| Courses
The
English Department strives to equip our students to read and think critically
and creatively and to express themselves in lucid speech and writing.
We accomplish this by encouraging students to read a broad variety of
literatures in English in their historical, social, cultural, political,
economic, and psychological contexts. Our goal is to foster reflective,
dedicated, lifelong learners.
The
study of English has enabled graduates to succeed in advanced study
in a variety of fields, and to pursue a broad range of career paths,
including teaching at all levels, journalism, professional writing,
business, library science, social work, government service, public relations,
and law.
| The
Courses: |
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WRITING
AND LANGUAGE
1002
College Composition
4 credits
Focus
on the organization, coherence and development required for college
papers. Intensive study of the conventions of written English, including
grammar, punctuation, and sentence construction. Placement determined
by the English department.
1101
Intro to College Writing
4 credits
Instruction
in how to write clear, correct, and effective expository prose; practice
in careful, analytical reading of significant literature; training
in research techniques.
1102
Writing about Literature
4 credits
Instruction
in how to write clear, correct, and effective expository prose; practice
in careful, analytical reading of significant literature; training
in research techniques. Successful completion of English 1002, 1101,
and 1102 with acceptable writing competence satisfies the English
Competence requirement. Prerequisite: English
1101 or placement determined by the English Dept.
English
1101 and 1102 or the equivalent or permission of the instructor is prerequisite
for all English courses numbered 2000 and above.
1103
Introduction to Journalism
4 credits
This
course studies the news media in America, including how they work,
their strengths, weaknesses, problems, and priorities with an emphasis
on print journalism and journalists. Students also receive instruction
in the art of news reporting and writing.
Prerequisite:
Eng 1101.
2204
Advanced News Reporting and Writing
4 credits
Advanced
skills in news reporting and writing. Students learn and practice
interviewing and other forms of news gathering and apply those methods
in a variety of news and feature stories.
Prerequisite:
English 1103.
2205
Media Ethics
4 credits
This
course examines the various ethical dilemmas that confront members
of the news media, including conflict of interest, "freebies,"
invasion of privacy, reporter-source problems, advertiser and corporate
pressures, and the use of deception to gather news. Students analyze
and debate actual ethical quandaries and attempt to find workable
solutions.
2206
Creative Writing -- Poetry
4 credits
A workshop
in poetry writing. Students will read modern and contemporary poetry
by such authors as Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Philip Levine,
Sharon Olds, and Robert Hayden. Student poems will be critiqued weekly
in the class workshop.
2207
Creative Writing -- Fiction
4 credits
A workshop
in writing short fiction. Class discussion focuses on student writing
and stories by recognized contemporary authors.
2208
Advanced Composition
4 credits
This
course is designed to assist writers in making their prose more sophisticated
and interesting to read. Students write a series of non-fiction essays
on topics personal or general, which workshops and revisions polish
and refine.
2210
Media and Politics
4 credits
This
course examines of the "symbiotic" relationship between
the news media and public officials in America. Special emphasis is
placed on the interplay between the press and presidency and between
the press and Congress. Cross-listed
with Political Science 2210.
2211
Grammar and Usage
4 credits
An overview
of the structure of the English language, introducing the discipline
of grammatical analysis. Students encounter both traditional grammar
and more recent linguistic approaches and consider some current problems
in the teaching of grammar in the schools.
2212
Professional Communication
4 credits
An opportunity
for students to practice and think critically about communication
in the workplace. Assignments will focus on writing forms and topics
suitable for students' fields of major interest. Students will complete
individual and collaborative projects designed to help them write
clearly and effectively for audiences both within their professions
and outside of them. Particular emphasis will be placed on electronic
communication forms.
2213
Introduction to Literary Methods and Critical Approaches
4 Credits
An introduction
to literary methods and critical approaches to literature through
a variety of texts written in English. Students will master vocabulary
and analytical methods needed to analyze texts, understand the outlines
of the history of English and American literature, explore major approaches
to literary criticism, and gain experience in writing critical papers.
Students should take this course early in their consideration
of the major. It is a prerequisite for all 3000 level departmental
literature courses. Humanities, Prerequisite:
English 1102.
2214
Editing and Desktop Publishing
4 credits
Exposure
to the workplace practices of professional editors and desktop publishers.
Students gain practice with developmental editing and copyediting
as well as with the production of brochures, fliers, and newsletters.
Specific attention is paid to the rhetorical choices that arise in
the editing and desktop publishing process. Prerequisites:
English 1102.
3306
Approaches to the Study of Language
4 credits
An introduction
to the principles and methods of linguistics, the social science that
treats language, with particular emphasis on productive uses of linguistics
in the humanities. Students are encouraged to see linguistics as an
evolving tradition of analysis, rather than a unified and complete
system that arose full-blown. Humanities,
Cross-listed with Communication 3306.
3307
Writing in Digital Environments
4 credits
An
exploration of the shifting expectations for writing in digital environments.
Students analyze and produce web-based writing designed for real audiences,
and in the process, address various cultural and ethical issues involved
in digital communication, such as the construction of identity through
word and image; the rearticulation of gender, race and class; and
issues of accessibility. Prerequisites:
English 1102; English 2212 or 2214.
3308
Writing in Law and Policy
4 credits
A course
designed for students interested in writing about law and policy.
Students will learn conventions of legal and analytical writing. Some
attention is devoted to critiquing new legal developments, but the
primary focus is the analysis of legal problems and the presentation
of findings in forms employed by legal and paralegal professionals.
Humanities, Prerequisite: English 1102;
English 2208, 2212, or 2214, or permission of the instructor.
3309
Rhetorical Approaches to Everyday Discourse
4 credits
An introduction
to rhetorical methods for analyzing such “texts” as speeches,
editorials, advertising, movie reviews, sports writing, and talk radio.
Students will learn to identify patterns within everyday discourses
and recognize and explain the persuasive power these discourses exert
over audiences. The course offers the opportunity to become a more
critical consumer of everyday discourse, and, through an expanded
awareness of context, strategy, and persuasion, a more capable producer
of persuasive discourse. Humanities, Prerequisite:
English 1102; English 2208, 2212, or 2214, or permission of the instructor.
3310
Rhetorical Approaches to Nonfiction
Literature
4 credits
Intensive
study of nonfiction prose literature (autobiography, biography, essay,
journalistic account, polemic). Students will learn methods of textual
analysis drawn from rhetoric, stylistics, and narrative theory. The
course explores the relationship between “literary” and
more pragmatic forms of discourse and examines the persuasiveness
of narrative. Humanities, Prerequisite:
English 1102; English 2208, 2212, or 2214, or permission of the instructor.
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PERIOD
COURSES
2230
Beowulf to Mallory
4 credits
A survey
of the major works of English literature from the 7th to the early
16th century, with attention given to their artistry and the ways
in which the works reflect the cultures from which they arose. In
addition to Beowulf, students explore works by Chaucer, the Gawain
poet, and others. Humanities,
Offered alternate years.
2231
Renaissance Literature
4 credits
A survey
of English poetry and prose from 1530 to 1660 with attention to the
development of a national literature, to the discovery of new forms
of poetry and prose, and to the recurrence of significant themes.
Among others, students consider the works of More, Sidney, Wyatt,
Spenser, Donne, and Milton.
Humanities,Offered alternate years.
2232
Enlightenment Literature
4 credits
An exploration
of the diverse body of literature produced from 1660 to 1819. It begins
with the writings of Locke, Newton, and others who shaped the thinking
of the period and proceeds to the works of significant literary figures
such as Dryden, Pope, Behn, Swift, Johnson, Walpole, Richardson, Austen,
and others. Humanities,
Offered alternate years.
2233
Romantics
4 credits
A survey
of the revolutionary literature of the late 18th and early 19th century
"Romantic" movement in England. Students will explore Romantic
poetry and prose in its historical context, beginning by examining
how writers both perpetuate and rebel against Enlightenment ideas,
and ending by considering how their legacy is felt today. Authors
studied include Godwin, Wollstonecraft, Blake, Wordsworth, Blake,
Coleridge, Mary Shelly, P.B. Shelly, and Keats.
Humanities,
Offered alternate years.
2234
Victorian Literature
4 credits
A survey
of the major literary and historical developments of the Victorian
period. Authors covered will include a selection from the following:
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Dickens, Elliot, Thackeray, Tennyson,
Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hopkins, and Wilde.
Humanities,
Offered alternate years.
2241
American Literature I: Colonial and Romantic
4 credits
A survey
of American literature from its inception to the Civil War. Students
explore the social, intellectual, and historical context of writers
such as Franklin, Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Poe, and
others. Humanities, Offered in alternate
years.
2242
American Literature II: Realism & Naturalism
4 credits
A survey
of American literature from the Civil War to World War I. Students
explore social, intellectual, and historical contexts of writers such
as Whitman, Dickinson, Freeman, Jewett, Twain, James, Gilman, Chopin,
Crane, Norris, Wharton, Dreiser, and Cather.
Humanities, Offered in alternate years.
2243
American Literature III: Modern and Contemporary
4 credits
A survey
of American literature from World War I to the present. Students explore
social, intellectual, and historical contexts of writers such as Frost,
Eliot. Stevens, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hughes, Welty, O'Connor and
Walker. Humanities, Offered in alternate
years.
2270
Twentieth-Century British Literature
4 credits
A study
of the direction that British literature took in the first four decades
of the twentieth century. Authors will include Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce,
Woolf, Hardy, Eliot, and Yeats. Students will examine technical innovations
such as stream of consciousness and fragmentation. Discussion of the
impact of Freud and the Great War on England's psyche will also be
a focus of studies. Humanities,
Offered alternate years.
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SPECIAL
TOPICS COURSES
2250
Post-Colonial Literature
4 credits
An exploration
of literature written in English by people of the variety of races
and cultures that once were part of the British Empire. Works covered
reflect and represent their experiences and creative genius. Writers
studied include Conrad, Rusdie, and Chinua Achebe.
Humanities/Cross Cultural Studies, Offered alternate years.
2251
Literature by Women
4 credits
A survey
of literature written by women, including poetry, prose, drama, and
non-fiction. Students examine selected works that explore women's
evolving roles in society and the many facets of women's unique position,
experience, and perspective on the world.
Humanities,
Offered alternate years.
2252
Popular Literature
4 credits
An examination
of the literary and cultural significance of a number of sub-genres
of popular literature, including the detective story, spy story, western,
science fiction, fantasy, love romance, and other popular forms. Writers
covered include Conan Doyle, Hammett, Christie, Fleming, Wells, and
Burroughs. Humanities,
Offered as needed.
2253
Southern Literature
4 credits
An
examination of regional literature of the Southern United States.
Students examine the
emergence and persistence of themes such as miscegenation, misogyny,
racism, incest, the grotesque, and the power of the past. Writers
covered include Angelou, Faulkner, O'Connor, Warren, Walker, Hurston,
and Porter. Humanities,
Offered as needed.
2254
Nature Writing
4 credits
A consideration
of various responses to the natural world and the ways in which writers
have described their encounters with it. Students focus on creative
non-fiction by writers such as Thoreau and John Muir. They also have
the opportunity to produce their own creative non-fiction responses
to wild nature. Humanities,
Offered as needed.
2255
The Short Story Cycle
4 credits
An examination
of the literary genre of the short story cycle, a novel-length grouping
of inter-related stories linked by character, setting, and theme.
Typical American examples include Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio; Faulkner's
Go Down, Moses; Welty's The Golden Apples; and Tan's The Joy Luck
Club. Humanities,
Offered as needed.
2256
Twentieth-Century American Poetry
4 credits
An examination
of significant American poetry of the twentieth century. Poets covered
will include Masters, Williams, Stevens, Plath, Ginsberg, Baraka,
Hughes, Rich, Sexton, and Moore. Humanities,
Offered as needed.
2258
African American Literature
4 credits
An
examination of the African American oral and written literary
legacy which traces
its history as a distinct literary tradition and as an important
part of the dominant American literary tradition. Students examine
and
discuss poetry, plays, short stories, essays, and novels from all
literary periods. Humanities,
Offered every year.
2260
Horror Fiction
4 credits
An investigation
of the dark and popular world of horror fiction, with special emphasis
on the Gothic tradition within British and American literature since
1764. Students examine and discuss why horror stories fascinate, and
how anxieties about sexuality, the unconscious mind, scientific discoveries,
social injustice, and other topics are translated into the horror
literature we read. Humanities,
Offered as needed.
2271
Contemporary British Literature
4 credits
An introduction
to British literature from the 1950s to the present. With a focus
on topics including humor, politics, nostalgia, nihilism, and multiculturalism,
students examine Booker and Whitbread prize-winning authors such as
Murdoch, Rushdie, Ishiguro, Baker, Bryant, Lodge, and Winterson, as
well as a selection of poetry and contemporary British films.
Humanities,
Offered as needed.
3381
Fiction
4 Credits
A study
of British or American Fiction, either in the novel or short story
as a type of literary expression.
Humanities, Prerequisite: English 2213.
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NOVEL
COURSES
3341
British Novel I
4 credits
A survey
of the British novel from its beginnings in the seventeenth century
through the eighteenth century and romantic periods. Students address
the social, intellectual, and historical contexts of significant works
as well as the themes and developing form of the novel.
Humanities, Offered alternate years, Prerequisite:
English 2213.
3342
British Novel II
4 credits
A survey
of the British novel from the Victorian era to the present day. Students
address the social, intellectual, and historical contexts of significant
works as well as the themes and continuing development of the form
of the novel. Humanities, Offered alternate
years, Prerequisite:
English 2213.
3343
American Novel
4 credits
A survey
of American novels from its inception, Brockden Brown's Wieland, to
the present day. Topics addressed include social, intellectual, and
historical contexts as well as theme and the developing form of the
novel. Humanities, Offered alternate years,
Prerequisite:
English 2213.
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FIGURES
COURSES
3350
Shakespeare
4 credits
A survey
of Shakespeare's major poetic and dramatic works. In addition to background
on Shakespeare's life and the Elizabethan theater, the early portion
of the course covers the narrative poem Venus and Adonis and the Sonnets.
The remainder of the course is dedicated to the study of major comedies
from Love's Labors Lost to The Tempest, history plays from Richard
II to Henry V, and the major tragedies. Humanities,
Cross-listed with Theatre Arts 3350, Prerequisite:
English 2213.
3360
Chaucer
4 credits
An examination
of The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and the minor poems
as well as focus on the influence of continental authors on Chaucer's
works. Humanities, Offered alternate years,
Prerequisite:
English 2213.
3363
Major Figures and Groups I (British)
4 credits
An intensive
study of the work of a major British writer or related group of writers.
Humanities, Prerequisite:
English 2213.
3364
Major Figures and Groups II (American)
4 credits
An intensive
study of the work of a major American writer or related group of writers.
Humanities, Prerequisite:
English 2213.
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SENIOR
SEMINAR, INDEPENDENT STUDIES, AND INTERNSHIPS
2295;
2296; 3395; 3396; 4495; 4496 Internship in English
0-4 credits
Supervised
field experiences in appropriate settings, usually off-campus, designed
to assist students in acquiring and using skills and knowledge of
the discipline unique to the selected topic.
2298;
2299; 3398; 3399; 4498; 4499 Independent Studies in English
0-4 credits
Directed
study planned and conducted with reference to the needs of those students
who are candidates for departmental honors. Qualified students who
are not candidates for such honors but who desire to do independent
studies are also admitted with permission of the department.
4492
Senior Seminar
4 credits
The
capstone to the English major emphasizes techniques and methods of
literary criticism. Seniors explore a different theme, genre, or topic
each semester, and prepare a major paper. Prerequisite:
2.0 gpa in major courses, or permission of the instructor.
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