First-Year Writing Instructor's Guide

We encourage FYW faculty to include language about the Library's services as a reference for students on their course syllabus. You are welcome to add the language below to your policies and other resources statements. Please reach out if you have any questions or would like to make any changes.

The UConn Library is dedicated to supporting students holistically during their time at the university. We provide access to millions of written and audiovisual materials, technical equipment and services, a variety of spaces and locations across campuses, and a dedicated team of professionals to help with any aspect of the research process at any stage.  

Use Ask a Librarian for any library and research-related questions. Ask a Librarian features a live chat service staffed by librarians available most hours of the day during academic semesters. 

We have developed a student-facing course guide specific to ENGL 1007. This is intended to be a gateway to Library resources for students that is tailored to the FYW curriculum and aligned with the program's habits of practice. It also provides many resources that can be incorporated into live instruction, homework assignments, or other elements of curriculum design. Be sure to provide access to this among your course materials. 

Note: While this guide is tailored to the FYW base syllabus, we recognize that many instructors modify assignments and readings. If there are other materials more appropriate to your course that you would like added to such a course guide, please contact us. We can create a separate guide specific to your sections and develop its content with you.

Blackboard (the platform powering HuskyCT) offers several opportunities to integrate Library resources directly into your course sites. LibGuides (the platform powering this and the student-facing course guides) is supported by Blackboard LTI (learning tool interoperability). This allows students to access the separate course guide without leaving their HuskyCT site. Below we've provided some tutorials and guidance, but please let us know if we can provide assistance!

Provision of course materials is critical to student success in any course. The UConn Library provides course reserves support -- both for physical and digital materials, and for materials we own and those we don't. We're happy to discuss your options -- reach out for more information.

You can submit purchase requests for materials critical to your teaching that the UConn Library does not currently own. You can access our purchase request form here. Additional information about electronic materials and streaming video is available in this guide.

In addition to providing access to traditionally published materials, the UConn Library is also dedicated to facilitating open educational resources. You'll notice that this and all UConn research guides are published with a Creative Commons license to ensure wide accessibility. Our student-facing guide also provides access to a number of freely-available resources, and we are happy to share additional materials that you've created or used to benefit others.

Multimodal composition is an important part of the FYW curriculum and will likely continue to play a central role in students' writing practices in any context. It is important to provide guidance to students in their use of those platforms and technologies needed for assignments alongside their other supports in composing. At the same time, an undue emphasis on technical proficiency can distract from the focus of ENGL 1007.

The Library is able to provide assistance in the form of loanable technology and spaces and services within HBL, linked below. CETL and UITS provides a good deal of guidance for university-supported software and platforms. Finally, a list of software, apps, and other resources potentially helpful for multimodal composition have been compiled for reference by the Library, though we are not endorsing the usage of any particular resource.