Practice College Writing Exam Sessions

The Writing Center will offer two "Mock CWE" sessions next week. In these workshops, students preparing for the CWE will get guidance in how to prepare, addressing the topics, and organization. Then, they will take a practice exam. After writing the essay, they will review their essay with an eye to the rubric used to score the essay by college readers.

Pre-registration is required and limited.

Tue., June 28, 5:00-8:00 SESSION FULL

Wed., June 29, 1:00-4:00

WAC: The View from Introduction to Psychology

Dr. Lonna M. Murphy of Passaic County Community College made a presentation at the Atlantic Coast Teaching of Psychology Conference this summer. Her topic was "Writing across the Curriculum: The View from Introduction to Psychology"

Dr. Murphy has been teaching a writing intensive section of the Psych 101 course since 2009.

This is her "guest post" summary of her experience teaching the class as WI and as a "regular" section.

"All educators understand the importance of having our students obtain strong writing skills, regardless of the level at which we teach. At Passaic County Community College (PCCC), we have decided to address this concern by making writing intensive courses mandatory for our graduates as of 2009. In order to meet this goal, PCCC applied for and was granted a $2.5 million federal grant. This writing initiative included creating writing intensive courses for twenty of our General Education courses. All students must take at least one writing intensive course before graduating. Introduction to Psychology (PS 101) has been offered as a writing intensive course since fall 2007.

Writing intensive courses at PCCC must contain both formal and informal writing, assignments that incorporate information literacy and critical thinking, pre-writing and editing strategies, and have no fewer than 2500 words required for assignments. Students must also have completed the first semester of two required semesters of English Composition. Finally, writing intensive courses at PCCC are not allowed to have more than 25 students per class.

I have taught one writing intensive section and one non-writing intensive section of PS 101 for most semesters that they have been offered. I have found no difference in final grades for the two sections (M = 2.18 out of 4.0 for both types of PS 101, n = 160 over three semesters for the non-writing intensive sections and n = 70 over three semesters for the writing intensive sections). I do not have access to the data regarding the students’ performance on the CWE, but as of year three of the grant, we have seen an improvement in general CWE scores, and that improvement was greater for students who were required to take writing intensive courses when compared to those who were not required to take writing intensive courses.

As part of my poster presentation, I will be including and discussing the specific assignments that I have used in my writing intensive PS 101 course. These include a journal article assignment, a five-paragraph argumentative essay, and a synthesis assignment, as well as other informal writing assignments.

In conclusion, PS 101 is a useful course when trying to teach writing to students. This is especially true because of the emphasis on critical thinking in the field of psychology. Also, we have seen that the creation of writing intensive courses has improved."

What Do Students Think of the Writing Center?

 PCCC Students come to the Writing Center for one of several reasons. They may be taking a WI course and are required to come for an assignment. They may be taking a WI course and just want a little extra help with their papers. They may be preparing to take the CWE (repeating or for the first time). They may attend a workshop. Or, maybe they have taken a WI course at some point in their college careers and want help with some other writing, whether for a class or for another purpose. Whatever the reason, we are here to help.

How much do students feel they benefit from the services the Writing Center has to offer? Students are given a survey that asks that very question after every workshop and session with a writing consultant. For last academic year (Fall 2010-Spring 2011), about 19% of students who came to the Writing Center were not required to do so. Whether required or not, all students reported that they were satisfied with the service they received, with 92.5% saying they were very satisfied. About 83% said they intended to come back for more help in the future.

The survey also gives a space for students to write their own suggestions for improvement of the Center. The most frequent suggestion was that the Center provide more hours of consulting for students, including late nights (we are currently open until 8) and Saturdays. Other suggestions, such as providing more practice topics for the CWE and more materials on the writing process have already been put into place.

For more information about the Writing Center, including hours and contact information, go to http://pccc.libguides.com/writingcenter.

Graduation Day

PASSAIC COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 
39TH COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES
THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011 6:00 PM
PATERSON CAMPUS

Nearly 600 graduates will receive their degrees and certificates tonight at PCCC's 39th commencement ceremonies tonight.

 

Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Miguel de la Carrera,
Superior Court Judge, State of New Jersey.

Valedictorian: Linda Finnan,
Associate in Arts in Liberal Arts Degree

The commencement ceremony will take place in the gym, with the College Faculty, Administrators, and Staff in attendance, as well as friends and family of the candidates for graduation.

 

New WI Faculty Institute

The next Writing Initiative Faculty Institute will be held May 17 &18 from 9am – 3 pm in the PCCC Writing center.

This Institute is for faculty developing or taking on new sections of WI courses for Fall 2011. This group includes three new WI courses being piloted next semester: SO 102 Institutional Racism, MA 101 College Mathematics I and BS 203 Microbiology. New WI instructors will also be taking on additional course sections of Intro to Literature and Western Civilization I.

TOPICS TO BE COVERED INCLUDE:

• The Writing Initiative Teacher's Handbook
• Writing Initiative goals and requirements
• Using the Writing Center and online resources for online and face-to-face course sections
• Using eTutoring
• A review of the existing course materials: syllabus, assignments etc. and suggestions for WI revisions and additions.
• Hands-on session using LibGuides and making additions to it (links, resources, media objects etc.)
• Student portfolios: objectives, use of the eFolio product, sample student portfolios, grading strategies
• Formal and informal writing
• Responding to and grading student writing for content vs. for writing
• How to evaluate writing for critical thinking and information literacy using the rubrics and templates
• Initiative assessment of WI Courses

PCCC Faculty-Staff Poetry Reading

Maria Mazziotti Gillan

On April 19, 2011, PCCC held the the third annual PCCC Faculty-Staff Poetry Reading, sponsored by the Writing Initiative. The reading, part of the College's celebration of National Poetry Month (April), was held in the Founders Hall Theater.

Ken Ronkowitz

Featured readers were: Dave Bolger, Reading faculty; Christine Redman-Waldeyer, English faculty; Mark Hillringhouse, English faculty; Ken Ronkowitz, Director of the Writing Initiative; and Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Founder and Executive Director of the PCCC Cultural Affairs Poetry Center. The event was coordinated and emceed by Elizabeth Nesius, Writing Center Coordinator.

The featured reading was followed by an open reading. PCCC faculty, staff, and students were invited to read  original poems of their own.

The reading was open to students, faculty, and staff. Tomas Feliciano, PCCC student and winner of the WI Writing Contest, was among those who shared their work with the audience.