Course Listing For English Courses

EN 100 is the introductory course in the English sequence courses designed to improve writing and critical thinking. The course introduces students to habits of mind, thinking/writing process, rhetorical strategy, and selected writing techniques to publish an essay, all of which are applicable in communicating, decision-making, problem-solving, and life-long learning. EN 100 stresses growth and improvement: getting better through self-evaluation, learning community exchanges, and instructor feedback to foster confidence as writers. EN 100 cannot be taken as an elective if EN 101 has been successfully passed.

Like its foundational sequence course, EN 101 emphasizes critical thinking and writing improvement. Students exercise analytical habits of mind, rhetorical strategy, and thinking/writing process to approach writing situations, to publish an analytical essay. The course stresses growth as thinkers and writers through self-evaluation, learning community exchanges, and instructor feedback to improve and gain confidence as writers. Strategies and techniques learned in this English sequence course will prepare students for EN 102 and also for writing in other coursework, workplaces, and society.

EN 102 is the last course in the English Composition sequence. Like other sequence courses, EN 102 emphasizes critical thinking and writing improvement. Students apply the analytical habits of mind, rhetorical strategy, and the thinking/writing process learned in earlier courses to produce a research-based argument essay. Throughout the course, students assess growth and make adjustments to improve thinking and writing through honest self-evaluation, critical exchanges within community of writers, and instructor feedback. The habits of mind, rhetorical strategy, thinking/writing process, discourse in community, and self-improvement are designed to prepare students as confident life-long learners in academics, professions, and society. This course offers instruction in the methodology of research and applies summary, critique, and synthesis in the construction of a research-based essay. Prerequisite: EN 101 or equivalent.

This course examines the universal search for happiness. Readings on the state of happiness from personal, popular, professional, scientific, and literary perspectives provide opportunity for inquiry and for the acquisition and refinement of writing skills.

This course offers the opportunity to research various predictions about future trends in technology, business, education, family, and relationships to assess the likelihood and desirability of these trends. The view of writing as a process of inquiry and discovery informs all the written work in the class. Prerequisites: EN 101 or EN 111

This course is an examination of some of the best short works of fiction written in English within the past 50 years in a variety of styles and forms, employing traditional and innovative techniques of storytelling, by men and women of divergent backgrounds and sensibilities. The insights these stories provide into the challenges of contemporary life will be of special interest.

Students in this course practice using the various techniques of creative non-fiction as they craft their own works in the genre.

The purpose of this course is to reveal the serious art that lies behind every successful comedy. The course analyzes the genre of comedy in its most hilarious and original manifestations in the theater, in movies, and on television. Classic and contemporary works are examined.

This course is an examination of those works in which the authors write about either their own lives or the lives of others. The method and content of classical works of autobiography are compared with more contemporary examples of autobiographical writing.

In this course, students explore the available tools for researching their own family history and create their own autobiographies using the techniques commonly employed in autobiographical writing.

Designed for those for whom English is not their first language, this course orients students to classroom culture, conversation, and professional etiquette within a business context. The course focuses on building vocabulary and reading comprehension, increasing fluency in speaking and writing, and using credible research as applied in a business setting. Prerequisites: EN 101 and EN 102, or equivalent.

This course focuses on the rise of traditions in British Literature, examining the ways in which each subsequent literary period both reinforced elements of tradition and broke from tradition, adding new aesthetic, cultural, and political considerations to the established body of British literature. The course examines deeply the aesthetic contributions of representative major works and authors from a number of significant periods: the Middle Ages, the 16th and 17th centuries, the Restoration and 18th Century, the Romantic Period, the Victorian Age, and the 20th Century. Special attention is paid to the defining characteristics and correct terminology of primary literary genres, as well as to the defining characteristics of and the distinctions in structure and content found in major forms within each genre. The course also focuses on the interpretation of literary texts by employing various literary theories, drawing inferences from literary texts, thematic exploration, and the analysis of the role played in the literary work of such elements as plot, character, setting, mood, tone, point of view, conflict, figurative language, poetic devices, and poetic structure. Emphasis is placed on determining what specific evidence drawn from literary texts is needed to support compelling interpretations of them. Prerequisites: EN 101 OR EN 111 & EN 102 OR EN 112

This course focuses on the attempts by American authors to create a literature congruent with democracy’s high ideals of respect for human rights and freedom. Era by era, writers have protested prevailing social and political mores, even as they have rebelled against received literary forms, pursuing aesthetic innovation in virtually every genre. The course examines deeply the aesthetic contributions of representative major works and authors from a number of significant periods: Pre-Columbian Native American Oral Literature, the Colonial Era, the Revolutionary Era, the Early 19th Century, the Romantic Movement, the Rise of Realism, Naturalism, the Harlem Renaissance, Modernism, Post-modernism, and the Renaissance of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ Literature. Special attention is paid to the defining characteristics and correct terminology of primary literary genres, as well as to the defining characteristics of and the distinctions in structure and content found in major forms within each genre. The course also focuses on the interpretation of literary texts by employing various literary theories, drawing inferences from literary texts, thematic exploration, and the analysis of the role played in the literary work of such elements as plot, character, setting, mood, tone, point of view, conflict, figurative language, poetic devices, and poetic structure. Emphasis is placed on determining what specific evidence drawn from literary texts is needed to support compelling interpretations of them. Prerequisites: EN 101 OR EN 111 & EN 102 OR EN 112

EN 321 takes a broad and inclusive approach to workforce communication, examining the best practices of business writing, oral and online presentations, and professional research. Prerequisites: EN 101 and EN 102, Junior or Senior standing