Is it true that it's nearly impossible to get an A in WRIT140?

anon2009user
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:10:11 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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.