Mar 28, 2024  
2023-2024 Catalog 
    
2023-2024 Catalog

English, Associate of Arts


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The English degree program is designed for students interested in exploring how literatures from various places, times, and cultures speak to both their own social and historical contexts as well as to the present day. The program features a broad range of courses in English language, literature, and composition, including introduction to literature, survey courses, genre courses, diversity-based and interdisciplinary courses, and writing-intensive courses. The program will enable interested students to begin their major in English at RVCC and to transfer to a four-year institution to continue their academic advancement on the baccalaureate level.

Graduates are able to:

  • Demonstrate critical thinking by interpreting a variety of texts.  
  • Analyze the influence of various historical and social factors on authors and texts.  
  • Identify and describe key characteristics of various literary genres, periods, and theories.  
  • Compose logical, well-developed essays grounded in careful textual analysis and exhibit clarity and fluency in standard American English.
  • Locate, evaluate, and ethically use information to develop arguments in writing.

 

Raritan Valley Community College Associate of Arts (AA) and Associate of Science (AS) degree programs are designed to comply with the New Jersey Community Colleges General Education Foundation which supports transfer of courses to NJ Public four-year colleges and universities.  Students who intend to transfer to a NJ college or university can further improve the transfer of courses by using the Recommended Transfer Program (RTP) feature in NJTransfer.org.

NOTE: Students considering transfer to Rutgers University should choose a Global & Cultural Awareness (GCA) General Education course not replicated elsewhere in their curriculum.  Students who have already fulfilled the GCA requirement for their Associates of Arts (AA) degree should select an additional Social Sciences or Humanities General Education course.   

 

Curriculum – A.A. Degree


First Semester


Second Semester


Third Semester


Fourth Semester


  • Mathematics or Science Elective 3 Credits 1
  • History 3 Credits 1
  • Global & Cultural Awareness 3 Credits 1
  • English Elective 3 Credits 7
  • English Elective 3 Credits 7

Total Credits 60


1 Select a course from the appropriate category of the General Education  list.

2 Mathematics by official placement. Students may not take courses below placement level, except by permission of department chairperson.

3 A two-semester sequence is required. Placement by examination is required for students who wish to continue studying a language previously studied. Students may not take courses below their placement level. For more information, see Foreign Language Placement Testing & Degree Requirements .

4 Select a course from the following: COMM 125 Media Literacy and New Technology  and SSCI 101 Technological Literacy Across Social Sciences  . Students who pass the Technological Competency test (no credit) should select a Mathematics or Science course from the General Education  list.  A minimum of 12 credits of Math, Science, or Technological Competency is required.

5 Students are advised to select from the following one-semester Science courses: BIOL 111 Principles of Biology  , BIOL 120 Human Biology  , BIOL 150 Plants, Humans & the Environment  , CHEM 102 Introduction to Chemistry  , GEOL 157 Introduction to Geology  , PHYS 112 Concepts of Physics  , PHYS 130 Astronomy  .

6 Any college-level course.

7 English Electives

Choose one course each from three of the four categories A-D, for a total of 9 credits as follows:

Category A: Survey Courses (one) from among the following: ENGL 211 Masterpieces of Early World Literature  , ENGL 212 World Literature Since the Renaissance  , ENGL 221 American Literature: Colonial through the Civil War  , ENGL 222 American Literature: Post Civil War to the Present  , ENGL 235 English Literature: Middle Ages through the Eighteenth Century  , ENGL 236 English Literature: Romantic Period to the Present  .


Category B: Genre-based Courses (one) from among the following:ENGL 213 Autobiography  , ENGL 224 The Short Story  , ENGL 226 Introduction to Poetry  , ENGL 227 Science Fiction  , ENGL 233 Shakespeare  , ENGL 234 The Literature of Comedy  , ENGL 262 Introduction to Drama .

Category C: Diversity-based or Interdisciplinary Courses (one) from among the following: ENGL 207 Global Patterns of Racism  , ENGL 214 Race in American Literature and Popular Culture  , ENGL 215 LGBTQ+ Literature  , ENGL 223 Ethnic Writers in America  , ENGL 231 African American Literature  , ENGL 290 Women in Literature   , ENGL 291 Masculinity in Literature  .

Category D: Writing-Intensive Course:  ENGL 248 Creative Writing .

 

 

 

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