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Undergraduate Courses, Summer I, Summer II, and Fall 2008 (click to see schedule)
SUMMER I 2008
204-001
Introduction to Technical Writing
Tony Atkins
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 204
204-002
Introduction to Technical Writing
Lucy Wilcox
MTWR 12:30-2:35
MO 204
This course introduces students to the basics of technical communication and refreshes research and writing skills beneficial to any area of study. Students will evaluate and produce documents appropriate to a professional environment, such as letters, memos, e-mails, proposals, brochures, newsletters, and documents for the web. In addition, students will produce a comprehensive job application packet useful to future job searches. They will learn effective ways to present information both visually and orally. Students should expect to work both individually and collaboratively on projects that emphasize interaction with real-world audiences. Text: Markel, Technical Communication.
205-001
Approaches to the Study of Literature
Tiffany Gilbert
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 102
This class seeks to answer the Why’s, How’s, and What’s about literature. Why do we read literature? How do we read literature? Do we read a novel from the nineteenth century differently than we read a newspaper or an email? What is literature, and why does it matter? Examining such diverse novels as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Junot Diaz’s Drown, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, this class will cover principles and approaches of literary criticism. Reading these and other selections critically and creatively, we will utilize these texts to determine our responses to these and other provocative questions. Applying vocabularies and methods of literary theory and criticism, moreover, we will scrutinize them for stimulating perspectives on the English language and its complex relationship to such broad concepts as identity and culture.
209-001
Classical Lit in Translation: From Myths to Movies
Stephanie Richardson
MTWR 2:45-4:50
MO 104
Do you sit, transfixed, at films about ancient Greece or Rome, or at films adapted from classical texts? Will you be viewing "300" on HBO next month? If so, this course may be a choice for you. In this course we shall examine the interconnections between the classics and their visual/electronic counterparts. Issues such as the problems with adaptations, the ways in which narrative operates both visually and verbally, and the reasons behind current revivals of classical-based films will concern us. The course will include some theory, but the focus will be upon reading and viewing the lively texts originating in the ancient world, "now playing" at the local cineplex. Assignments will include 2 papers, a creative project, presentation, and journals. Texts: Homer, Iliad and Odyssey; Aeschylus, Agamemnon; Euripides, Bacchae; Euripides, Medea; Sophocles, Electra.
304-800
Writing for Teachers
Ele Byington
Online
The general format for the class is workshop. You'll participate in both reading and writing workshops and analyze the effectiveness of such workshops for student writers in acquiring and improving writing skills. You'll also examine the effectiveness of portfolio assessment of writing assignments and discuss your values and beliefs related to the teaching of writing. As prospective teachers, you will have plenty of opportunities to discuss the value of the social functions of the workshop method. Most importantly, perhaps, for new teachers, you'll have opportunities to discuss how teachers can grade the processes involved in the workshop format as well as the actual revised products. Texts include: Fletcher and Portalupi, Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide; Mahoney, Power and Portfolios; Raimes, Keys for Writers.
306-001
Essay Writing
Ele Byington
Online
314-001
Writing and Technology
Anthony Aktins
MTWR 8:00-10:05
MO 204
In this course we will explore how digital communication technologies have shaped composing. We will experiment with a variety of web-based tools, and explore the visual as argument. Students will be exposed to current theories regarding the combination of technology and communication. Students will be required to create an online presence that illustrates a scholarly ethos. Students will gain experience with onscreen editing tools, Web 2.0 technologies, and online research strategies. Students will complete individual and group projects as well as create presentations that illustrate their knowledge and experience with writing for paper and screen. Texts include: Bolter and Grusi Remediation: Understanding New Media; Williams, Robin. The Non-Designers Design Book, 2nd ed.
320-001
Introduction to Linguistics
Richard Veit
MTWR 12:30-2:35
MO 207
More than any other skill, our ability to use language is what makes us human and what makes society possible. At the same time, more than any other important human skill, we take language for granted and have little understanding of it. In this course we will seek to gain that understanding by studying many different aspects of language: the sounds, structure, and meaning of language; the ways society dictates language use; the ways we manipulate language; the way we acquired language as children; the ways language changes over time; and many others. The course satisfies the linguistics requirement of the English major. Text: Ohio State University Language Files 10.
321-001
Structure of the English Language
Richard Veit
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 207
The course provides students with a broad and thorough understanding of English grammar. No prior study of grammar is required. Unlike traditional memorization-and-drill courses, this one adopts a "scientific" approach: we examine data (the sentences we speak and hear) and then form and test hypotheses about how those sentence were created. In other words, we create a model of the "grammar in our heads"—the principles or "rules" we observe when we create sentences. Although the approach is transformational grammar, it employs traditional terminology. Daily homework exercises, three exams, and two projects. Recommended for future teachers and others who want to understand how the English language works. The course satisfies the linguistics requirement of the English major. Text: Discovering English Grammar, 2nd ed.
332-001
Shakespeare's Early Plays and Poems
Lewis Walker
MTWR 8:00-10:05
MO 207
We will consider a selection of plays and poetry from the first half of Shakespeare's career. Readings include examples of tragedies (Titus Andronicus), comedies (Much Ado about Nothing), and histories (Henry IV, Part 1). We will give attention to such matters as cultural context, gender, genre, and imagery. Informal responses, reading quizzes, oral presentation, critical paper of seven pages, midterm and final exams. Text: Bevington, ed., The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
490-001
Topics in Literature: Renaissance Drama
Lewis Walker
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 202
In this course, we will study 10-12 outstanding plays, chosen from the rich outpouring of English drama during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Plays covered include Marlowe's Edward II; Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, and Jonson's Volpone. Informal responses papers, oral presentation, critical paper of 7-8 pages, midterm, and final. Text: Bevington, ed., English Renaissance Drama.
Click here for Fall 2008 Schedule
SUMMER II 2008
202-001
Introduction to Journalism
Jesse Waters
MTWR 8:00-10:05
MO 204
What is a journalist? Is it a reporter with a notepad? An on-line interviewer? A local blogger? In this class we’ll make discoveries beyond the "who, what, where, when and why" of journalism cliché to explore the new and old standards of news reporting. Over the course of one week, we’ll experience extensive practice in the basics of writing news stories, instruction in how a newsroom works, training concerning how to look for stories and observation of, and participation in, working blogs and electronic media. Within the confines of this reporting “boot camp,” we’ll discover the importance of making journalism happen – and not simply waiting for it to show up on your doorstep in the morning.
204-001
Introduction to Professional Writing
Diana Ashe
MTWR 12:30-2:35
MO 204
Offering an overview of the basic concepts and practices in the field of technical writing, this course serves as a gateway to the rest of the professional writing program. With an emphasis on service learning in the community, we will create and analyze effective documents for organizational audiences. We'll focus our attention on considerations of audience, purpose, clarity, research and design. In addition, we'll examine cross-cultural communication, ethics in organizational writing, and genres like resumes, proposals, and procedures. Held in a networked classroom, our class will take advantage of and examine the role of technologies at every stage of the composing process. Text: Power Tools for Technical Communication.
224-001
American Literature since 1870
Keith Newlin
MTWR 8:00-10:05
MO 201
In this course we will read representative short fiction, plays, and poems in American literature from the late 1900s to the present. We will discover how and why each story “works”—how it captures the reader’s interest, the aesthetic methods the authors use to tell their story. We will also look at the political, social, and cultural context; and we will discuss such issues as emerging feminism, critical responses to racism, the literature of propaganda, alienation and literary experiment, and why some writers get represented in anthologies and others do not. At times reading selections will be lengthy, so be forewarned. This section will also emphasize critical discussion and writing. Text: Cain, American Literature, vol. 2.
230-001
Women in Literature
Joyce Hollingsworth
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 205
English 230 explores a variety of women in literature, as writers and characters. We'll meet swash-buckling women and trauma victims working toward healing. We'll get in trouble with witches, warriors, and women who run with wolves. We'll celebrate the joys of sex and chocolate. While focusing on the 20th century, we'll think about women and girls in old stories and new, discovering ways we have changed and ways we remain the same. We’ll read novels, memoirs, essays, short stories, poems, plays, literary criticism, and feminist theory. Such literature challenges women and men to become a diverse community of respectful listeners and learners who are not afraid to enter into dialogue and seek out paradigms that heal and empower us all. Texts include: Schilb and Clifford, Making Literature Matter; Sebold, Lucky; Sebold, The Lovely Bones; Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate; Woolf, Orlando; Morrison, Beloved.
310-001
Theory and Practice of Editing
Shirley Mathews
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 204
Instruction in strengthening the backbone of writing. Course work includes extensive practice in the fundamentals of punctuation and grammar, editing, copyediting and rewriting, all done with an eye to preparing work for publication. Privacy and libel law are examined. Texts include: Bowles, Creative Editing; Arnold, Media Writer's Handbook; The Associated Press Stylebook.
361-001
Studies in Short Fiction: The American Short Story
Keith Newlin
MTWR 10:15-12:20
MO 201
This course will trace the development of the American short story, from its early origins as the genre struggled to define itself, to its flowering in the mid- and late-nineteenth century, to its innovations as writers responded to rapidly changing social conditions in the early twentieth century, and finally to its present-day stylistic and thematic variety. In addition to reading a cornucopia of good stories, we’ll pay attention to matters of form, theme, style, and character.Text: Nagel, Anthology of the American Short Story.
380-001
Literature for Children
Joyce Hollingsworth
MTWR 8:00-10:05
MO 205
In ENG 380, students apply close analytical reading and cultural, historical, and literary contexts to texts targeted toward children but often chosen and read by adults. The Children’s Literature field is complex and changing instead of attempting comprehensive coverage, we’ll focus on the process of reading and selecting classics and new books, examining how children’s literature interacts with popular culture, literary canons, schools, libraries, families, therapy, censorship, the marketplace, etc. We’ll tell stories, share picture books and easy reading materials, and discuss novels and quality nonfiction, developing strategies to help children engage in critical and creative thinking and other pleasures of reading. Papers or exams on books for children ages 9-12, presentation and/or readers’ theatre, discussion leadership and participation, responses to books for younger children. Texts include: Classics of Children's Literature; Nodelman, Pleasures of Children's Literature; Patron, Higher Power of Lucky; Paterson, Bridge over Terabithia; Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy.
382-800
Ways of Teaching Literature
Michelle Manning
Online
Bullies, Bombs, Bailiwicks, and Banned Books—Oh My! This online summer course’s theme is connection. Although primarily designed for English Education majors who are working towards teacher licensure K-12, this class is open to all students interested in analyzing how literature is taught. Based upon “transactional approaches” to the study of literature, students will focus making connections as a pedagogical method for teaching literature, establishing understanding of classroom discourse theories, as well as incorporating reading strategies into lessons. By making connections to past texts they have encountered, examining strategies that past teachers have used, and connecting to others in their online community, students will learn how to use innovative and age-appropriate teaching methods. Students read the best of the best and explore their own individual responses to literature, using these responses to examine the underlying pedagogy and then creating lessons utilizing and incorporating those theories. Texts: King-Shaver, When Text Meets Text: Helping High School Readers Make Connections in Literature (required). Other texts TBA
FALL 2008
202-001 MWF 10:00-10:50
202-002 MWF 1:00-1:50
Janis Chakars
Introduction to Journalism
MO 204
This course focuses on core skills in reporting and writing. We will explore genres and techniques that cross media platforms and discover what journalism is in all its variety, while working to produce publishable stories. Students will learn writing and reporting styles, news values, and how different kinds of journalism fit into the media landscape.
202-003
Introduction to Journalism
Lewis Beale
TR 8:00-9:15
MO 204
This is an introduction to media writing, with particular emphasis on writing for newspapers and the web. The course will focus on such basics as how to write leads, story structure, how to cover news events and conduct interviews. We will also work on the difference between news stories and feature stories, and will cover the basics of ethics in journalism, including communications law, especially libel.
204-001 TR 2-3:15 BR 160
204-002 TR 3:30-4:45 BR 202
Introduction to Professional Writing
Lucy Wilcox
This course introduces students to the basics of technical communication and refreshes research and writing skills beneficial to any area of study. Students will evaluate and produce documents appropriate to a professional environment, such as letters, memos, e-mails, proposals, brochures, newsletters, and documents for the web. In addition, students will produce a comprehensive job application packet useful to future job searches. They will learn effective ways to present information both visually and orally. Students should expect to work both individually and collaboratively on projects that emphasize interaction with real-world audiences. Text: Markel, Technical Communication, 8th edition.
204-003 TR 2:00-3:15
204-004 TR 3:30-4:45
Introduction to Professional Writing
Michelle Manning
MO 204
This web-enhanced course introduces students to the basic concepts involved in professional writing environments and provides guided practice in drafting business documents, such as resumes, memos, proposals and reports. Both individual and group writing projects will be assigned; however, collaborative assignments will be emphasized. Most importantly, the class is framed in a service-learning context, which means that students will act as writing consultants for an area non-profit agency or UNCW entity, completing a project that targets real world audiences. By the course’s end, students will produce writing artifacts suitable for inclusion in their professional portfolios. Text: Bowdon and Scott, Service Learning in Technical and Professional Communications. (Required)
205-001
Approaches to the Study of Literature
Joyce Hollingsworth
MWF 12:00-12:50
MO 202
English 205 allows English majors and other students interested in scholarly writing and critical reading to study and apply major approaches to the analysis of literature, each student developing strategies based on literary theory, reading closely and in context. Emphasis is placed on writing and revising your own essays in response to readings in contemporary and historical poetry, prose, and drama. Papers include short analytical essays and two longer essays that approach their subjects in more depth. We will become a community of readers, expanding the conversation by using the library’s databases and other resources. We’ll practice using MLA style and the conventions of academic writing, editing, and proofreading to produce papers that get well-reasoned ideas a hearing. Texts include: Tyson, Critical Theory Today; Eliot, The Waste Land; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Shakespeare, Hamlet; Schilb and Clifford, Making Literature Matter.
205-002
Approaches to the Study of Literature
Barbara Waxman
TR 9:30-10:45
MO 202
Together we study seven methods of literary criticism—some ways of reading and some ways of developing ideas for writing about literature. We apply these methods to fiction, poetry, and drama. Our community of readers analyzes poetry by Alice Fulton, Mark Halliday, and others, stories by Willa Cather, Tim O'Brien, and others, Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and Auburn’s play Proof. We also workshop drafts of your essays about the literary texts and we have conferences before each of the four writing assignments is due. Our class, finally, looks into some of the history of literary study and some basic methods of literary research. Texts include: 250 Poems: A Portable Anthology; MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers; Lynn, Texts and Contexts; 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology; Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets; Auburn, Proof.
205-003 TR 2:00-315
205-004 TR 12:30-1:45
Approaches to Study of Literature
Tiffany Gilbert
MO 202
This class seeks to answer the Why’s, How’s, and What’s about literature. Why do we read literature? How do we read literature? Do we read a novel from the nineteenth century differently than we read a newspaper or an email? What is literature, and why does it matter? Examining such diverse novels as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Junot Diaz’s Drown, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, this class will cover principles and approaches of literary criticism. Reading these and other selections critically and creatively, we will utilize these texts to determine our responses to these and other provocative questions. Applying vocabularies and methods of literary theory and criticism, moreover, we will scrutinize them for stimulating perspectives on the English language and its complex relationship to such broad concepts as identity and culture.
209-001
Classical Literature in Translation: Pirates of the Aegean
Stephanie Richardson
MWF 1:00-1:50
MO 207
To celebrate the new expanded edition of the Argonautica, as well as the popularity of pirate narratives, I offer this course as an invitation to examine classical pirate narratives that influence verbal and visual narratives today (such as Jerry Bruckheimer's lucrative "Pirates of the Caribbean" series). We shall read, analyze, and evaluate these ancient and contemporary narratives, creating links and attempting to theorize about their worth, appeal, and treatments of heroism, consumerism, and gender. Assignments will include two papers, a short oral project, journals, and a group presentation. Ahoy, mateys, it's time to search for and to plunder these ancient texts for buried treasures! Texts include: Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautica; Euripides, Medea; Homer, Iliad & Odyssey; Euripides, Andromache; Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis.
211-001
British Literature to 1800
Dan Noland
TR 9:30-10:45
MO 205
Mist-walking monsters, rolling heads and flimsy gowns, farts and polyandry, love poems, competing translations of the Bible, the joys and anguish of the modern world: we'll meet them all, reading carefully, discussing thoroughly, writing short essays and having a final exam. Text: Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1, 8th ed.
212-001
British Literature since 1800
Stephanie Richardson
MW 10:00-10:50
MO 207
We will study major representative authors from about 1798 through the twentieth century. The course will focus on analysis, philosophical undercurrents of the literature, and visual culture (art and film). The instructor will also relate the literature studied to popular culture and to history. Assignments will include journals, two papers, a multimedia presentation, and class participation. Texts: The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vols. 2A, 2B, 2C.
223-001
American Literature to 1870
Kathleen Gould
TR 12:30-1:45
MO 210
This course will survey significant works of American literature prior to 1870, examining those works in the context of what they reveal about the American character and experience in political, social and cultural contexts. Each student keeps a reading response journal and writes two critical essays. Mid-term and final exams likely, though open to replacement by a third critical paper. Text: McQuade, et al. The Harper American Literature, 3rd ed.
224-001
American Literature since 1870
Kathy Rugoff
TR 11 00-12 15
MO 104
Literature from the end of the 19th century onward sheds light on contemporary American culture, society, and history. We will read remarkable work by writers including Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Langston Hughes, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stevens, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Sherman Alexie. General trends in style are observed as is the original contribution of each writer. The class includes lecture and discussion. The main requirements are written assignments including papers and exams. Text: Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol.2.
226-001
World Literature since 1600
Paula Kamenish
W 3:30-6:15
MO 210
We will explore representative works of world literature, from Chinese, French, Russian, North American, West African, and South American traditions. The instructor will provide background information helpful in understanding the works, but classes primarily emphasize strategies of reading and discussion of the texts by students. We will look at common themes, techniques of characterization, narrative voice, and how literature relates to the other arts and to political, social, philosophical, or religious ideas. You will be required to write two analytical essays, give short oral reports on each novel, and participate actively in class discussions. There will also be a final examination. Texts include: Tsao, Dream of the Red Chamber; Voltaire, Candide; Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground; Ellison, Invisible Man, (Prologue); Laye,The Dark Child; García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera.
290-300
Themes in Literature (honors): The American Teenager in Popular Culture
Meghan Sweeney
MW 2:00-3:15
MO 102
This course will focus on American teenagers as producers, consumers, and cultural icons. We will focus on the rise of the teenager after World War II as well as teens in contemporary popular culture. In the course of our study, we will examine novels, films, television, advertisements, music, and more in an effort to better understand the ways Americans simultaneously fetishize and revile the teenager. Students will be expected to read primary and secondary materials; coursework will include papers, projects, and vigorous class discussion. Texts include: Feig, Freaks and Geeks; Anderson, Feed; Thompson, Blankets.
302-001
Journalism Workshop
Lewis Beale
TR 9:30-10:45
BR 202
There are people who believe that "Entertainment Journalism" is a contradiction in terms, and in a sense, they’re right. In a culture where celebrity worship has become a plague, the line between reporting real news and dispensing gossip has practically been shattered. All you have to do is look at programs like Access Hollywood or read magazines such as Us Weekly to understand that what passes for entertainment journalism these days is usually nothing more than reporting the minutiae of celebrity lives. That’s not what journalism, and this class, is about. We won’t be discussing Linday Lohan’s substance abuse escapades or who deserves to win the latest version of American Idol. We will be talking, and writing about, a variety of things that go beyond what the tabloids deem important.
What Entertainment Means: American popular culture is driven by multi-billion dollar corporations whose impact is global. When reporting on film, TV, music or whatever, it’s important to understand why things happen and what their ultimate influence is. This is, in a sense, what trend stories are all about, and we’ll be looking at them as a key element of entertainment journalism.
Reviewing: It’s easy enough to say you liked something, but why did you like it? And what gives your opinion any validity? To intelligently review anything, it’s important not only to know something of the history of what you’re writing about, but also its particular aesthetics. Everyone has an opinion. Great. But the valuable ones, whether you agree with them or not, are those that are well-thought out, knowledgeable and stylistically persuasive.
Opinion Pieces: This is essentially reviewing, but on a bigger scale. It’s talking about the "important" issues. Is rap homophobic? Is the traditional action film on the way out? How can broadcast TV compete with uncensored cable shows like The Sopranos? Writing about these subjects demands a critical intelligence, a sense of history and the ability to see the big picture while explaining it in easily digestible chunks.
Interviewing: A good interview is a delicate balancing act between preparation and improvisation. It’s being able to ask the right question at the right time, and to get that little tidbit of information that no one else has. Good interviewers know how to employ follow-up questions, and that banal queries like "What was it like to work with..." rarely elicit anything interesting. They also know how to breathe life into their subject through observation, off beat facts and the telling quote. We’ll discuss all of this in class.
Public Relations: In no other business are there more barriers between the journalist and the subject than in the business of show. Just about everyone important you will ever interview has a p.r. person, and you have to deal with them before you get to the person you really want to talk to. Publicists can be your best friend or greatest enemy. They can withhold access on a whim, or tell you things off the record that help with your story. Understanding how the publicity machinery works is a key element in understanding the world of entertainment journalism.
303-001
Reading and Writing Arguments
Don Bushman
MWF 11:00-11:50
MO 201
This is a course in critical reading and writing exploring such concepts as "argument," "persuasion," and "rhetoric." We will read arguments from a variety of contexts (from classic argumentative texts to arguments found in popular contemproary periodicals), and we will critique these readings for the argumentative strategies the authors make use of. Students will write argumentative essays on topics of their own choosing. Required will be a portfolio of five polished essays (the last of which will require significant research) and an oral report. Text: Gage, The Shape of Reason.
304-001 MWF 10:00-10:50
304-002 MWF 12:00-12:50
Writing for Teachers
Lu Huntley
MO 210
This required course is for students working toward teacher licensure in English and Language Arts, K-12. The primary aim is to provide a theoretical foundation for the teaching of writing in the classroom, consistent with research and practice in the related fields of composition and literacy studies. Along with this is the guiding principle that teachers of writing be active writers and readers. Students will write and read a lot, examine their own writing processes and products, and put into practice theories studied. Texts include: Mahoney, Power and Portfolios; Sipe and Rosewarne, Purposeful Writing; Davis and Hill, The No-Nonsense Guide to Teaching Writing.
306-001 MWF 9:00-9:50
306-002 MWF 10:00-10:00
Essay Writing
Kristen Seas
BR 202
ENG 306 focuses on the nonfiction prose essay as a genre of public discourse. We will study existing essays by established writers to map the conventions and rhetorical strategies of the genre as a response to public events. You will also write your own essays that apply those conventions and strategies, as well as workshop these essays with your peers in the class. Course work includes written responses to the readings and the creation of four original essays. Text: Clifford and DiYanni, Modern American Prose Fifteen Writers + 15.
310-001 MWF 9:00-9:50 MO 204
310-002 MWF 11:00-11:50 BR 202
Theory and Practice of Editing
Shirley Mathews
Instruction in strengthening the backbone of writing. Course work includes extensive practice in the fundamentals of punctuation and grammar, editing, copyediting and rewriting, all done with an eye to preparing work for publication. Privacy and libel law are examined. Texts: include: Bowles, Creative Editing; Arnold, Media Writer's Handbook; The Associated Press Stylebook.
311-001
Professional Magazine Writing
Shirley Mathews
MWF 10:00-10:50
BR 160
Fundamentals in how to write nonfiction magazine articles. Structure, techniques of interviewing, online research and the art of writing query letters are emphasized. Included will be extensive practice in the fundamentals of punctuation and grammar, all with an eye to publishing the completed work. Text: Associated Press Stylebook.
312-001 MWF 1:00-1:50 BR 160
312-002 MW 2:00-3:15 BR 161
Writing for Business
Jane MacLennan
For all students wishing to maximize career potential by utilizing effective workplace communication. Students will discuss business writing theory as well as rhetorical approaches to business communication. Coursework includes audience analysis and production of letters, memoranda and email, resumes, various reports and proposals. Collaborative writing and presentation skills are addressed. Writing for clarity, effectiveness, and suitability of format is emphasized. This course is valuable for students in all majors. Text: Locker, Business and Administrative Communication, 7th ed.
313-001
Writing about Science
Colleen Reilly
TR 11:00-12:15
MO 204
Students in this course learn to write as science writers, journalists who specialize in writing about science and technology. Through course projects, students analyze scientific texts and compose articles based on scientific and technical information for a variety of audiences. Students are encouraged to center course projects on the areas of science of most interest to them, including marine biology, environmental science, psychology, medicine, and/or technology. The course teaches the research skills useful for writing in and about all areas of science and technology. Readings include articles by successful science writers as well as information about the profession of science writing, including the specific techniques, responsibilities, and challenges of this type of journalism. Text: The Best American Science Writing 2007.
314-001
Writing and Technology
Diana Ashe
MW 2:00-3:15
MO 204
315-001
Writing and Rhetoric: International Journalism
Janis Chakars
MWF 12:00-12:50
BR 160
In this course students will learn about international media while engaging in relevant reporting and writing. We will discuss issues of importance to media, politics, and "global citizenship": globalization, migration, media and international business, the media imperialism debate, national development and identity, foreign correspondence, international news flows and US coverage of the world. Students will begin reporting the world from home through editorial and feature writing.
316-001
Analyzing Style
Dan Noland
W 3:30--6:15
MO 104
This course focuses on analytical writing about other writers' styles, in order to be able to speak with specificity about what makes an effective prose style. We will begin by addressing grammatical and stylistic principles and concepts and applying them in shorter writings, readings and discussions. We will then move to looking in detail at various authors, both contemporary and historical. Grades assigned from class discussion, analyses and a final project. Texts include: Corbett and Connors, Style and Statement; Hale and Gordon, Sin and Syntax.
317-001 TR 11:00-12:15 MO 210
317-003 TR 12:30-1:45 MO 207
Writing about Film
John Clifford
Primarily a writing course focusing on composing essays and reviews about film. Attention given to such cinematic ideas as mise-en-scene, cinematography, genre, and translating literary texts into film. 5 to 6 edited critical essays. Texts include: Do the Right Thing; Short Cuts; Vertigo; Bonnie & Clyde; The Passenger; A Short Guide to Writing about Film.
317-002
Writing About Film
Nicholas Laudadio
TR 12:30-1:45
MO 201
In this course we will begin with the basics of film language/terminology and then move through several different genres of film writing: reviews, critical essays, personal analysis, etc. We will discuss the mechanics of and practice writing in most of these formats, but there will be a particular focus on the critical/analytical essay and review. While much of this class concerns itself with film studies and history, it is at heart (and in practice) a writing course,and therefore a writing intensive course. Text: Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film, 6th ed.
319-001
Document Design
Anthony Atkins
TR 12:30-1:45
MO 204
This course will focus on the study of effective design of both print and electronic documents. The course will emphasize the production and consumption of various documents while bridging the gap/s among usability, text/s, graphics, and visual rhetoric. Students will be expected to complete individual projects as well as collaborative group projects. Texts include: Hawkins, and Kimball, Document Design: A Guide for Technical Communicators; Williams and Tollett. Robin Williams Design Workshop, 2nd ed.
320-001
Introduction to Linguistics
Richard Veit
MW 2:00-3:15
MO 207
More than any other skill, our ability to use language is what makes us human and what makes society possible. At the same time, more than any other important human skill, we take language for granted and have little understanding of it. In this course we will seek to gain that understanding by studying many different aspects of language: the sounds, structure, and meaning of language; the ways society dictates language use; the ways we manipulate language; the way we acquired language as children; the ways language changes over time; and many others. The course satisfies the linguistics requirement of the English major. Text: Ohio State University Language Files 10.
321-001 MW 3:30-4:45
321-002 TR 11:00-12:15
Structure of the English Language
Richard Veit
MO 207
The course provides students with a broad and thorough understanding of English grammar. No prior study of grammar is required. Unlike traditional memorization-and-drill courses, this one adopts a "scientific" approach: we examine data (the sentences we speak and hear) and then form and test hypotheses about how those sentence were created. In other words, we create a model of the "grammar in our heads"—the principles or "rules" we observe when we create sentences. Although the approach is transformational grammar, it employs traditional terminology. Daily homework exercises, three exams, and two projects. Recommended for future teachers and others who want to understand how the English language works. The course satisfies the linguistics requirement of the English major. Text: Discovering English Grammar, 2nd ed.
332-001
Shakespeare's Early Plays and Poems
Mike Wentworth
MWF 10:00-10:50
MO 205
As a survey of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic career through 1600, the course will focus on selected comedies, tragedies, and history plays as well as selections from Shakespeare's sonnets. In regard to the assigned plays, beyond a consideration of such major human issues as love, death, evil, virtue, fortune, fate, freedom, and power . We will examine such additional matters as stagecraft, audience, genre conventions, language, versification, Shakespeare's status as a professional playwright, Renaissance dramatic theory, and Renaissance notions of originality with respect to Shakespeare's adaptation of his classical and narrative sources. Finally, we will also identify prominent questions raised by the assigned plays and sonnets and examine their continuing relevance in our own times. Texts: Bevington, ed., The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
335-001
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature: Sex and Sensibility
Katherine Montwieler
MWF 10:00-10:50
MO 201
Quivering heroines, cunning rakes, scheming spinsters, and various buffoons populate the pages of Restoration and eighteenth-century literature. We’ll encounter these eccentrics and others as we read naughty poetry, biting satires, and fascinating novels from an era obsessed with the trials, tribulations, traumas, and titillations that arise in the aftermath of falling in love or just into bed with some pretty shady characters. Writers of the period weren’t only experimenting with the taboo subject of sexuality however; they were also constantly playing with form and genre. What does this emphasis on the human body have to do with textual experimentation and the nascent British empire? We’ll try to answer these questions as we map our way though manor houses, cityscapes, and the uncharted territories of the new world with Behn, Haywood, Swift, and other literary revolutionaries as our guides. Texts include: Haywood, Fantomina; Inchbald, A Simple Story; The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. 1C
350-001
American Romanticism
Bill Atwill
MW 2:00-3:15
MO 210
This course is a study of the major writers, 1820-1865, whose works fashioned a national literary identity through ideas and attitudes associated with Romanticism--desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, the gothic, the sublime, the individual in nature, and the isolate self set apart from the masses. We will read poetry, essays, and fiction by such writers as Irving, Stowe, Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman. In addition to the readings there will be short essays, a midterm and a final exam.
354-001
North Carolina Writers: Landscapes in Poetry and Fiction
Kathy Rugoff
TR 2:00-3:15
MO 210
North Carolina’s landscapes are remarkably varied from the mountains and woods of western regions to the ocean and estuaries of coastal areas, from small towns and farmlands to rapidly growing cities. Brilliant writers envision the physical landscape of North Carolina and portray the cultural and psychological landscapes of its people. We will read poetry and fiction by writers including Fred Chappell, A. R. Ammons, Gerald Barrax, Clyde Edgerton, Maya Angelou and others. Also included is brief discussion of folk and blues songs of North Carolina musicians. Text: The Language They Speak Is Things to Eat: Poems By Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets, and selected short fiction.
361-001
Studies in Short Fiction: American Short Story Cycles
Mike Wentworth
MWF 12:00-12:50
MO 205
Our course will focus on eight American short story cycles. Beyond the incremental arrangement of stories within any given cycle, we will examine such elements as character, plot, setting and chronology, theme, point of view, myth, imagery, and framing devices in establishing unifying patterns within the cycle as a whole. Such considerations should lead to the identification of various conventions and techniques that characterize and define the short story cycle as a genre and that differentiate the short story cycle from a short story collection and from such related genres as the short story and the novel. As a point of comparison, we will also read a non-fiction narrative cycle: humorist Jean Shepherd's A Fistful of Fig Newtons. Texts include: Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio; Banks, Success Stories; Butler, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain; Fitzgerald, The Basil and Josephine Stories; Minot, Monkeys; Updike, Too Far to Go: The Maples Stories.
362-001
Studies in the Novel: The Quest
Keith Newlin
TR 12:30-1:45
MO 205
American writers have long been fascinated with the dark side of human nature—the twisted imaginings of tormented souls, obsessive lovers, grotesque humor, the irrational—and have indulged this fascination to explore the self, the world around us, the nature of meaning. The novels in this course test the boundaries of the bildungsroman—novels about characters on a quest for knowledge of some sort who in the process undergo spiritual or psychological growth. Some are dark explorations of the human psyche; some are comic celebrations of human foibles; others are crazed quests of understanding. In these novels we’ll meet obsessed lovers, madmen and madwomen, a Nietzschean superman, jaded detectives, poor white trash, cannibals, desperate solitarys, pitiful children, and a writer who talks to himself. Each of these novels seeks to answer, in a variety of ways and genres, a fundamental question that confronts us all at one time or another: what is the meaning of life in general, of a specific life? Texts incude: London, Martin Eden; Atwood, Surfacing; Ellison, Invisible Man; Yezierska, Bread Givers; Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise; Crumley, The Last Good Kiss ; Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions.
363-001
Studies in Nonfiction: Cross-Cultural Memoirs and Essays
Barbara Waxman
TR 12:30-1:45
MO 101
Experiences of the immigrant to America, the American abroad, and the inhabitants of cultural borderlands: these topics are given a human face in memoirs and nonfiction essays. We discuss Vietnamese immigrants and Americans in Vietnam in Nguyen’s Stealing Buddha’s Dinner and Sachs’s The House on Dream Street. Latino culture and life on the hyphen are depicted in classic texts by Anzaldua and Rodriguez, Arana’s American Chica, and Stavans’s On Borrowed Words. We also study culture-crossings of an Australian in Paris and a Jordanian-American in memoirs by Turnbull and Abu-Jaber. Ideas from autobiography theory add to our discussions. Students write a midterm and final exam, as well as two 1000-word essays. Texts include: Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera; Rodriguez, The Hunger of Memory; Nguyen, Stealing Buddha's Dinner; Sachs, The House on Dream Street; Arana, American Chica; Abu-Jaber, The Language of Baklava.
380-001 MWF 8:00-8:50
380-002 MWF 11:00-11:50
Literature for Children
Joyce Hollingsworth
MO 207
In ENG 380, students apply close analytical reading and cultural, historical, and literary contexts to texts targeted toward children but often chosen and read by adults. The Children’s Literature field is complex and changing instead of attempting comprehensive coverage, we’ll focus on the process of reading and selecting classics and new books, examining how children’s literature interacts with popular culture, literary canons, schools, libraries, families, therapy, censorship, the marketplace, etc. We’ll tell stories, share picture books and easy reading materials, and discuss novels and quality nonfiction, developing strategies to help children engage in critical and creative thinking and other pleasures of reading. Papers or exams on books for children ages 9-12, presentation and/or readers’ theatre, discussion leadership and participation, responses to books for younger children. Texts include: Classics of Children's Literature; Nodelman, Pleasures of Children's Literature; Patron, Higher Power of Lucky; Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia; Pullman, His Dark Materials; Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy.
381-001 MWF 10:00-10:50
381-002 MWF 11:00-11:50
Literature for Young Adults
Katie Peel
MO 101
This course explores constructions of both young adult literature and the young adult. We will look at the history of young adult literature from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century conduct books and magazines for boys and girls, to the post-war phenomenon of the American teenager, to the explosion of young adult lit in the 1970s, to current young authors and texts. We will consider issues of genre, looking at forms of narrative from diaries to graphic novels to texts written in email or text-message form, marketing (what’s up with “tween” culture?), and, of course, censorship. We will consider the goals of young adult lit, especially when it comes to identity formation, and will pay special attention to how young adult lit handles issues of “otherness,” for example in depictions of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and age. While we will focus on print narrative, we will consider the conversations created amongst media like film and the internet.
382-001
Ways of Teaching Literature
Lu Huntley
MWF 9:00-9:50
MO 210
This course, based upon "transactional approaches" to the study of literature, is for English Education students working toward teacher licensure. A primary aim is for students to establish foundation in reader-response and classroom discourse theories and extend this study by translating theories into practice. Outcomes from reading, responding, participating in seminar discussions of literature, and writing establish a platform for future professionals to develop as competent leaders in the field of Enlgish Education. Text: Holden and Schmit, Inquiry and the Literary Text and others TBA.
384-001
Reading Popular Culture
Meghan Sweeney
MW 3:30-4:45
MO 201
Reading popular culture: it sounds like fun—and it is. We will not, however, spend the semester sitting around munching popcorn, mulling over the latest episode of House. Instead, we will examine the theories involved in critiquing popular culture as an aesthetic and economic phenomenon and learn to write critiques using some of these theories. We will explore multiple media forms (film, music, fiction, television and more) in an effort to better understand the ways that we as ordinary people produce culture as well as the way that it produces us. Come prepared to do a good deal of critical reading/watching and discussing. Text: Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture.
387-001
History of Literary Criticism and Theory
Janet Ellerby
TR 2:00-3:15
MO 205
In 1821, when Shelley wrote, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world," he impressed on his readers the crucial role of the arts in an ethical world. We will take up Shelley's ideas as well as those of Plato, Aristotle, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Nietzsche, and Derrida, to name a few. We will delve into issues such as truth, power, identity, creativity, and aesthetics. We will ask our theorists and ourselves, what is the purpose of literature? What is the role of the poet/writer in creating a more ethical world? Why is critical awareness important equipment for living? Informal responses, final paper, midterm, and final. Attendance and participation crucial. Texts: The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends and course packet.
388-001
Rhetorical Theory to 1900
Kristen Seas
MWF 12:00-12:50
BR 202
For millennia, humans have studied rhetoric as the art of communicating effectively. As a result, we have inherited a wealth of theories about using language to express ideas, make decisions, and provoke actions. In this course, we will be surveying the origins and modern development of these theories in Western culture – from the political sophistry of antiquity, through the rules for rhetorical etiquette in the Middle Ages, to the delivery of rational argument in the Age of Enlightenment. Across these eras, we will put different theorists (and practitioners) into conversation with one another to identify the basic principles and debates that have shaped rhetoric then and now. Students will read primary sources by these theorists, as well as some secondary materials that place the theories in historical context. Each student is expected to write three synthesis papers, lead one class discussion, and complete a take-home exam. Text: Herrick, The History and Theory of Rhetoric.
390-001
Studies in Literature: The Fire this Time
Tiffany Gilbert
TR 3:30-4:45
MO 205
This course will focus on the fiction of African American authors James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison. Collectively, their work responds to the promises and paradoxes of American democracy. We will probe their works for insights on complicated questions such as class, race, sexuality, and nationality. Some of the works we will read include: Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room; Wright’s Native Son, and Ellison’s Invisible Man. Assignments will likely include a presentation, short essay critiques, and a substantive final essay with a research dimension.
490-001
Sex, Power, and the Modern Subject
Katherine Montwieler
W 3:30-6:15
MO 102
This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the construction of sex, gender, and sexuality in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. From Laclos’s Dangerous Liaisons to Duras’s Ourika, from Foucault’s Herculine Barbin to Freud’s Three Essays on Sexuality, we’ll trace the development of the modern subject, looking particularly at his or her relationship to identity, power, and “the polymorphously perverse”—or, sexuality in its various manifestations. Reading novels, essays, and historical documents, we’ll try to untangle how the rise of the individual relates to the concurrent international phenomena of urbanization, industrialism, and empire-making. This class is limited to only ten advanced English majors. It is cross-listed with HIS 495. Texts include: Duras, Ourika, Freud, Three Essays on Sexuality, Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
495-001
Senior Seminar in Literature: Jane Austen
Christopher Gould
TR 9:30-10:45
MO 102
The course surveys recent trends in the study of Austen's novels and provides opportunities to view and discuss several film adaptations. Each student keeps a reading journal, delivers a 15-20 minute oral report (subsequently submitted in written form), and writes a formal research-based essay. Texts: Austen, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility.
495-002
Science Fiction
Nick Laudadio
TR 2:00-3:13
MO 202
In this class, we will be working to make sense of one of the more is understood/maligned/misrecognized genres in literature and film studies: science fiction. In order to accomplish this rather ambitious goal, we will be confronting SF as a historical, critical, and political force that attempts to better understand the here that might just end up there (or beyond). For the most part, the class will be organized thematically and the range of primary and secondary texts will be extensive--including (but not limited to) films, novels, short stories, critical essay, philosophical speculation, and new media. Text: Freedman, Critical Theory and Science Fiction, TBA.
496-001
Senior Seminar in Writing: Writing and Personal Identity
Don Bushman
MWF 1:00-1:50
MO 102
This advanced writing course will explore the relationship between reading and writing and one’s sense of identity. We’ll address such questions as: How does writing about our lives aid in our understanding of who we are and how we interact with others? Do we have a unified “self” that remains the same throughout our lives? Or is the “self” a shifting and dynamic entity? What is the relationship of language to the self? How does language help determine our identities? Required will be a portfolio of 5 essays, one of which will require significant research. Text: on-line and library reserve readings
496-002
Senior Seminar: Video and Composition
Anthony Atkins
TR 9:30-10:45
MO 204
This course will explore new arenas of composing. First, students will become familiar with Web 2.0 Technologies (like, wordpress, delicious, stumble upon, wiki spaces, and Facebook) as repositories for digital ideas dedicated to a specific research area. Second students will write a traditional research essay. Third, students will represent their research process using Web 2.0 technologies and via video. Students will gain experience using video editing software as well as new web-based technologies that aid in doing research with online sources. Students will work individually and in groups. Students will also give oral presentations. Text: Faigley, Lester, George, Palchik, and Selfe. Picturing Texts: Composition in a Visual Age.
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