Click here for the list of linked topics-based College Writing courses offered this semester.

Philosophy

English 110, “College Writing,” is the single course that all Queens College freshmen experience. For this reason, the new College Writing curriculum is designed to give students a basic understanding of the principles and methods of college writing that they will continue to practice and master in their other classes. In short, this class offers the foundation for future success in any student’s major field of study. For this reason, students can expect a lively, engaging, and interactive classroom with a smaller class size than usual. Students will be able to share ideas with peers, work with digital texts and environments, workshop pieces of writing, use and understand the library’s resources, participate in discussion-based classes, and help to build a community of learners in their first year.

Ultimately the purpose of English 110, “College Writing,” is to facilitate the entry of students into the cross-curricular dialogue of the college. College Writing will help students understand the recursive practices of reading, writing, thinking, and revision, which are central to the making and representation of knowledge. Each section of English 110 will emphasize ten learning goals and a series of guidelines that will help students become successful writers in college and beyond.

English 110 – Required Writing Course

English 110, College Writing (4hrs. 3cr.) is the only required composition course.  Students must fulfill this requirement before they have taken 60 credits and preferably in their freshman year.  The course examines the arts and practices of effective writing and reading in college, especially the use of language to discover ideas.  Methods of research and documentation are taught, along with some introduction to rhetorical purposes and strategies.  Students spend at least one hour per week conferring with each other or with their instructor about their writing.

Transfer students can option out of this course only if they have taken a similar course, worth the same number of credits, that has met the requirements of the guidelines and learning goals for English 110.

English 120W – Writing Intensive Course

English 120, Writing, Literature, and Culture, (3 hrs. 3 cr.) was formerly the second required semester of composition but is now optional.  English 120 is a writing course that involves continued practice in writing, together with close readings of various kinds of texts.  Courses are structured around one or more thematic, socio-cultural, or historical issues such as identities, community, gender, quest narratives, or the arts.  Students explore the issues as they read and write about specific texts.