To be academically literate is to advance the ability to read and write to levels that will transform students into effective and inspired scholars. The courses which help students make this transformation are Principles of Academic Writing, ARW 3195, and Principles of Academic Research, ARW 4195 which together comprise Richmond’s Academic Research and Writing Programme. The mission of the Academic Research and Writing Programme (ARWP) is to inculcate principles of good scholarship and to empower students to operate highly proficiently within the university and beyond. Faculty in the programme convey to students that the ability to write effectively within the academic community is empowering, that it is based upon critical thinking, reading and research, and that it requires integrity, perseverance and discipline. The programme seeks to provide students with strategies to engage with and negotiate contemporary debate effectively and thoughtfully. Students are required to produce a variety of academic papers in order to enhance their ability to write effectively and insightfully across a range of academic contexts in accordance with accepted academic standards and expectations and to do so with increasing success and self-confidence. The reason these courses are required of all students is that the content of both is at the very core of university study. All degree programmes require students to be able to conduct research effectively, and to engage with, analyse, critique, evaluate and contest what they find, while constantly gauging how it is impacting their own thinking, experiences, knowledge and ideas. As there can be differences in presentation, style and referencing for research papers in different degree programmes, and even for different courses within a degree programme, ARW 3195 and ARW 4195 address the commonalties and highlight key differences in academic requirements and expectations. These two courses are placed in the lower division. In the upper division, students take a Writing and Research Methods course in their major which continues their development as literate scholars and leads to the capstone course in their degree programme, the Senior Seminar/Project. There is thus a strong, central core of research and writing instruction running through each Richmond degree, creating students who are academically literate and therefore well prepared for post graduate study and beyond.

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