For more information on the published version, visit MAA's (Mathematical Association of America) Website.

Bowen, Jennifer, Mark Kozek, Pamela Pierce, and Jennifer Schaefer. Advice for First-Year Seminar Instructors. In Mathematical Themes in a First-Year Seminar, edited by Jennifer Schaefer, Jennifer Bowen, Mark Kozek, and Pamela Pierce, xvii-xx. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 2021.

Perhaps you are reading this volume because you have been asked to teach a first-year seminar (FYS) for the first time. Creating your FYS might seem like a daunting task, especially if writing assignments are central to the course. At least it seemed that way to us when we started out. But with this chapter, and the rest of this volume, we hope to share with you what we wish we would have known when we taught an FYS for the first time---the things we learned the hard way. We have compiled these suggestions from our experiences teaching FYSs, from the three sessions on Mathematical Themes in a First-Year Seminar that we led at the Joint Mathematics Meetings and at MathFest, and from the shared wisdom of our volume's authors.

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