English Composition II

Course Description

ENC1102 – English Composition II is a 3-credit lecture course in the English: Composition taxonomy of Florida's Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS). The course extends the writing skills introduced in ENC1101, with emphasis on writing about literature, advanced argumentation, and substantial research-based writing. Students develop the ability to read, analyze, and write about literary and non-literary texts, conduct extensive academic research, and produce a substantial researched argumentative paper. ENC1102 is part of Florida's state-mandated General Education Core in Communication, satisfying the second-semester college composition requirement at every Florida public college and university.

The course is offered at 60 Florida public institutions and transfers as equivalent across the state. Together with ENC1101, ENC1102 fulfills the 6-credit Communication Gen-Ed core required for all Associate in Arts (A.A.) and most baccalaureate degrees. Course design varies by institution — some focus on literary analysis (poetry, fiction, drama), others on rhetorical and cultural analysis, and others on disciplinary writing across genres — but all share the core emphasis on advanced research, argumentation, and source-based writing.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Apply advanced argumentative writing strategies, including the development of nuanced claims supported by multiple types of evidence, and the integration of opposing viewpoints.
• Conduct sustained academic research on a focused topic, locating and evaluating a range of credible primary and secondary sources.
• Produce a substantial research-based essay (typically 8-12 pages) that integrates multiple sources in support of an original argument.
• Apply critical reading and analytical skills to literary works (fiction, poetry, drama) or non-literary texts, depending on institutional focus.
• Employ literary terminology and analytical frameworks appropriate to the genre and topic under study (when literature is the focus).
• Demonstrate proficient use of citation conventions (typically MLA; APA at some institutions) for academic-level documentation.
• Synthesize information from multiple sources to develop and support an original thesis, distinguishing the writer's voice from source voices.
• Demonstrate command of advanced standard written English, including sophisticated sentence structure, varied syntax, and discipline-appropriate vocabulary.
• Apply principles of information literacy, including effective database searching, source evaluation, and ethical use of information.

Optional Outcomes

Depending on institutional emphasis, students may also:

• Compose a sustained literary analysis essay on a single work or comparative essays across works.
• Write in multiple academic genres including the rhetorical analysis, the annotated bibliography, the literature review, and the academic proposal.
• Apply literary criticism frameworks (formalist, feminist, historical, psychoanalytic, post-colonial, ecocritical) to texts under study.
• Engage with multimodal or digital composition, including digital portfolios, podcast scripts, or short video essays.
• Develop a research presentation or oral defense of the research project.
• Reflect critically on the writing process and rhetorical development through metacognitive essays or portfolio reflections.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Advanced Argumentation: Toulmin and Rogerian argument models; Aristotelian appeals; logical fallacies; ethical persuasion; the use of qualified claims and counterargument.
• Critical Reading: Close reading; rhetorical analysis; identification of authorial purpose, audience, and stylistic choices; analyzing argument across diverse texts.
• Research Methodology: Developing a research question; refining a topic; conducting database searches across multiple databases; tracking sources; preventing plagiarism.
• Source Evaluation: Distinguishing primary and secondary sources; evaluating scholarly versus popular sources; identifying bias; understanding peer review; using the CRAAP test or similar evaluation framework.
• Source Integration and Synthesis: Quotation, paraphrase, and summary at the academic level; signal phrases; synthesizing across multiple sources; maintaining the writer's voice; conversation among sources.
• The Research Paper: Pre-writing and proposal; outlining; drafting; revising at structural and sentence levels; integrating sources; producing a polished researched argument of 8-12 pages.
• Documentation Conventions: Advanced MLA (or APA) formatting; citation of complex source types (online articles, multimedia, interviews, archival materials); annotated bibliographies.
• Writing About Literature (when literature is the course focus): Literary terminology (theme, tone, point of view, symbolism, structure); analyzing fiction, poetry, and drama; close textual analysis.
• Information Literacy: Library research skills; advanced database use (JSTOR, MLA International Bibliography, ProQuest, EBSCO); evaluating digital and multimedia sources.

Optional Topics

• Literary Criticism: Introduction to critical schools (formalism, feminism, new historicism, post-colonialism, reader-response, psychoanalysis, ecocriticism, queer theory).
• Literary Genre Studies: Specialized study of one or more genres in greater depth.
• Multimodal Composition: Digital essays, podcasts, infographics, video, and other modes of academic communication.
• Disciplinary Writing: Introduction to writing conventions in different academic disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities).
• Generative AI and Academic Integrity: Policies on AI tool use; ethics of co-authorship with AI; prompt engineering as a writing skill; verification and disclosure.
• Public Writing: Op-eds, blog posts, advocacy pieces; translating academic research for general audiences.

Resources & Tools

• Recommended Handbooks: The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and Handbook; They Say / I Say with Readings by Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst; The Bedford Handbook by Hacker and Sommers; The Norton Anthology of American Literature or comparable literature anthology when literature is the focus
• Documentation Reference: Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL); MLA Handbook (current edition, published by the Modern Language Association); APA Publication Manual (current edition) for institutions using APA
• Library Databases: JSTOR; MLA International Bibliography; EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete; ProQuest Literature Online (LION); Project MUSE
• Plagiarism Detection: Turnitin (commonly integrated with Canvas); SafeAssign at some institutions
• College Writing Centers: One-on-one tutoring at every Florida public college; many offer NetTutor or Brainfuse asynchronous support
• State Frameworks: Florida General Education Core Communication outcomes (Florida Statute 1007.25); Florida SCNS course descriptions

Career Pathways

ENC1102 completes the academic-writing foundation needed for any Florida college transfer pathway and is essential preparation for advanced academic and professional work:

• Associate in Arts (A.A.) Transfer Pathway – Required second-semester composition course completing the Florida General Education Communication core for transfer to all Florida public universities.
• Bachelor's Degree Programs – Foundation for upper-division writing-intensive coursework across all majors, including writing-in-the-disciplines requirements.
• Professional Pathways – Critical preparation for graduate and professional schools including law (writing-intensive bar preparation), medicine (research and patient communication), education (academic writing for teacher prep), nursing (evidence-based practice), and business (analytical reporting).
• Workforce Application – Research, source evaluation, and substantial document writing skills are valued across professional sectors in Florida's economy, including journalism, marketing, technical communication, public administration, nonprofits, healthcare administration, and law.
• Civic and Lifelong Learning – Advanced critical reading and source-evaluation skills support informed civic participation in an information-rich society.

Special Information

Gen-Ed Core Designation

ENC1102 is part of Florida's General Education Core Course Options in the Communication discipline area, established by the Florida Department of Education and codified in Florida Statute 1007.25. All Florida public colleges and universities accept ENC1102 as fulfilling the second-semester written-communication requirement, and the course transfers as equivalent across institutions. Students must earn a grade of C or better for the course to satisfy degree requirements.

Course Focus Variations

Florida institutions vary in the primary content focus of ENC1102. Common focuses include: Writing About Literature (the most traditional approach, focused on fiction, poetry, drama analysis); Argument and Research (focused on advanced argumentation across topics of student interest); and Writing in the Disciplines (focused on academic genres across humanities, social sciences, and STEM). Course transfer is unaffected by the local focus — all variations satisfy the Gen-Ed Communication core.

Workload and Time Expectations

Students typically write 4-6 essays during the term, including a major research paper of 8-12 pages with 6-10 sources, with total writing of 8,000-10,000 words. Most institutions expect 6-9 hours of weekly out-of-class work for reading, research, writing, and revising.

UCF Curriculum Framework

UCF's First-Year Writing program publishes detailed course descriptions and assessment frameworks (cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/first-year-writing/enc1102/) that are widely referenced by Florida State Colleges in the UCF DirectConnect partnership.