Why do I need to take so many writing courses?
General first-year writing courses like ENG 102 - the "composition" courses everyone's required to take when they get to college - are intended to lay a good foundation for the kind of writing you do as a college student. They introduce general concepts and practices - like revision, citation, and genre, for example.
But study after study shows that real development as a writer depends most on repeated practice. Writers learn to write by writing - and then by writing again, after getting feedback from informed and interested readers. And there's lots about the specific sort of writing you'll do in school - and later, in your professional life -- that ENG 102 really can't teach you. It can give you some important strategies for organizing texts, for example, but it can't tell you the specific patterns which the people who do what you've come here to learn to do - whether it's chemistry, psychology, or communications - actually practice as writers.
The Writing Across the Curriculum Program at Oswego takes this idea very seriously. It requires that students have multiple opportunities to practice writing, reinforcing and building on the foundation laid in ENG 102 as they complete their majors. This should also give you an opportunity to learn more deeply, become familiar with the language practices specific to your discipline, and recognize the importance of writing in the field you're aspiring to be a part of.