College Writing - NJCU :: Faculty :: Robert Hamburger - NJCU :: Faculty

College Writing is devoted to helping you strengthen your basic writing skills. This includes teaching you useful grammar, proofreading skills, essay structure, and paragraph organization. Our only text is Black Boy by Richard Wright. You will usually be asked to read one chapter a week, and each week there will be a writing assignment based on your reading. Class time will be divided among a variety of learning activities: discussion of Black Boy, in-class writing, board work and exercises in punctuation and grammar, review of common errors, and individual conferences. In the final weeks of the semester we will spend much of our class time preparing for the MCET. This will include regular practice tests and regular conferences to work on your individual writing needs.

I have several responsibilities: to explain material clearly and patiently; to correct your written work promptly; to meet regularly with each of you in order to address your specific writing needs; to be attentive to personal issues that may impede your learning process; and to keep you alert and focused and aware of your responsibilities.

2) If you miss more than 10 class hours (two weeks’ worth of work) there is a strong chance that you will not receive a passing final grade.

3) You must save all your written work. Please bring your past work to every class meeting so you will have it available for conferences with me.

4) "Forgetting" to bring work or handing work in late is likely to reduce your opportunity to improve your writing. This kind of thing is certain to create a bad impression with me and most other teachers you'll have at New Jersey City University.

5) You must hand in all essay assignments by the end of the semester. This includes papers that were assigned when you were absent, as well as "rewrite" assignments. If you have not completed all your assignments by the last day of class, you will receive an automatic "R" grade even if you pass the Minimum Competency Exam.

6) If you miss a class, it’s up to you to check with me or a classmate to get your homework assignment. NEVER miss several straight days of class without speaking regularly to all your teachers and to your college advisor. Lack of communication puts you at a disadvantage.

When I ask you to rewrite your work, please do not regard it as a form of punishment. I rewrite my own work all the time. It's the best way to strengthen one's writing.

I'll put written comments on all your essays— but no grades. If you do your work conscientiously and if your written assignments meet my goals for student work, you will receive a letter grade at the end of the semester. However, even if you do very good work, you still must pass the Minimum Competency Exam in order to move on to English Composition I (EC I). If you've had excessive absences, not done all your work, not been prepared for class, or simply not been able to learn all you need to learn in just one semester of College Writing— you may receive an "R" (Repeat).

The real target for the course is to succeed on THE MINIMUM COMPETENCY ESSAY EXAM (we call it the MCET)— a 300 word essay you will be asked to write just before exam week. If you do well on that, you will move on to EC 1 next semester.