Courses offered in this division satisfy general education requirements for Associate of Arts (AA) and Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degrees. Many also are prerequisites for other classes.
From technical to creative writing, from Beowulf to J.R. Tolkien or from Spanish and French languages to personal health and fitness, our Communication Studies and Wellness general education courses are designed to prepare you for upper-level coursework at a four-year college. Whether you choose on-ground or online courses, our faculty members will provide one-on-one help when you need it.
Communications Studies and Wellness includes all classes in these categories:
Communications
Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communications, Public Relations, etc.
English
Composition I, Creative Writing, Business Communications, etc.
Foreign Languages (French and Spanish)
Elementary Spanish, Elementary and Intermediate French, etc.
Health
Personal Health and Fitness, First Aid
Literature
American, English and World Literature, etc.
Service Learning
Emerging Leaders, Service Learning and Leadership, etc.
Student Success
College Skills, Career Choices, Computer Skills for College, etc.
Wellness
Building Fitness for Life, Aerobics, Women and Health
Developmental Courses
Developmental courses are designed to make sure you have the skills you need to succeed in college.
All associate degrees require at least one math course and at least one writing course. Some certificate programs also require math or writing. Reading is required for students whose scores fall below a certain level. The required math and writing courses for each degree are listed in the SFCC online catalog.
What Do My Placement Scores Mean?
Your placement scores are used to place you in the level of math, reading, or writing courses that are right for your skill level.
You may take Accuplacer, ACT, or SAT to determine your placement scores. Once your scores have been determined, you may view the placement chart to see your course placement for math and English. Your navigator will help you understand which classes you qualify for based on your scores.
Recent high school graduates or students still in high school may be eligible to utilize their unweighted high school GPA of 3.5 or higher to multiple measure into courses. To check your eligibility, consult the Multiple Measures for Placement into College-Level Courses flowchart.
If you have ACT scores of 18 or higher in both reading and English, you will automatically be eligible for English Composition I or Technical Writing, as well as several other general education courses in disciplines including history, science, psychology, humanities, and literature. These are all college-level courses.
However, entering college freshmen and transfer students who have not yet achieved an ACT 18 sub-score on both the reading and English portions will need to take one or more noncredit developmental courses to improve their skills.
If your college experience begins with developmental classes, you will have to pay for classes that don’t count toward a degree.
For example, if you want to earn an Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT), it requires that you take ENGL 101 and 102. If you score a 13 on both the reading and writing sections of the ACT, you will first need to complete ENGL 060 with a C or better, and then ENGL 070 with a C or better before you can enroll in ENGL 101. If you are a Missouri resident, these two additional classes, plus textbooks, will cost nearly $1,000 and could take two extra semesters before you can reach your goal of earning an AAT.
Accelerated Learning Program
If your ACT or ACCUPLACER scores place you in ENGL 060 (Foundations of English I), you will receive an intensive foundation in sentence and paragraph structure, which will prepare you for English 070 (Foundations of English II.)
If your ACT or ACCUPLACER scores place you in ENGL 070 (Foundations of English II), you will take it as a co-requisite of English Composition I.
If you place in ENGL 060 or ENGL 070, you also have the option of taking ENGL 090 (Introduction to English Composition,) a one-week online English review course. Upon successful completion of the course, you can retest with ACCUPLACER. If you earn the appropriate placement score for Composition I, you can bypass the developmental course.
Lisa Shoemaker Distinguished Student Writer Awards
Each spring the college presents the Lisa Shoemaker Distinguished Student Writer awards to three students whose essays are judged best by SFCC faculty and staff. English Composition and Literature instructors nominate student papers from hundreds submitted in fall and spring classes, and faculty independently select and rank the top 10 essays.
The awards are named in honor of Lisa Shoemaker, former English instructor and literature coordinator who retired in 2015 after teaching nearly 36 years at SFCC.
