English II

This course builds on the skills introduced in English 101. It is developed to help students as they move to more formal, academic discourse, focusing on writing meaningful essays and developing their skills, through observation, analysis, critical reading and thinking. Emphasis is placed on the arts of style, organization and thoughtful content as well as sharpening the skills of logical reasoning and problem analysis through the development of reading comprehension strategies for informative and expository texts with focus on summarizing, analyzing and synthesizing textual material. Students will examine selected readings and stylistic strategies as a means of developing effective argument-based writing.