Our courses focus on enhancing students' writing skills to adapt to various academic and professional contexts. In the first semester, we offer English 100I, 101, and 113, which lay the groundwork for understanding diverse rhetorical situations and genre-specific writing. In the second semester, students can advance their skills through English 102 and 114, which also incorporate multimodal communication. Explore our course descriptions below if you're new to our university, and feel free to reach out to our Core Writing faculty with any questions.
Course descriptions
Course descriptions and student learning outcomes
A student learning outcome (SLO) is a statement describing what students should know, understand, or be able to do at the end of a course. SLOs are also used to help determine initial course placements for incoming students.
English 100I
Composition Intensive (3 units plus 2 units of ENG 100L)
Co-requisite: ENG 100L
Prerequisites: Recommended first writing course for students with ACT English or ACT ELA below 18 or SAT Reading/Writing below 480.
Students explore rhetorical processes, emphasizing audience, purpose and occasion of writing. Students also receive an extensive background in strategies of planning, drafting and revising.
ENG 100I credit is equivalent to ENG 101. As part of the English corequisite model, students learning in ENG 100I receive critical reading and writing support through co-enrollment in ENG 100L. Students must complete ENG 100I (3 units) and ENG 100L (2 units) to matriculate directly to ENG 102.
English 101
Composition I (3 units)
Recommended preparation: ACT English of 18 or ACT ELA of 18 or SAT ERW of 480 or an AP English exam score of 1–2 or an IB HL English Language A exam score of 1–3.
Students explore rhetorical processes, emphasizing audience, purpose and occasion of writing. Students will also receive an extensive background in strategies of planning, drafting and revising.
English 113
Composition I for International and Multilingual Students (3 units)
Students explore rhetorical processes, emphasizing audience, purpose and occasion of writing. Students will also receive an extensive background in strategies for planning, drafting and revising, with an emphasis on coherence, style and editing to improve target-language accuracy. (ENG 113 satisfies the ENG 101 requirement for non-native English speakers.)
English 100I, 101 and 113 share the same learning outcomes. Upon completion of ENG 100I /101/113, students will be able to:
- use reflection and feedback from others to reconsider prior knowledge about writing and construct new knowledge.
- identify features of rhetorical situations (e.g., audience, subject, composer, context, constraints, exigence, genre and medium).
- create purpose-driven texts that respond to a variety of rhetorical situations and that anticipate and adapt to the needs of different readers.
- apply critical reading practices, such as annotation, analysis and discussion, to draw on and integrate a variety of sources when composing.
- employ flexible strategies for drafting, reviewing, revising, rewriting and editing.
- recognize the value of different languages, dialects and/or registers in engaging with different rhetorical situations.
- use spelling, grammar, style and punctuation conventions that meet genre- and audience-based expectations.
English 102
Composition II (3 units) CO1 and CO3
Prerequisites: ENG 101 or ENG 113 or (ENG 100I and ENG 100L) or ACT English of 30 or above or ACT ELA of 32 or above or SAT Evidence-Based Reading/Writing of 660 or above.
Students engage with contemporary rhetorical situations or problems by immersing themselves in the research practices, methods of analysis and genres of writing necessary for engaged discussion in a public conversation. Students are introduced to ongoing debates through various perspectives, including scholarly, public and popular genres, in order to map rhetorical conversations.
English 114
Composition II for International and Multilingual Students (3 units) CO1 and CO3
Prerequisite(s): ENG 113 or ACT English score of 30 or greater or ACT ELA score of 32 or greater or SAT Verbal score of 680 or greater or revised SAT Evidence-Based Reading/Writing score of 660 or greater.
Students will engage with contemporary rhetorical situations or problems by immersing themselves in the research practices, methods of analysis and genres of writing necessary for engaged discussion in a public conversation. Students are introduced to ongoing debates through various perspectives, including scholarly, public and popular genres, in order to map rhetorical conversations. (ENG 114 satisfies the ENG 102 requirement for non-native English speakers.)
English 102 and 114 share the same learning outcomes. Upon completion of ENG 102/114, students will be able to:
- use reflection and feedback from others to reconsider prior knowledge about writing and construct new knowledge about writing (CO1);
- engage in responsible, systematic research practices informed by critical reading and rhetorical analysis, including locating and evaluating a range of materials (CO3);
- ethically synthesize and integrate the ideas of others using an appropriate citation style (CO1);
- produce coherent, well-supported arguments in different modalities in response to an ongoing public conversation (CO3);
- create purpose-driven texts in different modalities that respond to a variety of rhetorical situations and anticipate and adapt to the needs of different readers (CO1);
- recognize the value of different languages, dialects, and/or registers in engaging with different rhetorical situations (CO10);
- use spelling, grammar, style, and punctuation conventions that meet genre- and audience-based expectations (CO1).
English 104
Introduction to Investigative Writing (1 unit)
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment limited to students with a score of 4–5 on the AP Literature & Composition exam or a score of 5–7 on either IB HL English Language A exam.
Students explore rhetorical processes, emphasizing audience, purpose and occasion of writing. Students will learn how to adapt their writing in different genres for different audiences. (ENG 104 fulfills the ENG 102 requirement for students with an AP Literature and Composition exam score of 4 or 5 or an IB HL English Language A exam score of 5–7.)
Upon completion of ENG 104, students will be able to:
- engage in critical reading and interpretation of a wide range of texts.
- summarize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply what they read, both orally and in writing.
- frame complex research questions or problems.
- produce a coherent, well-supported argument that shows critical thinking about a student’s own or alternative viewpoints.
- recognize, evaluate, and use a variety of information sources: expert people, publications of information agencies, popular and specialized periodicals, professional journals, books and electronic resources.
- conduct research that shows evidence of the ability to synthesize, use fairly and credit the ideas of others using the appropriate citation style.
- write coherently and observe the standards of academic English.