Writing in Honors

In UWM Honors College classes, independent studies, and experiential learning opportunities, writing is a tool for critical participation in society. By graduation, Honors students will have greater communicative dexterity and transferable skills in an increasingly interdisciplinary world.

Each part of the writing process requires awareness of self and other. By researching and summarizing, we are listening. By drafting, we are thinking. By creating, we are contributing. By revising, we are learning. We consider the writing process to be a journey toward discovery wherein imagination, risk, and humility are guides. Here, we write to inquire, we write to communicate, and we write to effect change.

In the Honors College, we value writing that:

  • Represents the writer in style, language, and thought
  • Uses specific details and examples
  • Acknowledges its varying audiences
  • Responds to real world conversations and issues of pressing concern
  • Mindfully adapts to and/or challenges conventions
  • Encourages questioning of preconceived notions
  • Respects the importance of lived experience
  • Demonstrates listening

We uphold these values across instructors, disciplines, and assignments along the academic/creative spectrum. Through developing these habits of mind, we aim to meet writers where they are and to celebrate their varied futures.

Written collaboratively by the UWM Honors College faculty and staff, 2022