The PCCC Writing Center on the Paterson Campus opens for the fall semester today with a new Director.
Loren Kleinman comes to PCCC after serving as the Assistant Director of Academic
Support Centers (2006-2011) at Berkeley College and as an Instructional
Designer at Berkeley College Online (2011-2012).
She has a B.A. in English Literature from Drew University and an M.A. in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Sussex (UK). Her poetry has appeared in literary journals such as Nimrod, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Resurgence (UK), HerCircleEzine and Aesthetica Annual and she is the recipient of the Spire Press Poetry Prize and a 2000 and 2003 Pushcart Prize Nominee. She is currently working on her second collection of poetry, I Want No Paradise, which explores trauma narratives.
Loren also founded LK Editorial, a full-service editorial firm serving small businesses and authors in startup phases.
Loren will be managing the Writing Center Staff of consultants on the main campus and at the Wanaque and Passaic campuses. She will also be continuing the programs started during the Writing Initiative. That includes supporting the instructors and students in Writing Intensive courses, offering worksops for students and professional development for faculty.
Please come into the Writing Center, located within the library, and welcome Loren to the PCCC community!
Back in 2008, I was teaching a course that included collaborating on writing online. We played around with a number of services that were available. We tested out online collaboration tools like Writeboard, Google Documents, Zoho etc. that could be used for writing, either for yourself or with a group of students.
Writeboard (*see bottom of this post) allowed us to share a document without fear of losing or overwriting. It allowed me as the teacher to compare different versions of a document and see what each student had contributed. I could subscribe to documents via RSS and be notified of changes. The only real problem was that the interface was more wiki-like than Word-like (which is what all the students were used to using).
The following year Elizabeth Nesius and I teamed up with Ellen Spaldo and Janet Boyd from the Metro Writing Studio at Fairleigh Dickinson University. We did a full-day workshop called "Better Writers, Not Just Better Writing: Online Strategies to Support Writers in All Disciplines" sponsored by NJEDge.Net.
It was a hands-on workshop and sharing session as we worked our way through the process of planning, developing, designing, and delivering online writing resources to support students across the curricula.
We were interested in finding out how people at other writing centers were making decisions on policy, procedures, and even budget, particularly as it applied to supporting students online.
PCCC was already using online tutoring, and was embarking on an ePortfolio initiative as well as using LibGuides and media resources to support student writing.
We chose that title - "Better Writers, Not Just Better Writing" - because we were far more concerned with changing the students as writers than "fixing their papers." We borrowed the phrase from Stephen North's idea that the goal of a writing center tutor, is "to produce better writers, not better writing." (North, Stephen. "The Idea of a Writing Center." College English 46 (1984): 433-446.)
We see many similarities between what we do in meeting with student writers on the ground, and what we do with writers in the computing cloud.
For example, in a tutoring situation, what students need to do to get the most out of a submission to an online tutor, applies to live sessions too. Provide the tutor with as much information as possible about the assignment and you have a much better start to a session. Ideally, we want our tutors to have the teacher’s written instructions, requirements, textbook or readings. We are very lucky in that all of the writing-intensive course sections at PCCC (38 for this fall) provide the Writing Center with their textbook, syllabus and assignments.
We also encourage teachers to send students to the center before they begin an assignment for help in formulating topics, creating an approved thesis etc. If then session is a meeting about starting an assignment, we ask that the student bring a sample of their writing that is in a similar mode.
We have collaboratively created many LibGuides (websites) for courses and services to support these efforts. (Almost all of them are indexed at http://pccc.libguides.com/vtlc
* If you would like to try out Writeboard, you can log in without registering to our original 2009 post for the workshop at http://123.writeboard.com/19fb2cf0f68038b98 using the password: collabwrite Feel free to experiment and add/change content and leave a comment on your edits.
Announcing PCCC's Second Annual Student Writing Contest!
All PCCC students are invited to enter!
The Writing Center is accepting submissions in the following genres:
Poetry 75 line maximum
Short Fiction 15 page (4,500) word maximum
Academic Essays 5 page (1,500) word maximum
We will accept typed submissions via email to writingcenter@pccc.edu or delivered by hand to our Paterson location (in the library.) Unfortunately, submissions cannot be returned. In addition, winners may be asked to provide a digital copy if they submit by hand.
Submissions are being accepted between Monday, Feb. 6 and Friday, March 9.
Judges will choose a first, second, and third place winner in each category. Winners will be announced on April 5.
Winners will receive a gift package and have the opportunity to read their work at a student reading in April.
Spring flowers are still a few months away, but the PCCC Writing Center in Paterson is open for the spring semester.
Students who are currently in or who have taken WI (writing intensive) courses are welcome to make appointments for help with their writing assignments and support for their WI classes.
The Center also supports students who are preparing to take the College Writing Exam this spring.
Take a look at some of our online guides to services:
The PCCC Writing Center helps support the college's participation in the eTutoring Consortium.
Students in writing-intensive courses are required to make use of tutoring twice each semester, either by using eTutoring or by meeting with a writing consultant.
Instructional videos are available online to help students "walk through" the process of using this and other services. These videos are accessible on our eTutoring LibGuide and the Writing Center's YouTube channel.
Back in 2009, I read that the University of Arizona was developing a one-credit
online writing course that will be used to supplement their three-credit GenEd
(general education) classes.
It's one way to address a problem a
problem that occurs on campuses where enrollment is growing and the number of staff and the facilities to support them have not increased.
This
is true of many writing centers, and they often have problems meeting
the increased demand. For better and for worse, online versions are
often seen as an economically feasible solution.
At PCCC, we use eTutoring, but we don't have anything like an online
writing center. Since our center only opened in 2009, we are fortunate
that our roll out was planned in phases. Since the Center was built to support the writing intensive courses, our student clients increase with each semester. This semester we are running 30 sections of WI courses. By the end of this academic year, we will have about 1000 college-level students in the Center student database.
When the grant ends in September 2012, the Center is designed to become the college-level writing center supporting about 4000 students. (PCCC also has basic skills, EOF
and ESL labs.)
An online writing
course could be viewed as a form of writing across the disciplines. At
UA, the course were introduced as a one-credit supplement to the
typical three-credit general education class. It is intended to provide
an interactive and self-paced online environment in which students'
writing skills are diagnosed and improved.
"...the courses will not replace gen-ed classes, but instead will
support them with needed writing instruction that is not available in
the typical 50 minute lecture period...The online course will offer
tutorials on topics in writing not ordinarily covered by professors,
such as grammar, drafting a thesis and style and craft.
Writing proficiency will be tested by a diagnostic system that will,
depending on the student's score, direct him or her signed to target a
given problem area. These modules will feature flash animation and other
interactive software tailored to the specific skill level of the
student.
Thomas Miller, English professor and associate provost
of academic affairs, pointed out that the online course will help deal
with problems in writing essays before it's too late. He said that
students all too often realize they have significant problems in writing
only after their papers are returned with a poor grade. Miller added
that research on writing pedagogy shows that "students do not read
teachers' comments on their papers. They often do not understand
comments they read and do not apply them." The online course is intended
to remedy this problem by developing students' writing skills before a
paper is even assigned to them.The course will "take them through the
writing process," Miller said. "It will help them draft a research
question or thesis and will include strategic visits to the writing
center."
It's an interesting idea. At PCCC,
our approach is to try to incorporate these skills into the GenEd
courses. We have designed 23 distinct courses so far across al disciplines as
writing-intensive. We also strive to better equip those faculty to support
their students' writing, as well as sending students to our writing
center for face-to-face help and sending them online to use eTutoring.
One
reason that we chose this path is because we wanted to also include
faculty in the learning process. A good part of our initiative effort
goes to professional development. We are trying to help faculty improve
their ability to create writing assignments, facilitate assessment and
utilize technology to do it.
PCCC, like many other colleges, is looking at putting more courses online each year. Since the Writing Center needs to support them as well as students on two smaller
satellite campuses at Wanaque and Passaic, we will also be looking at supplementing writing instruction online.
During the Fall 2011 semester, a Writing Consultant will be available at the Passaic Academic Center (PAC) during the following days:
Tuesdays 11:30 - 2:30
Wednesdays 1:00 - 4:00
Unfortunately, due to scheduling difficulties, we are unable to accept walk-ins. Students need to make an appointment prior to coming. If you need an appointment, please contact either Martha Brozyna or Elizabeth Nesius
Today is the first day of the fall 2011 semester at PCCC. The Writing Center staff wishes you a successful semester!
We remind those of you that are taking your first Writing Intensive course section this semester that you are now encouraged to come to the Center for help with your writing in that class and in any writing tasks from your classes.
Taking a WI course is you entry into the Center's database (which allows you to make appointments easily online). WI courses require the use of tutoring - eTutoring or the Writing Center - and your instructor may require using our services.
The Writing Center can help you at any stage of the writing process - topic formation, first drafts, revision and bibliographies.
The Center can also help you in starting out using your WI electronic portfolio, eTutoring and using the online appointment program.
During year 3 of the Initiative, the PCCC Writing Center provided services at the main campus in Paterson and also on our Wanaque (WAC) and Passaic (PAC) locations. Unfortunately, there is no permanent location for these services on either of the satellite campuses. We have used the tutoring/computer lab area at WAC and a computer lab at PAC during the past year.
As we compile our year 4 statistics on Center usage on all campuses, here are some stats and information on usage by students.
In all we met for 722 appointments and workshop attendees in Paterson in year 3. Unfortunately, use on both satellite campuses has been poor.At Wanaque, for example, Fall 2009 had only 10 reservations and Spring 2010 had 14 reservations.
It is difficult for us to justify budgeting the current tutor budget (or any increase in hours) for those other campuses with the low numbers we have experienced.
There have been some student requests for workshops on our other campuses, so we started scheduling workshops in Wanaque and Passaic starting in Oct. 2010.
No-shows continue to be an issue on all campuses with the number hovering at around 25% in Paterson and at WAC. ("No-shows" are appointments not kept and without prior contact by the student that they were unable to attend.) Weather has sometimes been a factor in this, as are the busy lives of our students. We hope that with some new approaches to reminding students of their appointments and with more students being able to schedule and cancel their own appointments online, no-shows will decrease.
The Writing Center in Paterson has been open during the summer the past two years although there are no writing intensive courses offered during the summer. The focus for summer has been supporting students preparing to retake the College Writing Exam.
On Tuesday, June 28, and Wednesday, June 29, the Writing Center held its most popular Mock CWE workshop yet. The Mock CWE is an intensive, 3-hour workshop designed to help students practice for the College Writing Exam and get immediate
feedback on their writing. While a voluntary workshop, students must register in advance in order to attend.
The Writing Center is set up to be as close to real exam conditions as possible. Each student has a
computer and all of the materials they would get on test day. In addition, each student receives personalized exam topics based on his/her major and the
general question theme for the next exam. (Students are given a choice of 2 questions on the exam.) This mimics the exam itself, as questions are randomly assigned to students within the parameters of their major and the general theme.
The first 2 hours of the workshop consist of students writing the
essay. They may handwrite or type it.If they choose to type, the spell check is turned on, but the grammar check is off, just as in the real exam. After students finish writing, typed exams are printed.
In the last hour, we discuss students experiences writing and then turn to the
printed essays to evaluate them based on the CWE rubric. Finally, students are
encouraged to make one-on-one appointments with a writing consultant to review
their own practice papers in depth.
Last week, 18
students attended, and about half had never taken the exam before and wanted to do a "dry run." In addition, most students who attended that
workshop also scheduled appointments to work one-on-one with a consultant the
following week in preparation for the July exam.
When surveyed, most students reported that they felt their writing had improved and a greater sense of confidence in taking the actual exam. Several students also said they would recommend the workshop to other students.
Workshops are held in the PCCC Writing Center Annex (A111) on the main Paterson campus (within the library) unless noted otherwise. For more detailed descriptions and updates, check our website.
Survival Grammar continues every Wednesday from 5:30-6:30 with that topic repeated Thursday from 1:10-2:10
Writing Workshops
Preparing for the CWE and other Essay Exams
Wed. March 23, 2:00
Thurs., March 24, 5:30
Attacking the Question
Mon., March 28, 5:30
Tues., March 29, 2:00
Proofreading Strategies for Essay Exams
Mon., April 4, 1:10
Tues., April 5, 5:30
Studying for Exams
Tues., March 1, 5:30
Thurs., April 21, 5:30
Friday April 22, 1:10
Research and Citation
Mon. March 7, 5:30
Thurs., March 10, 1:10
Wed., April 13, 1:00
Thurs., April 13, 5:30
Revising
Mon., April 25, 5:30
Tues., April 26, 2:00
The Writing Center is beginning its writing workshop series for the Spring semester. The following workshops are being offered in January and February 2011.
Intro to the CWE
This workshop provides a basic overview of the College Writing Exam. It discusses what is involved in the exam, frequently asked questions by students, and gives sample questions and papers.
Location:
PCCC Writing Center
(Paterson campus--in the Library)
Date/Time:
Mon., January 31, 2:30
Thurs., Feb. 3, 5:30
Preparing for the CWE and Other Essay Exams
This workshop will focus on helping students manage their time when taking a timed essay exam. It offers strategies for planning the essay and writing within a time constraint so that you maximize abilities and chances of passing the exam. This is especially helpful for students who have never taken the CWE or who have problems with running out of time or going off topic. Materials needed: pen and paper.
Location:
PCCC Writing Center
(Paterson campus--in the Library)
Date/Time:
Mon., Feb. 7, 5:30
Tues., Feb 8, 2:00
Attacking the Question
Ever sit down to write a paper only to realize you don't even know where to start? The place to begin an essay is with the question. What is being asked of you? What is required in the answer? This workshop will teach you how to attack an essay starting with the question. You'll learn to decode "professor speak" and figure out what's really being asked of you. From there, you'll learn how to formulate and organize an answer. This workshop will help students taking the CWE to figure out exactly what a question is asking and how to go about answering it.
The focus of this workshop will be topics on the November CWE theme: Consumerism.
If you have a paper that you're struggling with, feel free to bring the topic to the workshop to get some examples of how to get started. Materials needed: pen and paper.
Location:
PCCC Writing Center
(Paterson campus--in the Library)
Date/Time:
Tues., Feb.15, 5:30
Wed., Feb. 16, 1:00
Proofreading Strategies for Essay Exams
This workshop will help students overcome some of the problems with editing of writing an essay in a timed setting. This workshop will give you some strategies geared specifically toward timed exams and allow you to notice more of your errors before you turn in the test! It will be especially helpful for students who are not confident in their writing abilities, haven’t written in a while, or have problems with grammar and editing.
Location:
PCCC Writing Center
(Paterson campus--in the Library)
Date/Time:
Thurs., Feb. 24, 1:10
Fri., Feb. 25, 5:30
Studying for Exams
This workshop aims to help students prepare for lengthy exams. It will help students figure out how to organize the information in their notes and readings, understand the broad themes in the course and discover the best study strategies. If your instructor has handed out a study sheet, please bring it to the workshop. You can also bring in your lecture notes, textbook and any exams and/or quizzes taken during the semester.
Location:
PCCC Writing Center
(Paterson campus--in the Library)
Date/Time:
Mon., Feb., 28, 1:10
Tues., March 1, 5:30
For full descriptions of the workshops and a schedule of upcoming workshops for the summer, go to http://pccc.libguides.com/writingcenter and click on the "Student Workshops" tab.
If you have any questions about upcoming workshops or the Writing Center, please contact Elizabeth Nesius at enesius@pccc.edu.
Every week Elizabeth Nesius will lead students through a different grammar topic each week. Students will be provided with new information, review, handouts, and practice materials. This is a great opportunity to brush up on grammar or learn it for the first time! All PCCC students are welcome to attend. Registration is not required.
Location: PCCC Writing Center, Paterson campus library
Day/Time: Every Wednesday, from 5:30-6:30 PM
Workshop repeated on Thursday at 1:10
This week's topic is: Parts of Speech
For full descriptions of the workshops and a schedule of upcoming workshops for the summer, go to http://pccc.libguides.com/writingcenter and click on the "Student Workshops" tab.
If you have any questions about the workshop or the Writing Center, please contact Elizabeth Nesius at enesius@pccc.edu.
The WRITING CENTER at Paterson will be open for students who are in (or have already taken) Writing Intensive courses, and to assist students preparing to take the College Writing Exam every weekday.
Monday
10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Tuesday-Thursday
9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Appointments and walk-ins welcome
The WRITING CENTER staff will be at Wanaque on Wednesdays from 12:00 PM - 5:30 PM, by appointment only.
The WRITING CENTER staff will be at the Passaic campus on Wednesdays from 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM and again on Thursdays from 10:30 AM - 2:30 PM in room 113. Appointments and walk-ins are welcome.
Announcing PCCC’s First Annual Writing Contest winners!
Writing is alive and well at PCCC. We had 78 total entries in the 4 categories. There were many outstanding entries, and students were enthusiastic about the contest.
Special thanks to the dedicated judges who generously donated their time (right at finals!) to choosing our winners:
Poetry
Mark Hillringhouse
Elizabeth Nesius
Ken Ronkowitz
Academic Essays
Martha Brozyna
Alexandra Della Fera
Randy Jenkins
Short Fiction
Kelly Bender
Mark Hillringhouse
Latoya Reid
Creative Nonfiction
Emily Eklund
Mark Hillringhouse
Maggie Holland
Thanks also to the very generous individuals who donated prizes:
Martha Brozyna
Greg Fallon
Sally A. Handley and Sally Handley Inc.
Mark Hillringhouse
Anita Kumar
Elizabeth Nesius
Jim Thoubboron
And now, without further ado, the winners of the Writing Contest are….
Poetry 1st Place: Jennifer Torres, “Almost There” 2nd Place: Javier San Juan, “Ideal” 3rd Place: Leonel Quintanilla, “Fatherless infant with earsplitting cry”
Honorable Mention:
Patrick Fortunato, “Audio Blind”
Mark J. Holmes, “Happy Anniversary”
Maryam Ishak, “Snow Falls on All”
Jose F Serrano, “Don Jose”
Linda Swanson, “In fields of green, I cry”
Academic Essays
1st Place: Guillermo Aguilar, “An Oligopoly on Wall Street” 2nd Place: Cynthia Retuerto, “The Humane Society” Tied with Kevin Fetish, "Differences in Democracy/The Song Remains the Same" 3rd Place: Kristopher Perovic “Science and Skepticism”
Honorable Mention:
Jason De La Cruz, “Othello and A Midsummer Night's Dream”
Kevin Fetish, “Ethical Monotheism Among Ancient Peoples”
Kathy Lopez, “Is Google Making Us Smarter or Stupider?”
Fiction 1st Place: Brionne Ramsingh, “Prequel to Iliad” and “Sequel to Iliad” 2nd Place: Cynthia Andreux, “The Boy Who Wanted to Be Tall” 3rd Place: Thomas Feliciano, “Familiar Enemy” Tied with Genessa Terrizzi, “Death Walker”
Honorable Mention: Kevin Byrd, Untitled
Kimberly Gomez, “Don't Go”
Honorable Mention:
Jason De La Cruz, Untitled and “My name is Jason De La Cruz”
Carolyn Guevara, Untitled
Thank you to everyone for your support in making the contest a success! We will be publishing the winning entries in a writing contest magazine and holding a reading of winning entries in spring. We hope to see you there!
Most of us eventually seem to collect more books than we actually need or want. Donating books is a direct and cost-effective way to help students, schools, libraries, and literacy organizations.
The local library seems like a logical place to donate used or unwanted books.
While many organizations appreciate a donation to a used book sale or book drive, most libraries are very selective about how many and what kinds of books they will accept into their collections. It requires time (and therefore money) to process books into a library’s cataloging system, and each library has to balance its unique collection development needs with limited physical space.
One of the PCCC librarians, Joseph Petta, has actually created a guide to donating books. The PCCC Library regularly offers a cart full of books that have been weeded out of the collection and they are inevitably taken by students by the end of the day.
The PCCC Writing Center also has a free books effort with several shelves of quality fiction and non-fiction books that students may take when they visit the Center. Make the Reading - Writing connection and drop by to pick up a book!
The Writing Center now has a fan page where people can see updates, Center hours, and general goings on within the Writing Center. It also contains links to our website and the Writing Initiative website.
The page has followers from both in and outside of PCCC, including connections to writing centers at other colleges around North America. To become a follower of the PCCC Writing Center on Facebook, click the "Like" button below.
We created a Facebook page for the Center to increase our network of both students and faculty who have an interest in Writing Center work and the Writing Initiative at PCCC. Most of our students are on Facebook regularly, as are our faculty! This is an easy way to reach a large number of people at the same time. It saves us from having to print and post flyers, saves time, and keeps us from cluttering up people's in-boxes.
Updates will be posted regularly, so be sure to stop by and see what's going on!
