HARTWICK COLLEGE’S 21ST-CENTURY WRITING COMPETENCY REQUIREMENT

Mission: In preparing students to produce coherent, focused, purposeful prose arguments and written communications, Hartwick College’s 21st-Century Writing Competency Program is the means through which students fulfill GEO1 (“Communicate competently using oral and written skills”).

21st-Century Writing Competency Program Component Parts At-A-Glance:

  • Directed Self-Placement for Writing
  • First-Year Writing (ENGL-101: Writing Essentials and/or ENGL-110: College Writing)
  • Two “Writing-Designated” (“WD”) courses.

Descriptions of the component parts of Hartwick College’s 21st-Century Writing Competency Program sequence of requirements is as follows:

Policy: Barring extraordinary circumstances, students must complete ENGL-110 by the end of their first year of college study.

Hartwick College Transfer Credit Policy: Transfer credit from nationally and regionally accredited colleges is given for courses substantially similar to those offered at Hartwick College. For the purposes of Hartwick College’s Writing Competency Program, students who before matriculation have attained a grade of C or better in a college-level composition course offered at an accredited collegiate institution will receive college credit for ENGL-110 (“College Writing”). College-level composition courses taken as part of a dual-enrollment program qualify for this allowance. “AP” credit high school courses do not qualify for this allowance.

ENGL-101: Writing Essentials provides individual workshop-style instruction that outfits students with the skills that will help them to succeed in ENGL-110. Students meet with writing consultants in small groups in the Writing Center. Students who enroll in ENGL-10 will also need to complete ENGL-110 to satisfy the College’s first-year writing requirement.

ENGL-110: College Writing introduces the core features of and strategies for producing written texts in college coursework. Students have ample opportunity to practice the stages of writing: drafting, developing, revising and editing essays

200-level WD courses introduce students to research techniques, stylistic conventions, and (as the instructor deems warranted) to formatting protocols appropriate for and to a specific discipline. These 200-level writing-designated courses may also be useful for those students exploring different majors or changing majors.

300-level WD courses help students to refine and sophisticate their analytical and/or argumentative writing practice, moving it from competent (ie., “coherent,” “purpose-driven”) to effective according to disciplinary practice.

In selected instances, departments may not in fact currently offer WD courses. Students whose majors offer no writing-designated courses may fulfill the writing requirement by taking any two 200-level writing-designated courses or, if the student wishes, a 200- and 300-level sequence of writing-designated courses.

Meet the Writing Center Director

James Cochran

Director of the 21st-Century Writing Competency Program and Writing Center
607-431-4910