Pre-Med

Writing Program

Dear Admissions Committee,

Willamette University has initiated a writing program which all graduating seniors are required to complete at a satisfactory level. The first seniors to graduate under this program were those receiving their bachelor’s degree in May 1999.

Recognizing that confidence and skill in writing will be of great value in graduates’ professional lives, and that writing is a developmental skill, re-learned in new contexts, Willamette University has replaced a single, freshman-level college writing course by a four-year writing program. Students are required to take four writing-centered courses, at least one of which is in their major and at least one is an upper-division course outside the major. These are courses where professors teach the conventions for writing in a particular field, where assignments for formal writing are structured to ensure that students work through a series of drafts, receiving feedback in the preliminary stages, and where students’ work is seriously read by various readers, including their peers and a faculty member. From these courses, students assemble a portfolio documenting their progress and achievements in writing. Students are offered individual consultation with faculty members and trained peers at any stage of a writing project through the Willamette University Writing Center.

All students graduating from Willamette University and applying to enter your medical school on or after Fall 1999 will have completed our Writing Program and should be considerably more able writers than students taking only one or two English Writing courses at the College level.

Should you have any questions about our Writing Program or this communication, please feel free to call, write, or e-mail me.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Kirk, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry/Pre-med Adviser
Telephone: 503-370-6902
e-mail: skirk@willamette.edu