The Program: Our Philosophy

When Shant Sarkuni graduated from Rutgers University last year at the ripe old age of fifteen, the double major in computer science and mathematics was asked which course he found most challenging during his undergraduate education. "Nothing was harder than Expos 101," he said. "You just have to have determination." We're happy to accept Mr. Sarkuni's assessment, which is a testament to the Writing Program's commitment to providing courses where all students--even those who graduate at fifteen--have the opportunity to learn.

The Rutgers Writing Program provides instruction to over 11,000 students every year in courses ranging from 098 Composition Skills, for beginning writers, to Expos 101, the expository writing course required for graduation, to 303, Writing for Business and Professions, an elective course for students wishing to hone their business writing skills. The Writing Program draws on full-time instructors, part-time lecturers, teaching assistants from disciplines across the Arts and Sciences, and its own program directors to staff more than 500 writing courses a year. We also provide tutoring, free of charge, in our Writing Centers located on the College Avenue Campus, Livingston Campus, and on Douglass Campus.

With so many students taught by so many teachers spread over so many different campuses, the directors and the teaching faculty of the Writing Program have had to work very hard to make certain that all students receive the same pedagogical support and that all student writing produced in our courses is assessed according to the same rigorous standards. Thus, for example, all students in Expos 101 read and respond to student papers, work in peer groups, and receive sustained instruction in the revision process. All 101 students write and revise six essays over the course of the semester; they all are asked to read extended essays and to produce responses that engage with the assigned materials; and all of their papers are assessed according to the same grading criteria. (To see the grading criteria for 101, go to The Gradatorium.)

To achieve our goal of providing all Rutgers undergraduates with the support necessary to acquire and perfect the literate skills most highly valued in the university, the Writing Program has developed a curriculum centered on student writing. Thus, regardless of the level of the writing course in which you are enrolled, you can expect to spend a substantial amount of class time reading, discussing, and revising student essays. By working with student papers about readings assigned in class, you will be learning to distinguish a compelling interpretation from a fanciful or flippant response, how to provide evidence that advances an argument, and how to generate writing that articulates a position that is in conversation with the ideas and issues raised in the assigned readings. By having you read the work of your peers alongside the work of successful, published writers, we seek to provide you with the opportunity to participate in the arts of interpretation and critical assessment--arts which we believe serve as the foundation of a true liberal education.

To insure that you have the greatest chance of success in our courses, the Writing Program's faculty has been trained to read and respond to your work in ways that will help you to continue to improve as a reader, writer, and thinker. And for those of you who need extra assistance, the tutors in our Writing Centers are there to help you diagnose and resolve whatever difficulties you might be having with your writing. Thus, while educators across the nation continue to decry the decline in academic standards and the transformation of students into consumers who must always be pleased, we are proud to have the university's support in offering intellectually rigorous courses.

That the local university community is happy to have the Writing Program uphold the highest academic standards is clear: in 1998, the Writing Program received the university's prestigious Award for Programmatic Excellence and, over the past three years, four teachers in our program have received the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. We trust that you, too, will quickly see the benefits of being taught how to read and write in the ways that are most valued at this advanced level.

Kurt Spellmeyer, Director of the Writing Program