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
ensuring our course materials represent, discuss, and promote voices, language, and
lived experiences from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as racial
equity themes
decentering whiteness in our teaching practices and course policies
acting in solidarity with our Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian students, as well
as all students of color to eradicate racism, bias, hate speech, and prejudice in
our classrooms. We will not tolerate Anti-Black speech, or any other form of hate
speech, under the guise of free speech
providing ongoing support for BIPOC students through active listening and through
guidance when asked and if appropriate
To achieve the above in our department, we pledge our commitment to
examine our own internalized racism and biases, and engaging in ongoing, anti-racist
education and professional development, especially for our white colleagues
identifying and eradicating educational practices historically rooted in white supremacy
and violence against Black and Indigenous communities and all communities of color
recruiting, supporting, and retaining our colleagues of color to ensure our faculty
proportionally reflect the racial identities and lived experiences of our students
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:
ENGL 121: Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL 125: Fiction Writing
ENGL 275: Advanced Fiction Writing
ENGL 126: Poetry Writing
ENGL 276: Advanced Poetry Writing
ENGL 127: Creative Non-Fiction Writing
ENGL 128: Graphic Fiction Writing
ENGL 277: Literary Publication
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
ENGL& 113: Introduction to Poetry
ENGL& 114: Introduction to Dramatic Literature
ENGL 133: Introduction to Short Fiction
ENGL 143: Science Fiction and Fantasy
ENGL 145: Detective Fiction
ENGL 150: Introduction to Mythology
ENGL 156: Introduction to the Novel
ENGL 173: Pop Culture
ENGL 175: LGBTQ Studies (PPI)
ENGL 176: Nature and the Humanities (PPI)
ENGL& 226, 227, and 228: British Literature Sequence
ENGL 240: Literature by Women (PPI)
ENGL 242: Native American Literature
ENGL 243: Queer Literature (PPI)
ENGL& 244, 245, and 246: American Literature Sequence
ENGL& 254, 255, and 256: World Literature Sequence
English 267: American Multiethnic Literature (PPI)
English 271: Pacific Northwest Literature
English 272: Shakespeare
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.
