Resources for Instructors
UWP
Instructor's Guide
First-Year Writing Students at UF
Students at the University of Florida are some of the best in the
nation, a fact illustrated by the freshman profile. The middle 50% of
the 2007 entering class have high school GPAs between 3.9 and 4.4 and
SAT scores between 1220 and 1390. According to the UF web
site,
Approximately 90 percent of all entering
freshmen score above the
national average on standardized college entrance exams taken by
college-bound students. UF ranks second among public institutions in
the U.S. (fifth among all) for the number of National Merit Scholars
enrolled. Also, UF ranks first among public institutions in attracting
National Achievement Scholars during 2002.
Most students enter the university with Advanced Placement (AP)
credit. Because ENC 1101 and ENC 1102 are among the most common courses
for which credit is sought by high school students, about half of the
entering class will fulfill the General Education Writing Requirement
with AP or similar credit and not have to take our courses.
Because UF's entering class is so strong overall, the students who
do take first-year writing are quite capable of succeeding in
challenging, college-level courses.
Whereas ENC 1101 classes are made up almost entirely of first-year
students, ENC 1102 classes may have a mix of first-, second-, and even
third-year students. To get a feel for the demographics of the class,
many teachers survey their students on the first day to find out what
year of school they are in and what writing experience they have.
If a portion of the students are upper division, you will want to
consider the way you address the class as a whole and how you counsel
those students individually.
