This course introduces students to the conventions and skills of college writing and reading. Through reading a variety of texts, students will develop their own skills in writing in response to written arguments. Students will compose several short papers and revise them extensively, in order to practice and internalize the process of thinking, writing, rethinking, and revision that is central to the practice of effective writing. Students will also develop an awareness of themselves as writers, become conscious of their strengths and weaknesses, and develop strategies to improve.

At the heart of education is the idea that understanding the structure of creative language, learning to think well about creative language and learning to communicate using creative language through the expression of poetry are high priorities for a well-educated student. This course is designed to ensure that students, especially those planning on careers in the classroom, leave the university with a solid understanding of the grammatical structure of the English sentence -- and of why this structure is worth understanding and how the application of creative language is applied across content areas through the expression of poetry. Students who successfully complete the course will be able to identify and creatively use parts of speech, various types of grammatical phrases and clauses, descriptive language and will be able to construct that conforms to various structural descriptions.

This course will address a specific area of study in English not already covered by other course offerings. Prerequisites vary by topic.

In this course, students read and discuss both fictional and non-fictional prose and prepare related writing assignments, including a substantial research-based argument paper requiring library research and documentation and synthesis of materials gathered from diverse sources into a coherently organized paper.

This course is an introductory survey to the rich depth and breadth of African-American literature. We will be reading the novels of Charles Chestnutt, Nella Larson, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Colson Whitehead, among others. The purpose of this course is to examine Black life from multiple perspectives including socioeconomics, family history, the impact of race and racism, gender, and sexual identity. This course will also investigate how historical events such as slavery, the Great Migration, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement have shaped the Black aesthetic in literature.

This course will be primarily concerned with the production and study of creative poetry and fiction. Students will study techniques and the imaginative uses of language in short stories and poems, in order to write their own original poetry and short fiction. Participants will read examples by diverse, contemporary writers as models for their own work. Students will read and critique the creative works produced by members of the class in a friendly, yet rigorous workshop environment.

This course serves as an introduction to the scientific study of language. We will approach language descriptively rather than prescriptively; which is to say, we will test hypotheses through observation of the phenomenon of language rather than mandate what language "should" be. We will explore problems in the main areas of linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. In doing so, we will address a range of topics such as the neurological basis of language; the process and stages of language acquisition; methods of second language learning; linguistic change and variation; and sociolinguistic issues such as the social status of African-American Vernacular English and regional dialects.

Studies the development of the novel from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries; the focus will be on the English novel, but some attention will be given to American and European instances of the form. The course will also explore a range of critical approaches to the form and to its relationship with the various contexts that shape the way we read novels.

Students will study poetry written in English during the last 400 years. Reading in the poetry is supplemented and focused by readings in criticism and poetics. The approach is topical rather than chronological and should develop a student's sense of what kind of thing a poem is and how poems can best be read.

This course will expose students to the writings by and about Latinos and Latinas living in the United States, with emphasis on the similarities and differences that form the experiences among diverse Latino sub-groups living in the United States. The majority of the texts selected will emanate from the three major Latino sub-groups in the United States, Mexican Americans or Chicanos, Puerto Ricans or Nuyoricans, and Cuban Americans, written during the 20th and 21st centuries, with additional works from other Latinx identities. Texts will include poetry, short fiction, drama, essays, autobiographies, and novels. By critically analyzing works from a range of genres, students will be asked to examine themes and issues through literary analysis as well as factors that influence the cultural production of these groups. Films may also be introduced to support engagement with the texts. Readings will be in English, and this course will be taught in English.

Students will study poetry written in English during the last four hundred years. Reading in the poetry is supplemented and focused by readings in criticism and poetics. The approach is topical rather than chronological and should develop a student's sense of what kind of thing a poem is and how poems can best be read.

This course studies both the history and the form of the novel through its existence from the 18th century to the present day. The selections and thematic focus of the course will vary depending upon the instructor. Students will gain an appreciation for the ways that authors of narrative fiction respond to their cultural contexts, both in their subject matter and in their use of and innovations in generic conventions of the novel form.

This course provides preparation in the methods and materials of literary study. While the course devotes some attention to introducing or reviewing basic analytic vocabulary, it emphasizes the application of different critical and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of primary literary texts. Along with the selected literary works, assigned readings will include a variety of scholarly secondary texts.

This course is focused primarily upon how English sentences are structured grammatically and upon how an understanding of grammatical functioning of language can inform the teaching of the discipline of English. The course will also introduce fundamental concepts of composition theory to future teachers. Through an investigation of the relationship between an individual's grammatical knowledge and writing abilities, the course will prepare teachers to enter careers focused upon developing students' knowledge about the structures of the English language in order to enhance their skills as readers and writers.

This course examines the relationship between literature and the environment by addressing both stylistic and cultural concerns. In doing so, the course will examine the conventions of three major genres: poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Throughout the course, students will gain experience writing both about and in each of these literary genres in order to gain greater understanding of the relationship between literature and the environment.

Additional fee required

This course focuses on the origins of American Literature beginning with the indigenous peoples and explorers of the sixteenth century through the Colonial, Federalist, and Romantic periods to the end of the Civil War. It includes a broad range of texts: political essays, songs, captivity narratives, memoirs, myths, poetry, and the emerging American novel. Writers studied may include Bradford, Bradstreet, Mather, Franklin, Jefferson, Wheatley, Poe, Apess, Truth, Douglass, Melville, Jacobs, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman.

This course focuses on American literature written since the end of the Civil War, paying particular attention to historical, social, and political contexts. Fiction and poetry will be the central elements of the course, though drama, essays and memoir may be included. The approach may be topical rather than chronological in covering the significant literary movements and modes of realism, naturalism, modernism, and postmodernism. This might include topics such as the Beat movement, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts movement, magical realism, science fiction, and meta-fiction and may include works by Winnemucca, Cather, Faulkner, Du Bois, Vonnegut, Kerouac, Ellison, Le Guin, Erdrich, and Baraka.

This course is focused primarily on how English sentences are structured grammatically and on how an understanding of grammatical functioning of language can inform advanced writing and/or the teaching of writing. The course will prepare students to enter a variety of careers, such as editing, law, teaching, technical writing by developing their knowledge of English grammar in order to enhance their skills as readers and writers.

This course provides a survey of British Literature, beginning with works from the Anglo-Saxon period, progressing through the Medieval Age, the Renaissance, the long 18th century, and the early Romantic Period. Authors studied may include Chaucer, More, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, Defoe, Behn, Pope, Swift, Dryden, Blake, and Austen. The course explores the changes in the English language during this span of time as well as critical approaches to literature, especially those that emphasize the reading of literary texts within historical and cultural contexts.

This course continues the survey of British literature by tracing literary developments from Romanticism through the Victorian and Modernist periods to the present. Readings will reflect the popularity of prose fiction during these eras. In addition to Wordsworth and the Romantic poets, readings may include works by Austen, Tennyson, Dickens, Eliot, Conrad, Woolf, Forster, Yeats, Rushdie, Winterson, and Heaney. The course will also explore critical approaches to literature, particularly those that emphasize the reading of literary texts within historical and cultural contexts.

This course will address a specific area of study in English not already covered by other course offerings. Prerequisites vary by topic.

This workshop focuses on the writing of nonfiction essays and personal memoirs, using modern and contemporary examples of the genre as models and inspiration, which will expose students to a wide range of literary fiction. Students will implement strategies of in-depth research in their planning and production of substantial essays.

This course analyzes and prepares students to produce prose of the sort expected in upper-level undergraduate courses or graduate programs, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. The course emphasizes the development of a flexible and efficient style and of sophisticated expository and argumentative discourse strategies.

This course focuses on the writing of short fiction using modern and contemporary short stories as models and inspiration, which will expose students to a wide range of literary fiction.

This course is chiefly devoted to both the production and study of creative writing and the venues that publish these sorts of works. Students in this course will study contemporary collections of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, with an eye to producing work that may be used as a portfolio for graduate school. Students will also study a variety of aspects of the "business of writing," considering the following questions throughout the term: What do writers do to make a living? How does one get published? What kinds of magazines publish creative writing, and what do people get paid? To answer those questions, the class will look at small presses and little magazines to better understand the business end of writing. In addition, students will learn about editing through involvement in service-learning practica on campus, such as editing the student literary magazine, planning a reading series, or contributing to other writing-specific projects. Guest speakers and field trips may be included.

This course will employ the methods of linguistics to analyze literary texts and explore the linguistic choices that authors make in composing a work, and what effects those decisions have on the text and its reception. Topics that may be covered include: point of view, narration, dialogue and speech markers, implicature, speech acts, meter and prosody, figurative language, and qualitative and quantitative methods of stylistic analysis. To tie our linguistic analyses both to literary criticism and the production of literary texts, students will apply linguistic analysis to literary works of their own creation, as well as canonical works of literature.

This course will be a survey of the major artistic and intellectual traditions that emerged from one of the greatest outpourings of African-American culture -- the Harlem Renaissance. Literature, theater, music, graphic arts, fine arts, and motion pictures will all be examined. Students will understand the importance of this movement upon contemporary African-American life.

Survey of children's literature and its authors and illustrators emphasizing developing children's appreciation for literature and reading on a wide range of multicultural topics. Students will be able to understand and teach a diverse body of works, authors, and movements of U.S. and world literature within the framework of various literary genres.

Survey of children's and young adult literature and its authors and illustrators emphasizing developing student readers' appreciation for literature and reading on a wide range of multicultural topics. Students will be able to understand and teach a diverse body of works, authors, and movements of U.S. and world literature within the framework of various literary genres. This course explores and considers the distinctive needs, interests and learning styles of elementary and middle school readers. Procedures for the evaluation, selection and integration of this literature into the curriculum are examined.

This course explores and considers the distinctive needs, interests and learning styles of young adults. Procedures for the evaluation, selection and integration of young adult literature into the curriculum are examined. Students learn that the young adult novel deserves a worthy and legitimate place in the classroom.

This course studies classic works of literature, primarily from the western tradition, ranging from the Greeks through the modernist period. Versions of the course will be organized around particular themes or issues (e.g., the Antigone or Faust story, the development and exhaustion of the epic tradition, the rise of realism in European literature, etc.). The course will also explore a range of critical and scholarly perspectives on the literature it studies.

This course gives students the opportunity to sharpen their skills as poets and exposes them to a wide range of contemporary poetry.

American Literature presents a study of Americans in their developing and changing environment from the Puritanism, to the Colonial and the Romantic periods, to the end of the Civil War. We will cover a broad range of texts: political essays, songs, captivity narratives, memoirs, myths and tales, poetry, and the emerging American novel. Writers studied may include Bradford, Bradstreet, Mather, Franklin, Jefferson, Wheatley, Douglass, Truth, Melville, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and Whitman.

This course examines the development of American literature from the end of the Civil War through the end of World War II. The course will pay particular attention to understanding literature within historical, social, political and psychological contexts. Fiction and poetry will be the central elements of the course, though drama, essays and memoir may be included. Students will also interact with literary criticism related to the primary texts studied. The significant literary movements, or modes, of realism, naturalism and modernism will provide a framework for the course.

Students will study modern and contemporary literature written since World War II. Reading is supplemented and focused by readings in criticism. The approach may be topical rather than chronological and should develop a student's sense of what literature has been produced more contemporarily. In poetry, this might include topics such as the Beat movement, the Black Mountain poetry movement, language poetry, confessional and dramatic monologue; and in fiction, this might include the novella or the short-short story or techniques, such as magical realism, meta-fiction and minimalism.

The course provides a survey of British Literature, beginning with works from its Anglo-Saxon period, progressing through the Medieval Age in the work of such writers as Chaucer and the Gawain poet, into the height of the Renaissance in England, as exemplified by the poetry of Spenser, Sidney, and Shakespeare. Also explores the changes in the English language during this span of time. The course will also explore critical approaches to literature, especially those that emphasize the reading of literary texts within historical and cultural contexts.

This course continues the survey of British literature through the study of poetry, drama, and some of the nonfictional prose written in England between the height of the Renaissance through the 17th and 18th centuries to arrive at the beginnings of the Romantic period. Authors studied may include Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, the Metaphysical poets, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Johnson and Blake. The course will also explore critical approaches to literature, particularly those that emphasize the reacting of literary texts within historical and cultural contexts.

This course continues the survey of British literature by tracing the literary developments from Romanticism through the Victorian and Modernist periods. Readings will reflect the popularity of prose fiction during these eras. In addition to Wordsworth and the Romantic poets, readings may include works by Austen, Tennyson, Arnold, Browning, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, Conrad, Lawrence, Woolf, Forster and Shaw. The course will also explore critical approaches to literature, particularly those that emphasize the reading of literary texts within historical and cultural contexts.

This course will examine literature from across the African global community -- known as the "diaspora." Some of the founding questions of this course shall be, Is there such a thing as "diaspora literature," particularly in the case of Black writers of various nationalities and cultures? Moreover, is there an identifiable tradition of Black literature, distinctively different from "European" or "American" literature? Novels and short stories from Black writers from Africa, the Caribbean, the United States, and Britain will be read and discussed in this course.

This course concludes the survey of British literature by examining British and Anglophone writers from the modernist era until the present, a period marked by two world wars, the decline of the British empire, and the emergence of a multicultural Britain. Readings may include works by Eliot, Woolf, Auden, Larkin, Hughes, Rhys, Lessing, Achebe, Rushdie, Boland and Heaney. The course will also explore critical approaches to literature, particularly those that emphasize the reading of literary texts within historical and cultural contexts.

This course studies literature since WWII, with special emphasis on the postcolonial and postmodern strands in the imaginative writing of the last half-century. The course will also explore a range of critical approaches to this work and to its relationship with the various contexts that shape the way we read it.

This course examines the intersections among sex, gender, and culture, as represented in literature. A range of critical frameworks -- LGBTQ studies, feminisms, and masculinity studies -- will be used to engage with questions of how literature represents, constructs, reinforces, and interrogates understandings of sex, sexual orientation, and gender. Students will read literary works of underrepresented authors from a variety of world cultures and within specific national and historical contexts. This course is also required for the Gender Studies Minor.

This course addresses race and ethnicity in literature, focusing on writers from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. The course may focus on comparative literatures, diasporic literatures, colonial and postcolonial literatures, or on specific nations or regions. It may include writers from Asian/Pacific, Caribbean, African, Middle Eastern, Indigenous/First Nations, or Latinx origins in examining the sociopolitical and historical contexts of their works. It may also feature a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction prose, and drama in investigating race in literature.

This course studies the ways in which the mind acquires, produces and understands language; the origins, development, uses, and -- especially the cognitive consequences -- of literacy; the impact of various technologies on literacy and its uses; and the interaction between literacy and schooling.

This course will address a specific area of study in English not already covered by other course offerings. Prerequisites vary by topic.

This course presents techniques that are effective in teaching in the content areas. The course includes lesson planning, classroom arrangement, curriculum design, alternative teaching strategies and evaluation. In addition to the classroom hours, there is a simultaneous practicum. This is usually the last course the student takes prior to student teaching. Placement applications for the practicum are due to the School of Education placement coordinator the January before the academic year of the practicum or for transfer students upon acceptance into the School of Education.

The purpose of the English Internship is to introduce students to the types of careers available for skilled writers and editors, to help them determine their professional goals and interests, and to transition their classroom learning into professional experience. Students may intern in fields such as journalism, editing, publishing, public relations, and others and will complete a writing and editing portfolio and will be assessed on their professionalism and learning. Permission of the instructor required.

Grading Type: Credit/No Credit

This course will address a specific area of study in English not already covered by other course offerings. Prerequisites vary by topic.

An advanced academic internship experience for credit requires the student to be at least a junior in standing, although individual programs may require senior standing. The academic internship experience requires a faculty sponsor, educational criteria, and a current executed affiliation agreement and Schedule A on file. Internships can be designated as either credit/no credit or letter grade, depending on the school or program. Regular tuition is charged, and additional fees may apply.

This course will survey major theoretical positions on the structure and functions of written texts, literary and otherwise, and on the processes by which they are written and read. It will also examine significant contemporary interactions between English studies and other fields of scholarly inquiry. Open to students with a declared major in English. Senior standing recommended.