Email:  bhalonen@elcamino.edu
Office Phone:  310-660-3593 x. 5161
Office:  H 321A (Humanities building, 3rd floor, north end)

My office hours vary per semester. They are always posted on my office door and on the class syllabus; they are typically M-Th.     

  Helpful things to do before the semester begins:

• Get your ECC student ID card (also functions as your library card)
• Buy your textbooks (from the ECC bookstore, the bookstore across from campus on Crenshaw, or online) and begin reading them.  (But keep the receipts in case you need to return them!)
• Find the room locations of your upcoming classes so that you don't get lost on the first day.

  The first day of classes is mandatory.  If you do not attend, you will be dropped and your spot given to another student.

  If you are interested in adding a course of mine that is full, your best bet is to get on the official MyECC wait list.  If that is also full, come to the desired class early on the first day; I usually begin a wait list on the first day with priority given to wait-listers in order of arrival.

  If you need help with the online add process AFTER receiving an add slip from an instructor, go the Student Activities Center, East Lounge.  

• "Alot" is not "aword"
• How to use a semi-colon
• Ten Words You Really Need to Stop Misspelling
• Affect vs. Effect
• Grammar Rules & Interactive Exercises
• Vocab. Building on Freerice.com
• "First Things First": Priorities for Editing

I grew up in Orange County, earned a B.A. in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley, earned an M.A. in English Literature from the Claremont Colleges and have been teaching at El Camino since 2008.  Before that, I taught at both Rio Hondo and Cypress Colleges.  I love working with students and helping them enhance their own writing abilities.

When I'm not teaching, I like to play soccer and ski.  I also love to read fiction and have been enamored of graphic novels recently.  My all-time favorite books include Absalom! Absalom! by William Faulkner, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.