UG Course Descriptions: Fall 2013

Days, times and room locations listed below are subject to change. For detailed and up-to-date listings of instructors, course times, room numbers, and open/closed/waitlisted status, see the University's official online Schedule of Classes.

For past syllabi or more information on a specific course, please contact the English Department at 502-852-6801.

 

Fall 2013

1175 ENGL 202-01 Introduction to Creative Writing: MWF 9-9:50 a.m. (Dr. Miller)

English 202 introduces students to the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama with their attendant vocabularies, traditions, and forms. In the course of the semester, a 202 student will: Locate and refine his or her individual writing process. Learn frameworks for interrogating his or her own work and providing meaningful responses to peer work. Write within (and riff upon) literary traditions and forms in each of the three genres.

 

 

1861 ENGL 202-02 Introduction to Creative Writing: MWF 12-12:50 p.m. (Dr. Greenwald)

This is an introductory, workshop-style course in the writing of fiction, memoir, drama, and poetry. The course aims to develop students’ skills as writers, readers, and critics. Class sessions will include writing exercises and discussion of both student and published work. A significant amount of class time will be used to discuss work by class members.

 

 

8810 ENGL 202-03 Introduction to Creative Writing: MW 4-5:15 p.m. (Dr. Leung)

The ideal student for this section of English 202 is a person who arrives at each class meeting curious about the world, engages in reading as a primary activity outside of school, and is in the habit of writing daily. This ideal student might also be someone who genuinely aspires to the habits of said reading and writing life, and is eager to do the work necessary to get there. Students who do not enjoy reading and writing will not do well in this section of Engl 202.

In this course you will write literary poetry, fiction, and drama. We will address literary, popular, and commercial writing and ways these can intersect with our literary interests. The course will require daily writing exercises and critical discussion of both published and student work. In place of purchasing an additional textbook, you will also attend one play of your choosing. At the end of the semester you will submit a substantial portfolio of your strongest work.

Finally, this is not a course for those seeking an easy “A.” Introduction to Creative Writing is designed for students who are truly interested in exploring literary writing and are therefore prepared to treat it as the rigorous academic course that it is. This will be a semester in which, through your writing, you will practice sophisticated methods of expression toward the aim of exploring what it means to be human.

 

 

7066 ENGL 202-04 Introduction to Creative Writing: T/TH 4-5:15 p.m. (Dr. Martinez)

An Introduction to Creative Writing, offers the opportunity to explore the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama with the goal of enabling students to gain or improve competence as readers, writers, and critics in all three genres. Students will leave English 202 prepared for the demands of higher level creative writing courses, having learned a set of techniques for invention, writing, and revision; a critical vocabulary for each genre; experience in workshop sessions; and a broader knowledge of contemporary literature in each genre.

 

 

 

 

 

1176 ENGL 202-75 Introduction to Creative Writing: MW 5:30-6:45 p.m. (Dr. Mozer)

This course offers the opportunity to explore the genres of poetry, fiction writing, and drama. Students enrolled in this course must have already completed ENGL 102 or 105. The course will require regular writing exercises and critical discussion of both published and student work. You will also attend one play or one reading. At the end of the class you will submit a portfolio of your strongest, revised work from the semester.

For this class, you will read carefully and critically. That is, you will set aside plenty of time to read each text (hopefully more than once). As you read, you will make notes, look up words you’re unfamiliar with, and consider connections to other texts you are reading as well as the world you live in. You will bring the results of your efforts to class, ready to participate in class discussion. Let me repeat that: you’ll come to class ready to participate in class discussion. This isn’t a class where you can sit in the back and play on your iPhone. The more you engage, the better the class becomes. True story.

Finally, this is not a course for those seeking an easy A. Introduction to Creative Writing is designed for students who are truly interested in exploring creative writing and therefore prepared to treat it as the rigorous academic course that it is.

 

 

6425 ENGL 202-96 Introduction to Creative Writing: MWF 7:40-9:10 a.m. (Drs. Ritchie/Smith)

Note: Restricted to students admitted to the A&S high school cooperative program. This class meets at Manual High School

 

5087 ENGL 250-01 Introduction to Literature –H: T/TH 12:15 p.m. (Dr. Griner)

Welcome to Introduction to Literature, a course that is intended to introduce you to methods of interpreting literature. We will read and analyze several types of literature during the semester, including short stories, novellas, short story collections that work as books, a novel, poetry, and creative nonfiction (a memoir).

In class, we will analyze both the content of the pieces we read and their structure, symbolism, and themes, with emphasis on the latter. The course should provide you with greater insight into the many different types of important and influential schools of criticism about literature, and to some of the many types of literature you might encounter in later English classes.

Student learning outcomes for the course are as follows. Students will:

—demonstrate an understanding of various literary traditions.

—develop and refine their ability to assess and interpret literature, both orally and in writing.

—become familiar with the terms, ideas, and questions that inform literary study.

These outcomes will be assessed through quizzes, response papers, essay examinations, and class discussion.

In addition, since this course meets a General Education Requirement, the course is intended to meet GER learning outcomes. Some of those outcomes (listed below) overlap the ones above.

 

 

8811 ENGL 300-01 Introduction to English Studies-WR: MWF 9-9:50 a.m. (Dr. Yohannes)

This is a writing course with literature as the topic of the writing and Edgar Allan Poe’s works as the theme. Edgar Allan Poe is a 19th century poet, novelist, short-story writer, theorist, and playwright whose works easily lend themselves to various approaches for study. He is the originator of the detective story, a master of the gothic, an experimenter in poetic form and the sea adventure story, and a significant contributor to our understanding of literary theory and of the social construction of race. His works have the archaic beauty of 170-year-old texts and the immediacy and intensity we look for in all great literature.

The central question of this course is how we can use the works of Edgar Allan Poe to deepen our reading of and writing about literature. We will divide our study into three units, first to practice the “new critical” approach to thinking and writing about literature, next to develop strategies in critical thinking to problematize our reading, and finally to familiarize ourselves with the interpretation theories that can help us analyze a longer text.

 

 

5423 ENGL 300-02 Introduction to English Studies-WR: MWF 1-1:50 p.m. (Dr. Willey)

“ An introduction to English Studies, providing an overview of forms such as poetry, drama, and the novel, and an introduction to terminology and methods used in analyzing texts.”

Minimum Goals for ENGL 300: Intro. to English Studies WR:

1) 300 should introduce students to the ongoing discussions across the field of English studies and familiarize them with some of the key modes of“thinking like an English major.”

2) 300 should introduce students to the writing of argumentative essays about literature that contain a clear and focused thesis supported by textual evidence and correctly documented in MLA citation style.

3) 300 should familiarize students with the conventions of, and terminology used in the study of fiction, drama, and poetry.

4) 300 must meet the University standards for a WR course.

 

 

6432 ENGL 300-04 Introduction to English Studies-WR: T/TH 1-2:15 p.m. (Dr. Chandler)

This course, which serves as an introduction to the English major, will explore legacies of family, contours of desire, and the influence of place in fiction, drama, and poetry. In some texts, these themes coalesce, while in others one or another takes prominence. The course will call on students to keep these and other relevant themes in mind as they explore the nuances of particular literary works, as well as the artistic and cultural contexts in which the writing was produced.

 

 

1826 ENGL 301-50 British Literature I:T/TH 2:30-3:45 p.m. (Dr. Dietrich)

We will read a selection of the writings of English-speaking peoples from 660 to the Restoration. We will focus on the ways they constructed their views of the world and on the role of writing in that construction, paying particular attention to changes and continuities in cultural values.

 

1512 ENGL 302-01 British Literature II: MWF 10-10:50 a.m. (Dr. Rosner)

In this survey of British literature from the end of the 18thto the mid-20th centuries, you will find a broad introduction to three literary periods--the Romantics, the Victorians, and the Moderns–where you learn some of the ideas that define the periods and test specific literary texts against those ideas. The texts will be poems, non-fiction, and fiction. You will get some practice talking and writing about these texts, analyzing details of a text to explain an interpretation, and reading texts in ways that show that they meant to their original audiences (as well as what they mean to you). We will start slowly but soon speed up. If we do not get a chance to work on all assigned texts [because of time], please be sure to ask questions if you have them at the beginning of the next class.

 

 

1934 ENGL 303-01 Scientific and Technical Writing-WR: MWF 12-12:50 p.m. (Dr. Smith)

This course is designed for those students who are preparing for careers in technical fields. The course concentrates on writing in technical forms of discourse, It emphasizes practicing writing processes, secondary research, and problem-solving; recognizing the rhetorical character of technical discourse with its multiple purposes and audiences; evaluating and integrating a variety of written, visual, and oral elements of design; anddeveloping field-specific vocabularies for talking about this discourse. You will learn and apply theories involved in designing reader-friendly documents. You will learn and apply theories involved in writing collaboratively as a team. One goal of the course will be to practice and develop effective communication skills. Key elements of effective communication include: clear articulation of the purpose in a tone suitable to the audience, evidence of coherent

organization, demonstration of analysis and/or synthesis of the concepts and/or evidence, use of appropriate conventions and style. Class discussions, analysis of sample work, and applied practice will be used to help you develop these skills. Your progress in this area will be assessed with a portfolio at the end of the course.

*Note: Writing classes are always time-intensive. The only way to improve your writing (or any complex skill) is through lots of practice. Expect to spend, on average, a minimum of 5 hours outside of class each week, with the heavier investment coming after mid-term. If you devote the time to regularly attend and engage with class and complete assignments, this should be a good learning experience for you.

 

 

1563 ENGL 303-02 Scientific and Technical Writing-WR: MWF 1-1:50 p.m. (Dr. Smith)

This course is designed for those students who are preparing for careers in technical fields. The course concentrates on writing in technical forms of discourse, It emphasizes practicing writing processes, secondary research, and problem-solving; recognizing the rhetorical character of technical discourse with its multiple purposes and audiences; evaluating and integrating a variety of written, visual, and oral elements of design; and developing field-specific vocabularies for talking about this discourse. You will learn and apply theories involved in designing reader-friendly documents. You will learn and apply theories involved in writing collaboratively as a team. One goal of the course will be to practice and develop effective communication skills. Key elements of effective communication include: clear articulation of the purpose in a tone suitable to the audience, evidence of coherent organization, demonstration of analysis and/or synthesis of the concepts and/or evidence, use of appropriate conventions and style. Class discussions, analysis of sample work, and applied practice will be used to help you develop these skills. Your progress in this area will be assessed with a portfolio at the end of the course.

*Note: Writing classes are always time-intensive. The only way to improve your writing (or any complex skill) is through lots of practice. Expect to spend, on average, a minimum of 5 hours outside of class each week, with the heavier investment coming after mid-term. If you devote the time to regularly attend and engage with class and complete assignments, this should be a good learning experience for you.

 

 

9207 ENGL 303-50 Scientific and Technical Writing-WR: Distance Ed (Dr. Mansfield)

The focus of English 303 is recognizing and responding in writing to different rhetorical situations in scientific and technical discourse communities. A student in English 303 should expect to create and revise documents in multiple genres. Each document should establish a clear purpose, sense of audience awareness, and sense of the writer’s presence and position. A student in English 303 should expect to complete four-to-six projects.

 

1177 Intermediate Creative Writing Poetry: MWF 1-1:50 p.m. (Dr. Petrosino)

This intermediate course is for poets who are interested in sharpening their skills as writers, readers, and critics. Successful students in this course will engage in a regular writing

practice, and will take seriously the processes of composition, critique, and revision. We will

spend class sessions “workshopping” student poems, but we will also devote time to

discussing assigned reading and to performing various writing experiments. Assignments will

include: responses to peer manuscripts [250 words each], three book reviews of assigned

poetry collections [500-750 words each], and a final portfolio [12-15 finished poems].

Students will be required to compose a portfolio letter [1000-1250 words] introducing the

work in their portfolios.

[Note: This course requires from each student significant commitments to reading and writing.

Consistent attendance is also required. Students must observe all deadlines noted in the syllabus.]

 

5575 ENGL 305-02 Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop-Playwrite: MW 4-5:15 p.m. (Dr. Skinner)

This is a workshop-style course in the writing of original drama. While class sessions are used primarily to discuss work written by class members, some classes will focus on discussion of contemporary published work, and other issues relevant to writing for the theater.

 

1178 ENGL 306-01 Business Writing-WR: MWF 8-8:50 a.m. (Dr. Cohen)

This course is designed to help you develop strategies for writing in business environments. To help develop these strategies, you will work both individually and in groups on projects that draw on conventions of business writing. Some of these projects include resumes, emails, letters, memos, business plans and presentations. With an awareness of technologically enhanced communicative practices in the workplace today, you will compose and present work in various genres and using different media. In class, you will discuss research, plan and carry out team-based communicative projects as you would do at work. The course integrates elements of critical thinking that will help you analyze and understand communicative situations as well as assess your own and your peers’ work. You will learn and implement project management strategies and use technologies for collaborative writing in order to accomplish a major portion of the coursework. Prerequisites:This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfied the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR).

 

1179 ENGL 306-02 Business Writing-WR: MWF 9-9:50 a.m. (Sr. Sobiech)

The goal of this course is to help you develop the skills you will need for effective business writing. This course will emphasize organization, style, and conventions appropriate to business letters, memorandums, reports, and other forms of business discourse. You will improve your ability to write fluently and persuasively while strengthening your awareness of audience, tone, and style.

E306 is approved for the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirements in written communication (WR). It is designed for advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in law, business, or government. It emphasizes the writing process, professional problem solving, and the integration of oral and written communication. Students enrolled in this course can expect to:

  • Learn the organization, style, and conventions appropriate to various forms of business communication
  • Practice writing processes, learn research methods, and develop an appropriate style
  • Work with each other as a group of professionals
  • Practice written and oral communication
  • Learn professional problem solving
  • Learn and use new communicative technologies

Both formal and informal writing and oral communication are required of students. Students can expect to write in a variety of forms, including a specialized research project. To enroll in this course, students must have taken or satisfied the requirements for English 102 or 105.

 

 

1180 ENGL 306-03 Business Writing-WR: MWF 10-10:50 a.m. (Dr. Sobiech)

The goal of this course is to help you develop the skills you will need for effective business writing. This course will emphasize organization, style, and conventions appropriate to business letters, memorandums, reports, and other forms of business discourse. You will improve your ability to write fluently and persuasively while strengthening your awareness of audience, tone, and style.

E306 is approved for the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirements in written communication (WR). It is designed for advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in law, business, or government. It emphasizes the writing process, professional problem solving, and the integration of oral and written communication. Students enrolled in this course can expect to:

  • Learn the organization, style, and conventions appropriate to various forms of business communication
  • Practice writing processes, learn research methods, and develop an appropriate style
  • Work with each other as a group of professionals
  • Practice written and oral communication
  • Learn professional problem solving
  • Learn and use new communicative technologies

Both formal and informal writing and oral communication are required of students. Students can expect to write in a variety of forms, including a specialized research project. To enroll in this course, students must have taken or satisfied the requirements for English 102 or 105.

 

 

1181 ENGL 306-04 Business Writing-WR: T/TH 1-2:15 p.m. (Dr. Lamsal)

The work in this course is designed to help you develop effective business writing strategies. To accomplish this goal, we’ll write a variety of business-associated genres, including resumes, emails, business letters, memos, business plans, and presentations. Students are anticipated to be advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in business and business-related fields, including law and public service. This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfies the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR).

 

1182 ENGL 306-05 HON: Business Writing-WR: T/TH 9:30-10:45 (Dr. Lueck)

The work in this course is designed to help you develop effective business writing strategies. To accomplish this goal, we’ll write a variety of business-associated genres, including resumes, emails, business letters, memos, business plans, and presentations. Students are anticipated to be advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in business and business-related fields, including law and public service. This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfies the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR). Students in this course must also be enrolled in the Honors Program.

 

 

1183 ENGL 306-06 Business Writing-WR: MWF 11-11:50 a.m. (Dr. Detmering)

This course is designed to meet the upper-division writing (WR) credit for the school of Arts and Sciences. In this section, we will focus on developing and enhancing writing skills that will aid you as you finish college and enter the job market. Departmental goals for this course are discussed below. Assigned readings from our course textbook and writing projects completed during and outside of class will help us to meet these goals. Because this course is discussion-based, you are expected to attend regularly and participate actively in all class discussions (see general expectations and attendance policy for further information). Further, because writing is interactive and always done with a specific audience in mind, you will be asked to share your writing with your classmates regularly throughout the semester.

 

1184 ENGL 306-07 Business Writing-WR: T/TH 2:30-3:45 (Dr. Lamsal)

The work in this course is designed to help you develop effective business writing strategies. To accomplish this goal, we’ll write a variety of business-associated genres, including resumes, emails, business letters, memos, business plans, and presentations. Students are anticipated to be advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in business and business-related fields, including law and public service. This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfies the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR).

 

5312 ENGL 306-08 Business Writing-WR: T/TH 4-5:15 (Dr. McGuffey)

English 306 is designed for advanced business students and Arts and Sciences students (juniors and seniors) anticipating careers in law, business, or government. This course assumes that the better prepared you are to communicate effectively and persuasively using customary business forms, the more readily will you achieve your personal goals. We will compose and present work in modes, both written and visual, expected in business and government. We will also practice composing processes, research relevant business questions, and practice professional problem-solving. As an integral part of these activities, we will examine the rhetorical nature of professional discourse in addressing diverse audiences, sometimes with multiple purposes.

 

5590 ENGL 306-09 Business Writing-WR: MWF 12-12:50 p.m. (Dr. Detmering)

This course is designed to meet the upper-division writing (WR) credit for the school of Arts and Sciences. In this section, we will focus on developing and enhancing writing skills that will aid you as you finish college and enter the job market. Departmental goals for this course are discussed below. Assigned readings from our course textbook and writing projects completed during and outside of class will help us to meet these goals. Because this course is discussion-based, you are expected to attend regularly and participate actively in all class discussions (see general expectations and attendance policy for further information). Further, because writing is interactive and always done with a specific audience in mind, you will be asked to share your writing with your classmates regularly throughout the semester.

 

 

 

6427 ENGL 306-10 Business Writing-WR: MW 4-5:15 p.m. (Dr. Rose)

The work in this course is designed to help you develop effective business writing strategies. To accomplish this goal, we’ll write a variety of business-associated genres, including resumes, business letters, memos, business plans, and presentations. Students are anticipated to be advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in business and business-related fields, including law and public service. This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfies the A&S requirement for an upper level WR course.

 

6310 ENGL 306-50 Business Writing-WR: Distance Ed. (Dr. Tanner)

English 306 is designed for advance business students and Arts and Sciences students (juniors and seniors) anticipating careers in law, business, or government. This course assumes that the better prepared you are to communicate effectively and persuasively using customary business forms, the more readily will you achieve your personal goals. We will compose and present work in modes, both written and visual, expected in business and government. We will also practice composing processes, research relevant business questions, and practice professional problem-solving. As an integral part of these activities, we will examine the rhetorical nature of professional discourse in addressing diverse audiences, sometimes with multiple purposes.

 

 

6311 ENGL 306-53 Business Writing-WR: Distance Ed. (Dr. Tanner)

English 306 is designed for advance business students and Arts and Sciences students (juniors and seniors) anticipating careers in law, business, or government. This course assumes that the better prepared you are to communicate effectively and persuasively using customary business forms, the more readily will you achieve your personal goals. We will compose and present work in modes, both written and visual, expected in business and government. We will also practice composing processes, research relevant business questions, and practice professional problem-solving. As an integral part of these activities, we will examine the rhetorical nature of professional discourse in addressing diverse audiences, sometimes with multiple purposes.

 

6312 ENGL 306-54 Business Writing-WR: Distance Ed. (Dr. Tanner)

English 306 is designed for advance business students and Arts and Sciences students (juniors and seniors) anticipating careers in law, business, or government. This course assumes that the better prepared you are to communicate effectively and persuasively using customary business forms, the more readily will you achieve your personal goals. We will compose and present work in modes, both written and visual, expected in business and government. We will also practice composing processes, research relevant business questions, and practice professional problem-solving. As an integral part of these activities, we will examine the rhetorical nature of professional discourse in addressing diverse audiences, sometimes with multiple purposes.

 

6313 ENGL 306-55 Business Writing-WR: Distance Ed. (Dr. Tanner)

English 306 is designed for advance business students and Arts and Sciences students (juniors and seniors) anticipating careers in law, business, or government. This course assumes that the better prepared you are to communicate effectively and persuasively using customary business forms, the more readily will you achieve your personal goals. We will compose and present work in modes, both written and visual, expected in business and government. We will also practice composing processes, research relevant business questions, and practice professional problem-solving. As an integral part of these activities, we will examine the rhetorical nature of professional discourse in addressing diverse audiences, sometimes with multiple purposes.

 

1185 ENGL 306-75 Business Writing-WR: MW 5:30-6:45 p.m. (Dr. Rose)

The work in this course is designed to help you develop effective business writing strategies. To accomplish this goal, we’ll write a variety of business-associated genres, including resumes, business letters, memos, business plans, and presentations. Students are anticipated to be advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in business and business-related fields, including law and public service. This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfies the A&S requirement for an upper level WR course.

 

1186 ENGL 306-76 Business Writing-WR: MW 7-8:15 p.m. (Dr. Rose)

The work in this course is designed to help you develop effective business writing strategies. To accomplish this goal, we’ll write a variety of business-associated genres, including resumes, business letters, memos, business plans, and presentations. Students are anticipated to be advanced Business students and Arts and Sciences students anticipating careers in business and business-related fields, including law and public service. This course requires successful completion of English 102 or 105, and it satisfies the A&S requirement for an upper level WR course.

 

5654 ENGL 306-77 Business Writing-WR: T/TH 5:30-6:45 (Dr. Dehn)

English 306 will give you practice in the conventions of business communication. In particular, you will learn to analyze audiences and problems; to use simple research tools; to edit, organize, design, and revise simple and complex texts directed toward specific audiences; to present information orally; to respect such practices as meeting deadlines, presenting professional final copies, and working with others in collaborative efforts.

 

 

5707 ENGL 306-78 Business Writing-WR: T/TH 7-8:15 p.m. (Dr. Dehn)

English 306 will give you practice in the conventions of business communication. In particular, you will learn to analyze audiences and problems; to use simple research tools; to edit, organize, design, and revise simple and complex texts directed toward specific audiences; to present information orally; to respect such practices as meeting deadlines, presenting professional final copies, and working with others in collaborative efforts.

 

 

5088 ENGL 309-01 Advanced Academic Writing-WR: T/TH 1-2:15 p.m. (Dr. Wright)

The focus of English 309 is recognizing differing rhetorical situations and responding to them at an advanced level in appropriate modes for diverse audiences. A student in English 309 should expect to create and revise compositions in multiple genres. Compositions should establish a clear purpose, exhibit audience awareness, and reveal a sense of the writer’s presence and position. A student in English 309 should expect to complete four to six projects of their own design. Themes may vary per section as determined by the instructor.

 

 

 

 

 

1187 ENGL 309-02 Advanced Academic Writing-WR: T 4-6:45 p.m. (Dr. Rogers)

Because our focus is interdisciplinary, we look at writing and research across the curriculum to cover the disciplines that interest each student. For students in interdisciplinary Liberal Studies programs, the course complements the work of LBST 300 in interdisciplinary writing and research. As a class, we discuss formal composition as well as creative nonfiction, examining how different ways of writing facilitate critical inquiry and lead to personal reflection and further critical insight. As individuals, each of you determines your approach to creative nonfiction as writers and to research in your fields of interest. Our overall goal for the course is to gain additional experience and proficiency as thinkers, writers, and researchers.

 

 

1188 ENGL 310-01 Writing About Literature-WR: MWF 11-11:50 a.m. (Dr. Schneider)

In this course, we’ll focus on two main questions: why (and what does it mean to) write about literature? And how might we translate those writing skills to broader contexts? While we’ll spend more time on the first question, the second should be at the back of your minds as we go about the work of this course. To keep things focuses, we’ll spend much of the course looking at detective fiction, specifically short stories and novels involving a protagonist who must solve or resolve a criminal act. We’ll use these stories to interrogate the various conventions of literary criticism, and to identify those terms that seem most specifically to apply to that criticism: plot, character, setting, form, tradition, etc.Coursework will involve reading five novels and a handful of short stories, and composing four papers on the assigned texts for the course. You will also be asked to complete daily homework assignments, and to actively contribute to class discussion.

 

 

8812 ENGL 310-02 Writing About Literature-WR: MWF 10-10:50 a.m. (Dr. Wald)

This class serves as an introduction to the study of literature for non-majors. We will read, discuss, and write about poetry, prose, and drama. This class meets the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR). This class requires a substantial amount of writing, including one required revision. My hope in this class is to share with you my enthusiasm for the reading and analyzing of literature while also teaching you some of the key terms and techniques for engaging in the field. We will be focusing on one of the areas of literary studies that I am most excited about - the role of nature, environment, and place in U.S. literature. Please note that this course requires ENGL 102 or 105 as a prerequisite.

 

 

7067 ENGL 310-03 Writing About Literature-Nonmajor-WR: T/TH 9:30-10:45 (Dr. Bell, Jr.)

1) 310 should introduce students to the writing of argumentative essays about literature that

contain a clear and focused thesis supported by textual evidence and documented in MLA style.

2) 310 should familiarize students with the conventions and terminology used in the study of

fiction, drama, and poetry.

3) 310 must meet the University standards for a WR course.

 

5089 ENGL 310-04 Writing About Literature-Nonmajor-WR: T/TH 4-5:15 p.m. (Dr. Wright)

This course introduces students to the discipline of literary study through careful readings of

poetry, short fiction, and drama. Students become fluent in a vocabulary for describing literary

works in detail, and develop the skills in written and verbal expression that are essential for the

study of literature. This course fulfils the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written

communication (WR). Prerequisite: English 102 or 105.

Discussions in class will be based on your observations about the texts, so read carefully, keep

notes, and be prepared to share your ideas.

 

 

1189 ENGL 311-01 American Literature I: MWF 10-10:50 a.m. (Dr. Yohannes)

This reading course surveys the literature written in the United States from its beginnings to the Civil War. We will take a two-fold thematic and chronological approach to the literature by using Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables as a focus text for the entire course while simultaneously dividing the course into three periods and then reading shorter works in more-or-less chronological order from each period in installments dealing with similar themes, genres, contextual issues as the novel. This strategy will allow our discussions of the longer and shorter texts to interact with each other as we work to develop deeper understandings of the themes and cross-currents informing the literatures of the historical periods.

Strategically, this course requires each student to read, think, and write about the assigned literature daily and to come to class ready to discuss the important issues raised by the literature with the student’s team and with the whole class. Teams will be assigned during the first week of class and will remain functioning throughout the semester.

 

 

1190 ENGL 311-02 American Literature I: T/TH 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. (Dr. Ryan)

AMERICAN LITERATURE I
In English 311 we will read and consider a wide range of texts written by Americans (or, in some cases, by people who visited North America) from the early colonial period to around 1865. Along the way, we’ll pursue three main categories of investigation:
1. Literary analysis: To what possible interpretations do these works lend themselves? How does textual evidence support or undermine particular interpretations? How do different works of literature fit together or speak to one another?
2. Contextualization: How do works of literature speak of (and to) the historical moments in which they were produced? What kinds of dissonances, productive or otherwise, arise when twenty-first-century readers approach these texts?
3. Canonization: How are certain works deemed worthy of study, while others are left out? What assumptions and decisions do we make in assigning value to works of literature? How are "classics" made and how are we, as participants in a university course, involved in that process? What other versions of American literary history are possible or defensible? How do the conventional periods into which we divide American literature—often related to the various wars in which the US has participated—define and perhaps limit the study of literature?
Assignments will include short response papers, reading quizzes, a midterm, and a final exam.

 

1191 ENGL 312-01 American Literature II: MWF 9-9:50 a.m. (Dr. Anderson)

 

 

 

4323 ENGL 325-01 Introductin to Linguistics: MWF 11-11:50 a.m. (Dr. Patton)

Prerequisite: ENGL 102 or 105. Note: Cross-listed with ENGL 325. Introduction to the basic assumptions, methods and concepts of studying language, focusing on the way language influences human experience and the organization of human behavior. Examines the nature, structure and use of language; may apply as elective in either Social Sciences or Humanities meeting divisional or out-of-divisional requirements.

Objective: To introduce undergraduate students to aspects of theoretical linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and explore several aspects of applied linguistics. This course will also encourage undergraduate students to think critically about language and its use.

 

7070 ENGL 330-01 Language and Culture: MWF 1-1:50 p.m. (Dr. Patton)

An ethnographic perspective to the study of language, investigating how it is used to create and maintain

social institutions an d rituals, and how it is differentiated across genders and ethnicities.

 

 

1192 ENGL 333-01 Shakespeare: T/TH 9:30-10:45 a.m. (Dr. Wise)

We will follow two majors threads throughout the semester. The first will be to examine the objects or materials, both inherited from the past and “new” to the time period, that provide the context of the plays and sonnets. The second will be to seek to determine how each work introduces characters who are seeking or constructing an identity. Are the charactersdefining a self or consciously constructing a part. What constitutes identity for a Shakespeare character? For the author ? For the audience? How can a playwright reveal the inner life of major characters? Can a fictional character have an inner life at all? How do ethnicity, gender, and class inform our construction of self? To what extent is the author limited by the cultural mores of the society? Does the creative power of imagination allow the playwright to transform a stock character into a real person, much less a unique self? Can we ever distinguish acting from being? Shakespeare did not have the advantage of studying Freud or Lacan, he understood human complexity, both individual and collective, and he was willing to probe the way our actions, words, gestures, tones, and dreams both hide and reveal our inner selves including our greatest fears and most ardent longings.

 

4783 ENGL 369-01 Minority Traditions in American Literature-CD1: MW 2-3:15 p.m. (Dr. Clukey)

This course will examine African American modernism through the outpouring of literature, art, music, and film that came out of Harlem in the early twentieth century. Despite white attempts to control black mobility and subjectivity in Jim Crow America, black writers, artists, and thinkers from across the United States and the Atlantic world flocked to New York City in the 1920s and 1930s in search of economic opportunities, political freedoms, sociability, bohemian community, and aesthetic experimentation. At the same time, black internationalism was en vogue in transatlantic popular culture: the films and dances of Josephine Baker lit up Paris and Paul Robeson won fame and acclaim in Hollywood. Our central focus this semester will be on the ways African American writers situated themselves within the “Black Atlantic” and on the ways that black writers from other countries situated themselves within the United States—and how these two groups related to each other across their national and cultural differences. Our discussions will focus on issues of black cosmopolitanism, urbanity, worldliness, dandyism, transnational mobility, intercultural coalition building and friendship, sexuality, race, nationhood, and, of course, literary form.

 

 

1193 ENGL 373-01 Women in Literature-CD2: MWF 12-12:50 p.m. (Dr. Wald)

This class examines representations of women in U.S. literature from the late 19th Century to the early 21st Century. We will focus on texts that explore women’s experiences navigating race, class, gender, and sexuality in the U.S. context. Our approach to literature by and about women in this class will be in conversation with women of color feminism and foreground an intersectional analysis. This means we will examine the ways that women’s lives are mutually constituted by race, gender, sexuality, and class. There are four essay exams in this course. Please note that this course requires ENGL 102 or 105 or WGST 199 as a prerequisite.

 

1955 ENGL 373-02 Women in Literature-CD2: T/TH 1-2:15 p.m. (Dr. Rabin)

This course will examine works by women authors of the Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500) as well as the representation of women in works by male authors of the period. We will examine the way in which gender comes to be an issue in the major genres of medieval writing, including epic, chivalric romance, lyric poetry, and hagiography. We will read texts by (among others) Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, Geoffrey Chaucer, and that greatest of all medieval authors, Anonymous. As this is a discussion-based class, we will no doubt cover a wide variety of topics, and I strongly encourage students to bring their own intellectual interests into the classroom.

 

 

8813 ENGL 382-01 Contemporary Poetry in English: T/TH 1-2:15 p.m. (Dr. Millar)

 

 

 

8627 ENGL 401-01 Jane Austen& Film-WR: T/TH 9:30-10:45 a.m. (Dr. Hadley)

Jane Austen and Film" Course Description (Hadley/English 401, Fall 2013)
Observing the proliferation of Austen adaptations starting in the 1990’s, this course will focus on a number of issues around the recent obsession with bringing Jane Austen’s novels to the screen. Attention will be given to the creative, collaborative, process of translating literature to the medium of film (and its increased attention to scenery, fashion, and physical beauty), with special focus on issues relevant to Austen’s texts such as passion, romance, wealth, manners, and social commentary. Is it (or why is it) the case, we will ask with one Austen critic, that translations too faithful to the books cannot achieve broad enough appeal for the movie industry?

 

 

5763 ENGL 403-01 Advanced Creative Writing: MWF 1-1:50 p.m. (Dr. Weinberg)

In this advanced multi-genre workshop, students with a strong commitment to writing fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or drama will rhapsodize about craft, write many pages, and engage in the art of constructive criticism. It will be up to you to decide which genre or genres to concentrate on; the main objective is the continued development of your writing practices, while adding new compositional and critical techniques to your repertoire. Short writing exercises will encourage you to experiment, to try out different approaches. While class sessions will be used primarily to discuss work written by class members, readings and discussions will also focus on contemporary published work and other issues relevant to creative writing. In addition to producing a portfolio of revised work, you will complete a creative research project designed to inspire the imagination and strengthen the final product.

 

 

8820 ENGL 413-01 British Literature-Beg. To Shakespeare-WR: T/TH 11-12:15 (Dr. Biberman)

According to the department, 400 level classes should encourage students to develop their own voice in argumentative source-based writing. Student should also seek to improve the flexibility and complexity of thought in analyzing literature and cultural studies. Students should strive to become comfortable with a variety of theoretical approaches, scholarly methods, types of evidence and modes of presentation.

English 413 is a survey of British writers from the Anglo-Saxon period through the Renaissance. In this course we will read and interpret a range of literary works, drawn largely from the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama. Over the course of the semester, you will learn to situate texts, both within the moment of their composition and the moment of their reception. You will write frequently about our readings and class discussions, sharing your observations about these texts with classmates, and with the professor.

 

8800 ENGL 415-01 19thCentury British Literature-WR: MW 2-3:15 p.m. (Dr. Peck)

The “long” nineteenth century, as literary scholars have come to call it, ranges roughly from the French Revolution in 1789 to the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Drawing upon the wealth of British literature from the period, we will explore authorial assessments of a rapidly changing society. In particular we will consider how nineteenth-century British literature perceives the institutions that shape individual experience, such as family, community, science, religion and nation, even as these were fracturing and reforming over time. Reading back and forth across the century, we will examine multiple genres to determine how different modes of writing mediate the self’s relationship to the surrounding world.

 

5764 ENGL 417-01 Contemporary British/Post Colonial Writings-WR: T/TH 2:30-3:45 (Dr. Wright)

 

 

 

 

8801 ENGL 420-01 American Literature 1865-1910-WR: T/TH 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. (Dr. Pritchett)

Between 1865 and 1910 the United States was undergoing tremendous change as the forces of industrialization, urbanization, class division, ethnic and gender difference fragmented the nation into a multiplicity of cultures. During the same era, a body of writing was emerging that—perhaps paradoxically—confirmed these differences while simultaneously giving shape to a distinctive national literature. This WR course will engage and interpret select texts from the era, analyzing the rise of realism and naturalism as vehicles for forging and articulating emergent individual and collective American identities at the threshold of the twentieth century.

 

 

 

 

8821 ENGL 421-01 American Literature 1910-1960-WR: T/TH 4-5:15 p.m. (Dr. Golding)

This course attends to the influential language experiments initiated by a range of US American writers—mostly, though not exclusively, poets—in the first half of the 20th Century. By “influential,” I mean something pretty straightforward: all of these textual experiments—often experiments in serial or longer forms—helped to shape or transform how later poets thought about writing. So, how exactly did these writers, in the spirit of Ezra Pound’s famous injunction, “make it new?” What ambitions and cultural conditions motivated their experiments? What forms did the “new” take during this period? In what ways did these writers test the traditional boundaries of literary genre, of syntax, of page design, of voice, of meaning itself? In addition to discussing some of the central texts of experimental modernism, we will also look at the cultural and aesthetic contexts of the emergence of experimental modernist poetics in the salons, networks of patronage, and little magazines of the period.

With the assigned readings, I’ll usually give you a set of study questions that you should print and prepare for class. These questions are intended to help guide / focus your thinking about the reading and to provide a basis for class discussion and Blackboard posts (though you shouldn’t feel you have to limit your posts to the discussion questions).

 

1930 ENGL 423-01 African/American Literature 1845-Present-WR: 11-11:50 a.m. (Dr. Anderson)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1194 ENGL 450-01 Cooperative Internship in English Studies: Internship (Dr. Chandler)

Prerequisites: You must be a declared English major, with six hours in English beyond 101 and 102 or 105. You must also have a 3.0 GPA and receive permission of the instructor. Internship opportunities and placements are researched by the student and submitted for approval by the Director of Internships. Each Internship position needs to have at least 40 hours of work on site and include a supervisor/mentor on site willing to provide a final evaluation of the Intern to the English Dept. All Internships should be off-campus; this requirement may be waived by the Director of Internships if the student can demonstrate that the position does not directly benefit the English Dept. or another degree granting Academic program. Students may petition to use their current work-site as an Internship, if they can identify a project or position that is SUBSTANTIALLY different from, and supplementary to, their normal work requirements.

 

 

8802 ENGL 460-01 Arthur Conan Doyle-WR: MWF 12-12:50 p.m. (Dr. Rosner)

Most of us link Arthur Conan Doyle to his wonderful creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Those characters, and the puzzles they solved, fascinated many Victorian and contemporary readers. But Doyle wrote other kinds of texts as well, including social/cultural commentaries, analyses of ‘true crimes,’ romances, science fiction, defenses of spiritualism, etc. In this class, we’ll read a range of Doyle’s texts not only for what they say to us but for what they say about the Victorians. We’ll also work on examining how they say what they say. In other words, in a sense we’ll be reading-detectives, working to determine some of the interests, values, and assumptions that made Doyle so popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—and today. And since this is also a WR course, we’ll be writing as thinking/talking about academic writing and its values, assumptions, and moves.

Course Goals

Practice careful and active reading of Doyle’s texts and the critical essays.

Practice using academic tools to find texts that can help inform your reading and writing.

Practice paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting parts of a text to forward your point.

Practice editing your own texts to make them coherent, correct, and strong; eliminating wordiness is a means toward that end.

Practice using MLA form correctly.

Develop a voice appropriate for academic writing.

Exhibit flexibility and complexity of thought in analyzing literature and criticism

 

 

8814 ENGL 470-01 Studies in Literary Movement-WR: MWF 9-9:50 a.m. (Dr. Jaffe)

In the words of the philosopher Walter Benjamin: “A generation that had gone to school on a horse-drawn streetcar now stood under the open sky in a countryside in which nothing remained unchanged but the clouds, and beneath these clouds, in a field of force of destructive torrents and explosions, was the tiny, fragile human body.” This class examines the world before this experience, surveying some of the literary, historical and cultural clouds gathering before WWI broke out – the world right before, according to some,“modernism” happened. We’ll study important texts of the avant-garde and the rear guard, including some of the following: texts about the opening of Grand Central Station, the sinking of the Titanic, Amundsen’s Antarctic expedition; accounts of the Armory Art Show, which brought “modern” art to the US; the Mexican Revolution, which swallowed Ambrose Bierce whole; suffragists throwing themselves under horses; plate tectonics; psychology; radio, airplanes and automobilism.

 

 

4396 ENGL 491-01 Interpretive Theory:New Criticism-Present: MWF 1-1:50 p.m. (Dr. Schneider)

In this course, we’ll focus on the development of literary theory—those concepts and terms that govern our understandings of language, literature, aesthetics, and interpretation. While we don’t always acknowledge the ways in which our understandings of reading, textuality, authorship, and interpretation impact our encounters with literary texts, these ideas—ideas that all have extended histories—in many ways circumscribe what we do. In this class we’ll look at a number of theoretical “schools,” or approaches to interpretation. We’ll start with New Criticism, which is in many ways the model we still use for close reading, before looking at how different ideas of what constitutes a reader or a text complicate that model. From there, we’ll look at theories of interpretation that focus both on the political and the philosophical—that is, on the ways in which issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality, alongside broader issues of language—continue to impact what it is we do in English Studies.

The questions guiding this course, then, will focus on what it means to“do” literary studies: what is a text? A reader? An author? What is the relationship between reading, interpretation, and language? What is the role of theory in determining and understanding that relationship? And in that regard, how does theory offer us tools for thinking in richer ways about language and textuality?