English 1A
This course begins with expressive writing and moves through report writing to analytical, argumentative, and researched writing. Assignments rely on various source materials, including students' personal experiences, data gathered on the Gavilan campus, textual materials and electronic resources. Students can expect to work in collaborative writing partnerships as well as individually and to learn computer applications (word processing, Excel templates, Internet, Powerpoint) as they work on writing projects. Students will also use the online course management system WebCT to link to relevant Internet sites, to post comments, and to view course grades. Finally, students enrolled in English 1A will have the opportunity to view and interact with a Shakespearean comedy as an introduction to theatrical literature.
 

English 1B
This course covers the four genres of imaginative literature: short fiction, drama, poetry, and the novel. The class provides a broad range of readings from the classics to contemporary experimental works with special attention being given to new voices emerging in American literature. The course relies heavily on student discussion, and meaning grows out of the various "texts" that each class member creates as he or she reads each of  the works of literature. The course goes in the direction of fewer, more thoughtful, and more carefully revised papers rather than numerous writings on many subjects. Students have the opportunity to participate in a number of group and creative projects in response to the works read in the class.

English 1C
This course covers conventional critical thinking skills from a writing perspective. Students learn to analyze the written and oral claims of others and then to write their own effective arguments. Topics covered include non-argumentative persuasion, logical fallacies, the structure of an argument, inductive and deductive reasoning, causal arguments, population studies, and moral, legal, and aesthetic reasoning. Students will have the opportunity to apply critical thinking concepts to a variety of contemporary issues in four short papers and a larger research project. Group work is a critical component of the course.
 
 

English 250
English 250 covers the fundamentals of college writing in preparation for English 1A. Students will learn how to discover their own writing material, organize data in preparation for writing, arrange ideas in a variety of formats, and revise to create more effective essays. There will be numerous informal preparations for formal writing assignments, including workshops on invention strategies, large and small group discussions, readings on contemporary topics, and journal writing. The course will also prepare students to take and pass the department writing exam through the practice of effective test-taking techniques. Computer classroom instruction is included.
 

Humanities 3
This course takes a historical approach to film study. Students have the opportunity to view films from the silent era to the present day that both effectively represent their genres and demonstrate a substantial contribution to the development of the cinema. In addition to periodic examinations and written responses to the films, students will have the option of creating a video or writing a paper on a subject of their own choosing; one of the highlights of the semester is the presentation of these student projects. The course culminates with the screening of two contemporary films.
 

Humanities 10
Humanities 10, or Approaches to Contemporary Film, begins where Humanities 3 leaves off, with the watershed films of the 1960s. The course continues through subsequent decades and ends with a heavy concentration of films from the 1990s. With each film, the class focuses on a different aspect of film interpretation, looking at such areas as photography, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, ideology, realism nad formalism, structuralism and the "auteur" theory. As with Humanities 3, students prepare a video or paper class project to present to the class. While Humanities 3 and Humanities 10 can be taken as independent courses, they do form a historical spectrum when taken in sequence. Humanities 10 is also a core course for the Media Arts degree.
 

                                                               
                                                                                RETURN TO HOMEPAGE