English Course Information

The Clark College English Division offers a variety of classes to promote fluency and confidence in written communication and provide students with skills they can transfer to other courses and into their careers. Courses range from co-requisite instruction (provides students with additional support to ensure success in the composition sequence) through college composition, research, and creative writing. Whatever the class, the goal in this writing program is to teach critical thinking, reading, and writing as deeply integrated processes. Our classes are student-led, focused on students' needs, and squarely entrenched in self-reflection. We value all student identities and are committed to teaching with social equity at the center of our practice. Please read below for the English Division's statement in support of racial justice.

To see the current English course offerings, click on Class Schedule.

To see student learning outcomes and course descriptions for all English classes click on English Course Descriptions.

English Division Statement on Racial Justice

The English department acknowledges that racism, systemic disparities, and discrimination exist within American society and its educational systems. We also acknowledge the historical roots of whiteness and white supremacy in our country, higher education, our field, and at Clark College. This systemic racism was designed to uplift white people and suppress people of color. We recognize the devastating impact this has had on the lives of our Black students, our Indigenous students, and other students of color. 

As a department, we reject the continuation of systemic racism and emphatically support the eradication of such racial injustices. We believe that Black Lives Matter. We believe that Indigenous Lives Matter. We are committed to creating an anti-racist department by facing our racist past, working to dismantle the persistence of structural racism,and supporting transformative change in order to achieve a racially-just community and society. 

To achieve the above in our classrooms, we pledge our commitment to

To achieve the above in our department, we pledge our commitment to

Composition

The composition sequence includes English 101 and English 102, which are both 5-credit courses that will transfer to many universities throughout the country and seamlessly to any Washington state community or technical college. Through in-depth research and a training process for our faculty, the English department has redesigned our curriculum to better ensure students are succeeding and transferring the skills acquired in our courses to other academic disciplines and career paths. Both English 101 and 102 are rigorous, college-level classes that are built to meet your writing needs across academic disciplines, careers, and community engagement.

As an alternative to English 102, students can take English 235: Technical Writing. Check with an advisor to find out which classes are right for you.

ENGL& 101 Course Description

Integrated college reading and writing, emphasizing deep comprehension, critical thinking in response to texts from various genres, and writing for a variety of purposes and audiences in a range of modalities. Strengthens skills through rhetorical awareness, application of genre knowledge, and reflection on past and future writing tasks to enable skill transfer to new situations in college, workplaces, and communities. Reading and writing processes emphasized.  

ENGL& 102 Course Description

Studies in exposition and argumentation emphasizing the research paper and its conventions. Focus on developing genre awareness with respect to discipline-specific research, reading, composition, and documentation. Analysis and synthesis of discipline-appropriate texts in the context of supporting a focused position or recommendation on an issue in an area of study. 

Technical Writing

PTWR 135 and English 235 are the lower and upper level courses in technical writing. They fill the work-world writing needs and curricular requirements of students in designated technology degree programs across the College. PTWR 135 is a non-transferable course. ENGL& 235 is a fully transferable course that using a Washington state common course number for seamless transfer.

PTWR 135 Course Description

Introduction to the principles of effective workplace communication: focus on methods of writing clear, concise documents for technical audiences and purposes; summarizing technical information; collaborating successfully in small groups. For students of all technical fields.

ENGL& 235 Course Description

Study of advanced writing skills for typical work-world documents in a business/technical environment, with emphasis on document format, audience analysis, correspondence, formal and informal reports, research, and documentation.

Co-Requisite Writing

Starting Summer 2020, we will be offering co-requisite courses to help students advance more quickly and successfully through the English sequence. During the COVID-19 crisis, these classes will be offered in the "remote" modality, which allows for scheduled, guided virtual time with an instructor each week.

ENGL 090 Will

  • Help you build reading and writing skills before taking English 101
  • Strengthen confidence, study skills, and encourage growth mindset
  • Provide engaged instructor support
  • Meet for 8 supportive hours a week but require payment for just 6 credit hours; homework load will be equivalent to a 5-credit class

 

ENGL& 101 + 099 Will

  • Allow you to earn credit for ENGL& 101 in just one quarter
  • Provide extra seminar time in a small group of only 12 students with engaged instructor support
  • Emphasize reading strategies and structure for writing challenging essays
  • Meet for 8 hours a week but require payment for just 6 credit hours; homework load will be equivalent to a 5-credit class

Creative Writing

The English department offers courses for the beginning and advanced creative writer in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction writing. Taught in the workshop format, creative writing courses offer the student expert guidance from published faculty and feedback from fellow students. Students can also gain further insight into publication through English 277: Literary Publication, which starts the production process of Phoenix, Clark's art and literary journal. The full sequence of creative writing courses are as follows:

Literature and Interdisciplinary Courses

The English department offers a wide variety of literature and interdisciplinary classes to promote reading of fiction, drama, poetry, and prose and assist students in fulfilling General Education Humanities distribution and elective credits. Reading is an excellent way to expand one's critical and cultural awareness, and it can also be entertaining. Our literature classes range across the globe and from ancient times to the present. Our offerings change each quarter, and we add new courses periodically. We have something for everyone. We also offer several Power, Privilege, and Inequity (PPI) courses that will contribute towards an academic concentration in PPI that can be applied to any two-year degree. Those classes are indicated with (PPI) next to the course in the list below. ENGL& indicates a course that is a common course number in the Washington state technical and community college system. These classes will transfer seamlessly to any of the schools in the Washington state system.

Literature Course Offerings

eLearning Courses

The English Department's eLearning Program started in 1994 when Dr. Gerard Smith taught the first online undergraduate literature course in the country entitled "Virtual Poetry." Since then the department's offerings have grown steadily, and today, all courses are available in the online and hybrid formats. During the COVID-19 crisis, co-requisite courses are being taught online in the new "remote" modality, which allows for scheduled time with your instructor online via Zoom or another platform. All eLearning courses use Canvas, a Learning Management System used by most of the community and technical colleges in Washington.

For more information about online learning and to find out if it is the right learning environment for you, please visit the Clark eLearning page.