their work shared. 

Scaffold the assignment.

• Break a larger assignment into meaningful steps, such as: look for primary/secondary sources; conduct research; outline; write a first draft, do peer review, and make final revisions.
• Grade each step as part of the writing process, requiring revision based on feedback.

Include reflection.

• Include a brief reflection where students consider how they applied writing skills from previous courses and how they'll use these skills in the future.

Browse our Assignment Design Resources page for more ideas.

Use Writing to Learn activities.

• These are frequent writing opportunities, such as quick reflections, reading responses, or in-class writing.
• Low-stakes assignments help students process course material, reflect on their learning and engage with your course meaningfully while contributing to the 60% Policy.

For larger assignments, build in stages. 

• Separating assignment deliverables throughout your course helps make explicit to students that the larger assignment is a process built over time, with several stages.  Some possible stages are: rewriting, outlining, drafting, peer review, and revision. 

See our Writing to Learn page for specific examples.

Prioritize high-order concerns. 

• Prioritize conceptual and structural issues, such as content, organization, evidence, rhetorical situation, and critical thinking, rather than minor grammar, style, or mechanics issues.
• Focus on how well students demonstrate understanding and expertise in your course/discipline through their writing.

Distinguish formative and summative feedback 

• Use formative, qualitative feedback for early drafts to help students revise. Focus on "invitational" and conversational comments that encourage students to ask questions.
• Use summative feedback for polished, final work where feedback connects directly to assessment measures.

Use transparent rubrics. 

• Make your criteria explicit and transparent, so students understand that they are being assessed fairly. That way, they know what you're looking for, and you can grade efficiently. 

Vary the modality of comments.

• Consider using different modalities such as audio/video recordings, rubrics, end-of-paragraph summaries, or group conferences to make feedback more accessible and personal.

Explore our Assessment and Feedback Page for more resources.

Prioritize Writing to Learn. 

• Shift the focus from "writing as a product" to "writing as a process." Use low-stakes assignments, such as discussion posts, reflections, reading responses, and in-class writing, which are meaningful and can be graded for completion.

Not every piece of writing needs detailed feedback.  

• Remember that not every piece of writing requires instructor assessment. Assignments like discussion posts or lab notes can be graded for completion, allowing students to engage with content without overwhelming your grading load.

Leverage Peer & Self-Assessment.  

• Use peer review and self-assessment with clear prompts and rubrics to give students meaningful feedback experiences without direct input from the instructor. This allows students to view writing as a social process while reducing your workload.

Utilize whole-class feedback.

• Instead of commenting on every submission, identify common patterns across the class and provide "Whole Class Feedback" (via video, a D2L Brightspace announcement, or in lecture) to address trends efficiently.

Review our "Strategies for Large Classes" for more insights.

Establish consistent deadlines. 

• Set consistent, regular deadlines for activities that require students to do something with the readings or videos immediately. In asynchronous courses, students are more successful when they are held accountable.

Incorporate discussions and reflections.  

• Incorporate frequent low-stakes writing like discussion boards and reflection prompts to keep students engaged throughout the course.
• Try setting two deadlines for discussion boards: one for the primary post (engaging with the text) and a later one for responses to peers. This can help imitate face-to-face discussion.
• You can also use forums for "Process Posts," where students share their research progress, outlines, or prewriting to make their writing process visible.

Leverage D2L Brightspace tools for feedback.  

• Rubrics connected to assignment folders help set expectations.
• Use the D2L record feature to leave audio or video notes, which often feels more personal in an online setting.
• Create a designated Q&A space, such as a specific discussion thread or a shared document, where students can ask questions about assignments.

Go to "Strategies for Online Classes" to learn more.

Beyond the genres that typify your profession or discipline, we also encourage you to design projects based on "what the writing does", or its rhetorical purpose. 

Here are examples of professional genres categorized by their primary rhetorical goal:  

• Writing to analyze or evaluate
  • Artistic, literary, or historical critique
  • Book, film, product, or music review
  • Literature review of scholarship
  • Ethnography
  • Case study
  • Scientific evaluation of a problem
  • Reflective personal narrative or autoethnography
• Writing to summarize or inform
  • Informative / laboratory report
  • Multimedia informative report
  • Executive summary
  • Abstract (research, grant, conference, etc.)
  • Personal statement
  • Annotated bibliography
  • Empirical research poster
  • Risk assessment report
• Writing to argue or propose
  • Policy memo
  • Proposal (research, grant, conference, etc.)
  • Recommendation report or proposed solution
  • Recovery or corrective argument
  • Research poster (print and/or digital)
  • Legal brief
  • Op-ed
• Writing to/with communities
  • Community report
  • Translation of policy
  • Testimonio
  • Participatory action research
  • Counterstory critique

Remember: you are already teaching writing.  

• When you show students how professionals in your field communicate and why certain conventions matter, you are teaching writing and content simultaneously.

Move from grammar to genre.  

• We encourage faculty to move from a grammar-based focus to a rhetorical and genre-based understanding. That way, your course can rely on disciplinary knowledge, critical thinking, and meaning-making and you won't have to assess grammar or surface-level mechanics.

Consider that writing is learning.  

• Writing-to-learn activities help students learn more effectively, so if you are prompting students to write and reflect about their learning, you are integrating writing successfully.
• By integrating these low-stakes practices, you enhance student engagement and learning while still having time for your disciplinary content.

Explore our Writing to Learn page.