English Placement – Albright College

English Placement

English 101 at Albright College: Choosing Your English Placement

At Albright College, we offer multiple versions of English 101, a required first-year writing course that will introduce you to the writing and critical reading skills that you will develop throughout your Albright education. You will choose the version of English 101 that you believe will benefit you and help you grow as a writer.

All versions of English 101 require the same amount of work from students, including a weekly writing assignment, and all cover the same general content and skills. What differentiates them is the level of structure and flexibility that students have when choosing what to write about and when approaching writing tasks. Selecting the ideal course for you as an individual student means understanding whether you work best when you’re given flexibility to make your own choices or whether you thrive when provided structure and step-by-step guidance. The ideal course for you should provide the balance of support and challenge that you need to get off to a great start at Albright.

English 101 is likely different from the English courses you took in high school. It is not a literature class. In assessing your learning needs, don’t just think about how you experienced English in high school. Instead, reflect on all of the courses that asked you to read texts and complete academic writing assignments, including your science classes.

Please read the course descriptions below and identify the version of English 101 that you think will best meet your unique needs. If you feel unsure or want more information, you can review the sample assignments and answer a few multiple-choice questions to help you make your selection.

Composition (ENG 101C)

This version of English 101 is intended to provide a balance of structure and flexibility as you develop the core reading and writing skills you will need throughout your time at Albright and beyond.

This course might be a good fit for you if:

  • You feel comfortable with flexible assignment prompts that ask you to develop your own ideas.
  • The idea of writing 2-3 pages (double-spaced) every week feels challenging but manageable.
  • You have a writing process (brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, etc.) that has worked for you in the past.
  • You feel comfortable with your comprehension of past reading assignments.

Composition/Guided (ENG 101G)

This version of English 101 provides more structure and step-by-step direction in developing the core reading and writing skills that you will use throughout your college career and beyond.

This course might be a good fit for you if:

  • You sometimes feel unsure of how to get started on writing assignments.
  • The idea of writing 2-3 pages (double-spaced) each week makes you feel overwhelmed.
  • You work best when longer assignments are divided up into multiple, smaller pieces.
  • After completing past reading assignments, you sometimes felt unsure about what you read or why you were asked to complete the assignment.
  • You struggle to find enough to say when you are writing an essay.

Composition/Honors (ENG 101H)

This version of English 101 gives you flexibility and freedom in completing writing tasks and helps you develop your own voice and style as you develop the writing and research skills that you will use throughout your college career. This course is recommended but not required for students in the Honors program, and students who aren’t in the Honors program should select it if the description sounds promising.

This course might be a good fit for you if:

  • You consider yourself to be a motivated student who does not usually struggle to complete assignments on time.
  • The idea of writing 2-3 pages (double-spaced) each week feels very manageable, and you are excited to take on additional challenges, such as larger research projects.
  • You are confident in your reading comprehension skills and ready to analyze complex texts.
  • You want the freedom and flexibility to pursue your own interests in your writing assignments.
  • You are eager to develop your own voice and style as a writer.
  • You are excited about collaborating with classmates to help determine what direction the course might take.

Composition/ELL (ENG101L)

If you are an English language learner, you should consider this version of English 101, but it is not necessarily the best fit for all English language learners. This special section will provide a supportive environment to practice reading, writing, and speaking in English with other students who also identify as English language learners. You will not be expected to “perfect” your English but rather to gain practice and confidence with English at the college level. Students who speak English as their first language are not permitted to register for this section.

 

If You’re Feeling Unsure About Which Course to Choose

Below are two writing prompts that have been used for past assignments in English 101. Please read each prompt and select the option that best captures how the prompt makes you feel.

Prompt #1: Problem-Solution Essay

Draft a thesis-driven essay of at least 3 pages (double-spaced) that proposes a solution to a problem that confronts our country, our society, or our school. The essay is not a research essay—instead, it should be based on your understanding of the problem and potential solutions, from your experiences or those of people close to you.

This assignment feels:

  1. Very manageable.
  2. Overwhelming.
  3. Challenging, but doable with support from my instructor.

Prompt #2: Research Review

In this assignment, you will organize and summarize your findings on the topic you researched last week. You must make frequent use of at least 4 credible sources.

Your review should include:

  • An introduction to your topic that summarizes what you learned from your research.
  • Several paragraphs that explain what you discovered about your topic. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence and include quotations and paraphrases (with in-text citations) that detail your findings. You do not have to spend equivalent time and space with each source. Your task is to explain what you learned, not necessarily what each source says.
  • A short conclusion that explains what the next avenues of research might be if you were to continue investigating this topic.
  • A works cited that lists your sources in MLA style.

Your review should be at least 1000 words.

This assignment feels:

  1. Very manageable.
  2. Overwhelming.
  3. Challenging, but doable with support from my instructor.

Interpreting your responses:

  • If you answered (A) to the questions above, consider registering for Composition/Honors (ENG 101H).
  • If you answered (B) to the questions above, consider registering for Composition/Guided (ENG 101G).
  • If you answered (C) to the questions above, consider registering for Composition (ENG 101C).
  • If you answered differently for different prompts, consider emailing Professor Jaclyn Hilberg (jhilberg@albright.edu) for further guidance, or consult with a faculty member in the English department during or before your onboarding or registration process.

How to Select the Right Version When You’re Registering for Courses

You will select your courses in a platform called “Self-Service.” When you search for English 101, make sure the title of the course you select matches the course you’ve identified above: English 101: Composition, English 101: Composition/Guided, English 101: Composition/Honors, English 101: Composition/ELL.

See the below example, showing what English 101: Composition/Honors looks like in Self-Service.


As you can see from this image, Self-Service provides you with some key information: the meeting schedule of the course, the section letter and number (H1, H2, H3), and the number of open seats. Each version of the course has a distinct section letter: English 101 Composition uses C, English 101 Composition/Guided uses G, English 101/Honors uses H, and English 101/ELL uses L.


In Self Service, make sure you select the version of the course that best meets your learning needs as well as one that fits into your schedule and has available seats in. We have many sections of English 101, so make sure you look through the entire list.

We look forward to seeing you in English 101!