English Composition Courses
English 105 focuses on basic sentence construction as the building material for coherent and unified paragraphs. By the end of 105, a student should be able to write complete and correct sentences that accurately reflect what the student wants to express. Further, the student should be able to use those complete sentences to compose detailed paragraphs that are unified around one topic and meet a specific purpose. (For institutional credit only.)
English 106 focuses on learning to write purposeful essays composed of well-developed and well-placed paragraphs. Each essay should be united around one controlling idea and should be composed of correct and complete sentences. (For institutional credit only.)
English 121 focuses on learning to vary one’s writing style, tone, and approach to suit multiple purposes and audiences, including academic audiences. Because students entering English 121 should have mastered basic grammatical correctness, classroom instruction on sentences focuses mostly on diction and stylistic matters rather than matters of grammatical correctness, which is covered largely through one-on-one conferences between students and teachers. By the end of 121, students should be able to compose essays that clearly assert a claim and then support the claim with compelling evidence drawn from personal experience, one’s reading, and/or library research. (General Education credit)
English 122 focuses on practicing the finer points of written argumentation and writing from sources. Among other things, students learn how to develop an innovative approach to an “old” topic, use multiple appeals, evaluate a source’s credibility, and cite sources properly. (General Education credit)
English 161 (Fall Semesters) focuses on writing problems displayed by students who use English as a second language. Such problems can include not organizing thoughts and generating text to fit a distinctly American style of essay writing; using modal, helping, and main verbs incorrectly; not understanding count and non-count nouns; using prepositions incorrectly; and using articles incorrectly. (Enrollment by placement only.)
English 162 (Spring Semesters) is a continuation of 161. This course provides extended practice for ESL writers who are not yet prepared to be successful in English 106 or 121. (Enrollment by placement only.)
For more course information, please refer to the Undergraduate Catalog.
