• Even though space for 700 characters is allotted in the form for a General Catalog course description, most descriptions use approximately 175-500 characters, including spaces.
• Describe the content of the course covered during all semesters but do not give details that pertain only to one instructor’s offering of the course. Particular assignments and textbooks should not be listed since these often change from semester to semester. This type of information belongs in the MyUI description.
• Use an objective style without the use of personal pronouns
• Use a formal tone. Contractions are never used and abbreviations are rarely used
• Use a series fragments connected with semicolons and ending with a period.
• Since the description clearly refers to a course description, do not say “this course” or ”the course”; instead the description itself begins the entry.

Samples of General Catalog Course Descriptions

ARTH:1010 Art and Visual Culture
Visual analysis, media and techniques, artistic subject matter and aesthetic issues; historical periods and movements from ancient times to present; provides strong orientation to visual aspects of humanities, background for other art history courses, and introduction to visual arts for personal enrichment; for students new to art history.

BIOL:1411 Foundations of Biology
Unifying concepts of living systems; emphasis on common properties and processes; chemical and cellular basis of life, genetics, and evolution.

CW:2100 Creative Writing
Guidance in the process of writing fiction and poetry; writing as exploration; development of students' critical skills as readers; application of new knowledge and skills to students' own writing. English majors may apply this course to the following area and/or period requirement. AREA: Nonfiction and Creative Writing.

SOC:2160 Applied Statistics for Social Scientists
Applied statistics for sociology majors: frequency distributions, graphic presentation, measures of central tendency, measures of variability, elementary probability, populations and samples, sampling distributions, estimation and confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, chi-square test, regression and correlation, analysis of variance; computer software used in data analysis; emphasis on appropriate use and interpretation of statistics in the study of sociological topics.

CHIN:4150 Advanced Readings in Chinese
Essays in aspects of contemporary Chinese society to further understanding of Chinese society and to expand reading and writing skills. Taught in Chinese.

GWSS:2078 Women, Sport, and Culture
Feminist analysis of girls' and women's sports experiences, including reproduction of gender through sport, recent changes in women's intercollegiate athletics, media representations of women's sport, feminist critiques, alternatives to sport.