The English area of Quinebaug Valley Community College seeks to support all other academic areas by providing prerequisite and elective course offerings. Developmental and college-level curricula engage students in building reading, writing, listening, speaking, research, and thinking skills that are at the heart of genuine inquiry. Students seek to master the conventions of Standard English and academic usage; write research-based essays; explore literature and grapple with the fundamentally human questions found there; write poetry and fiction informed by investigations into craft; produce workplace documents using current conventions; and use technology in all phases of academic pursuits -- from research to the production of written and multimedia texts. We strive to help students discover a meaningful literacy, one that will serve them well as citizens, workers, and fully realized individuals.