College English Requirements
As the level of writing skills declines, and the demand for those skills in the professional world increases, Dominican College is committed to providing its students with the kind of preparation that will give them an advantage in their later careers.
All freshmen entering the College are given a placement examination to assess their current writing abilities and to determine the amount of further training that will be most helpful to them. As a result of this examination, they are enrolled in one of a sequence of three courses, the "Writing Sequence":
- English 111: Developmental Composition
- English 112: College Writing and Research
- English 113: Introduction to Literary Form
Students who need some catch-up work in order to get the most out of their other college courses begin the sequence with English 111, proceeding from there to English 112 and 113. Students who have had sufficient preparation in their previous high school work begin with English 112, and a few exceptionally talented students begin immediately at the third level, English 113. With those few exceptions, all freshmen are guaranteed at least 6 credits of training in English skills at a level appropriate to their backgrounds and needs.
The needs of transfer students are given similarly close attention. Any entering transfer students who have not already completed the equivalent of the Writing Sequence at their previous institutions will do so at Dominican. And students who have already taken the equivalent of the Sequence elsewhere are tested to assess their skills in relation to Dominican standards; those whose writing still shows a need for further improvement are placed in EN 115, Enhanced Writing.
Transfer students placed in English 115 are urged to take the course as early as possible in their first year at the College; successful completion of the course with a grade of C- or better is a prerequisite for graduation. The same policy applies to the Writing Sequence courses.
