In their first semester, NEC students enroll in two prerequisite courses, College Writing and the Liberal Arts Seminar, to help them build essential college-level skills in critical thinking, reading and writing, and public speaking.
In these paired courses, students explore focused topics of study through intellectually challenging readings and class discussions. Seminar and Writing classes are both small in size (15 students maximum), providing students with a great deal of individual attention as they work on their writing and discussion skills in a supportive environment.
College Writing prepares students for academic writing across the curriculum through intensive training in the practice and process of scholarly writing and through development of supporting skills in critical thinking and reading; rhetoric; and basic information resources, research, and source evaluation. Students also learn how to communicate as colleagues, review their peers’ writing, assess strengths and difficulties in their own writing, and identify appropriate strategies and resources for improving their writing.