Both English 120-College Composition II and English 125-Technical and Business Writing, continue the emphasis on the writing strategies mentioned above (focus, controlling ideas, claims and evidence, working with sources, providing rhetorical cues to readers) and they also require students to develop and produce their own extended research projects—projects in which students gather their own sources and develop their own arguments. English 120, with its emphasis on academic writing, is designed to address the needs of students who will major in fields that require a significant amount of writing and research. English 125, on the other hand, is designed for those students who will do most of their writing in professional contexts.

English 120 uses a book-length study of contemporary culture as a rhetorical model for students who then produce their own extended research projects. By analyzing how the authors of these studies complete research, make arguments, compile data and statistics, use sources, and use evidence and interpretations to persuade readers, students are asked to make active decisions about how to construct and to write their own research. This course places a strong emphasis on information literacy; students not only learn how to use the library and how to find sources, they also learn how to judge the credibility, usefulness, and perspective of written sources. As students analyze research projects and then have the experience of constructing research projects, the course raises important epistemological questions about how we make judgments, why we trust the information we encounter, and how sources shape what we know.

English 125 places a strong emphasis on the importance of audience and purpose for writers. Students are given a variety of professional scenarios and are asked to consider the strategies, genres, and methods through which they can accomplish their rhetorical goals. Students are introduced to a variety of professional genres, but the emphasis in this course is not on simply memorizing forms, but rather is on using writing skills (focus, persuasion, argumentation, work with sources, evidence) to achieve a specific, practical end. A research project, as in English 120, is a requirement of the course, and thus students are likewise asked to consider the credibility, usefulness, and perspective of written sources.