Writing-Intensive & Speaking-Intensive Course Descriptions

Many courses in the Mount Holyoke curriculum develop and strengthen student writing and speaking skills. The Speaking, Arguing, and Writing (SAW) Program provides resources for faculty and students involved in these classes.

Speaking-intensive courses highlight oral communication and enhance students' study of a field and its methods. Students receive regular critiques of their speaking presentations and their arguments. There is an emphasis on developing clarity and confidence in spoken communication. Students prepare and deliver various types of presentations before a class audience: debates, trials, historical reenactments, oral exams, structured class discussion, and panel discussions.

Writing-intensive courses make writing a particular focus of the course work. In some, writing itself might be an object of study, so class time is spent working specifically on improving student writing. Other writing-intensive courses use writing to enhance students' learning of the field and its methods. Depending on the course, students may write research papers, analytical essays, journals, poetry, plays, symposium or panel contributions, editorials, or other material.