English (ENG) Courses
Some special topics courses listed below may have individual offerings that will apply to distribution requirements. See the Curriculum Outline section of this Bulletin for more information.
ENG-101 Composition
Multiple sections will be offered in the fall
semester, each limited to 15 students. While
instructors may use different approaches, all are
concerned with developing every student's use of
clear and appropriate English prose in course
papers and on examinations. All instructors have
the common goal of encouraging the student to
write with accuracy of expression, as well as
with logical and coherent organization. Students
will be responsible for writing at least one
in-class essay and a series of longer,
out-of-class essays. Students are expected to
develop an awareness of the strengths and
weaknesses in their writing and to acquire the
necessary skill to revise and rewrite what they
thought were final drafts of essays. Past
experience has shown the Department and the
College that writing well in high school does not
necessarily assure the same in college.
Enrollment in this course is limited to those
students required to take it, based on SAT
English Writing Exam scores. This course is
offered in the fall semester.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
ENG-105 Intro to Poetry
This class will introduce you to the study of
poetry through intensive reading and intensive
written analysis. We will focus on close reading
of a wide range of poems from a variety of
historical periods, genres, and cultures. Through
a study of image, symbol, diction, syntax, meter,
rhythm, and sound, we will analyze the ways in
which a poem creates meaning. Written analyses
will emphasize the marriage of formal and
thematic elements in particular poems.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
ENG-106 Intro to Short Fiction
This class has two goals: to introduce the study
of short fiction through intensive reading, and
to familiarize students with strategies and
methodologies for writing about literature. In
our readings, we will explore formal issues such
as tone, structure, and symbolism as well as
social issues such as sexuality, race and gender.
This class focuses on ways of grappling with
these big questions in writing, as literary
scholars do.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5
Distribution: Literature, Literature/Fine Arts
ENG-107 History in Drama
First, a brief review of how the general reader
can become a critical reader of dramatic
literature-and still find the experience
delightful and enriching. Then, using
Pirandello's Henry IV as a reminder of the
challenges of plays about contemporary issues and
personalities, we will discuss some works from
the last sixty years that have addressed concerns
of science and scientists. It may be just as
interesting to discover that some dramatists have
intriguing insights into this kind of subject as
it is to realize that sometimes both humanists
and scientists can speak the same language. Texts
will include Brecht's Galileo, Kipphardt's In the
Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, as well as more
recent efforts to present Heisenberg, Bohr, and
Feynman.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-108 History and Literature
This introductory literature course focuses on
the connections between history and literature.
The instructor develops a specific topic that
invites the exploration of these connections.
Refer to the Course Descriptions document on the
Registrar's webpage for topics and descriptions of
current offerings.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-109 World Lit in Translation
This course focuses on world literature
translated into English. Topics vary by
semester, but themes in the course include
national identity, exile, colonialism, gender
inequality, political and religious conflict, and
globalization. Refer to the Course Descriptions
document on the Registrar's webpage for topics and
descriptions of current offerings.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-110 Intro to Creative Writing
This is an introductory course in Creative
Writing. ENG 110 will offer students an
opportunity to read and write in several genres:
fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The
course will focus on writing through the practice
of various methods of generation used by
established writers, designed to introduce
students to issues of language, form, image,
character, and structure. Students will also
learn critical tools for assessing good writing
and be introduced to the workshop model for
discussing creative work. Students will acquire
these tools through peer review, through close
reading of contemporary texts, and through
revision. The course is especially suited to
students who would like to learn a variety of
creative genres before committing themselves to
genre-specific creative writing courses.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-121 Language Variation & Change
This continuation of ENG-122 (HUM-122, MLL-122)
will deal with the social phenomena of language,
including language acquisition, social and
regional variation, and language change over time.
Prerequisites: ENG-122 or HUM-122 or MLL-122
Credits: 0.5
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
Equated Courses: HUM-121
ENG-122 Modern Linguistics
This course is an introduction to the basic
principles of linguistics, the theory and
analysis of human language. The first half of the
course will focus on structural aspects of
language: speech sounds and sound systems, and
the formation of words and sentences.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
Equated Courses: HUM-122
ENG-130 To Hell and Back With Dante
Travel with Dante th rough hell, purgatory, and
the celestial sphere-and also deep into the wortd
of Medieval Italy. Dante Alighieri's Divina
Commedia (in English, The Divine Comedy), is an
epic poem written by a man in crisis. Depressed
and driven from his homeland, Dante spent more
than a decade writing th is poem, in a last-ditch
effort to find meaning in heartbreak, exile, and
tragic loss. The poem was written in Italian-the
language of the common people-rather than Latin,
the language of the educated elite, and it exposes
the corruption of popes, priest s, politicians,
and commoners alike. A pilgrim named "Dante,
finds himself lost in the middle of his life and
he begins a journey to find something, but what,
exactly? Himself. His first love. Home. Salvation.
God. Each of these answers is correct, yet none is
sufficient . On this literary journey, we will
read about the people, places, beliefs, and
questions that moved the spiritual seekers of the
middle ages, and line them up against the
questions that plague our own communities. This
course is also about translation. Many translators
and literary critics insist that translation is
impossible ("A translator is a traitor," the
saying goes), and yet humans continue to translate
and place high value on literature in translation.
Even as he writes in his native tongue, Dante the
poet insists that he is a translator in the Divine
Comedy, reminding us throughout the poem that
words fail him; he cannot fully capture the depth
o f his feeling or the beauty of paradise. We are
always reading an approx.imation. Throughout the
semester, then, our discussions will return to the
power and the limitations of language, as we
travel with Dante to hell and back.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts
ENG-131 Extraordinary Bodies
Most people experience disability at some point in
their lives, whether it's temporary sports injury,
a neurological condition like depression or ADHD,
a birth defect, a permanent physical impairment
following an accident, or a bad case of the flu.
At the same time, most people try to avoid even
thinking about disability. Why ignore something so
common to the human experience? The growing field
of Disability Studies takes disability as a
starting point for re-imagining history and
culture. In this class, we will read important
theoretical texts in Disability Studies as well as
novels, stories, poems, and films by and about
disabled people. Our topics range from carnival
freak shows to cyborgs, from genocide to genetic
engineering, from public activism to intimate
relationships.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Global Citizenship, Justice, and Diversity
ENG-160 Multicultural Literature in America
The richness of American culture is a result of
the contributions made by individuals from a
variety of groups, each expanding our definition
of what it means to be American. In this course
we will study the writing and cultures of a
number of groups, among them Native American,
Hispanic, Gay, African American, European
American, and Asian American. We will try to hear
individual voices through a variety of literary
forms (including film), while exploring
commonalities.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature,
ENG-170 Comics and Graphic Novels
Dismissed once as kids' fare or shrugged off as
sub-literate- "in the hierarchy of applied arets,
Art Spiegelman once wrote, comic books surpass
only "tattoo art and sign painting"- comics today
are enjoying their Renaissance. In 2015, Comics
and graphic novel sales topped $1 billon, 20-year
high. Award-winning writers now moonlight for
Marvel (Roxanne Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates) or pen
essays on Peanuts (Jonathan Franzen). Superheroes
dominate the big screen. In this class, We'll
explore this deceptively sinple medium as it
develops a whole host of special abilities. We'll
use Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, a
critical text that is itself a comic, to become
smart readers of sequential art. Hillary Chute's
new book Why Comics? will help us to frame comic's
enduring subject matters: sex, the suburbs,
disasters, and superheroes. Reading may include
Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, Spiegelman's Maus,
Lynda Barry's one! and works by Ebony flower, Los
Bros Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, Harvey Pekar, R.
Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Julie Doucet, and
many others. The course is open to all students;
underclassmen are encouraged to enroll. There will
be capes and tights.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts
ENG-171 Manga and Anime
From Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball to Sui Ishida's
Tokyo Ghoul, manga and anime have earned a
reputation for being globally influential mediums
of literature and entertainment. Manga
storytellers often use their works to interrogate
complex themes, issues, and queries of humanity,
technology, gender, race, existential beliefs, and
culture. Likewise, anime adaptations make use of
cinematic visual storytelling to expand on the
source material of manga stories with voice acting
and music to increase the thematic depth and
audience immersion. This course will feature a
wide selection of manga and anime and consider
what can be learned from understanding their
narrative dimensions. Texts will range from Dragon
Ball and Sailor Moon to Haikyuu, Fullmetal
Alchemist, and Tokyo Ghoul. The material for the
course will be read/viewed in translation, so it
is not necessary to know Japanese to take this
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts
ENG-172 Science Fiction
In "Science and Speculative Fiction," we analyze
the social, historical, and political contexts for
such themes as time travel, artificial
intelligence, genetic engineering, alien invasion,
and biological interdependence. We read fiction by
H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Margaret
Atwood, N.K. Jemisin, and others, as well as
graphic novels and film.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts
ENG-180 Special Topics
Since the content of this course varies from
semester to semester, it may be repeated for
credit upon the instructor's approval.Topics vary
with each scheduled offering. Refer to Student
Planning's section information for descriptions of
individual offerings, and applicability to
distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-187 Independent Study
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-188 Independent Study
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-190 Topics in Writing Studies
This is an introductory course in Creative
Writing. English 190 will offer students an
opportunity to read and write in several genres:
fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The
course will focus on writing through the practice
of various methods of generation used by
established writers, designed to introduce
students to issues of language, form, image,
character, and structure. Students will also
learn critical tools for assessing good writing
and be introduced to the workshop model for
discussing creative work. Students will acquire
these tools through peer review, through close
reading of contemporary texts, and through
revision. The course is especially suited to
students who would like to learn a variety of
creative genres before committing themselves to
genre-specific creative writing courses.Topics
vary with each scheduled offering. Refer to
Student Planning's section information for
descriptions of individual offerings, and
applicability to distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-196 Religion and Literature
A study of religious themes and theological issues
in literary works.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-202 Writing With Power and Grace
This class addresses one of the most important
questions of higher education, and, indeed, of
life: how to express yourself clearly and
gracefully. The premise of this class is that
writing well is a potent form of power and
beauty. To achieve that goal, we'll study the
major principles of grammar, style, and clarity.
Although all are welcome, this class will be of
particular interest to freshmen and sophomores
who either did not take the Composition or would
like further practice in writing. This course
does not count toward the creative writing track
of the English major. This course is offered in
the fall and spring semesters.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-210 Special Topics in Creative Writing
Special Topics may cover a variety of genres such
as screenwriting, novel writing, audio rhetoric,
etc. The course will have a strong workshopping
component. Course readings will help students gain
an understanding of the contemporary aesthetic of
the genre as well as provide direction about
craft. Besides generating assignments, producing
original work, and reading a variety of
genre-specific texts, students will also be
responsible for peer evaluation and critique.
Because the course may be different every time it
is taught, students may re-take the course for
credit. Topics vary with each scheduled offering.
Refer to Student Planning's section information
for descriptions of individual offerings, and
applicability to distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-211 Creative Nonfiction Workshop
This course will have a strong workshopping
component and focus heavily on generating creative
nonfiction and learning to read as writers.
Usually a combination of an anthology and a book
on the craft of creative nonfiction will comprise
the required texts. Besides generating
assignments, producing original essays, and
reading a variety of texts, students will also be
responsible for peer evaluation and critique.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-212 Poetry Workshop
This course will have a strong workshopping
component, starting early in the second week of
instruction. The course will focus heavily on
generating poetry and learning to read as writers.
Usually a combination of an anthology and a book
on the craft of writing poetry will comprise the
required texts. Besides generating assignments,
producing original workshopped poems, and reading
a variety of texts, students will also be
responsible for peer evaluation and critique.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-213 Fiction Workshop
This course will have a strong workshopping
component, starting early in the second week of
instruction. The course will focus heavily on
generating fiction and learning to read as
writers. Usually a combination of an anthology and
a book on the craft of writing fiction will
comprise the required texts. Besides generating
assignments, producing original workshopped
stories or chapters, and reading a variety of
texts, students will also be responsible for peer
evaluation and critique.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language
ENG-230 Writing for Video Games
Video games have become nuanced vehicles for
storytelling. They push traditional boundaries and
can be powerful and memorable narratives that help
develop empathy. This course will look at
narrative elements such as characterization, plot,
character, story, place, dialogue and point of
view in an effort to develop your own
narrative-based video games. The course will have
a strong works hopping component, starting early
in the second week of instruction. The course will
focus heavily on generation and learning to read
as writers/creators. Besides generating
assignments, producing original workshopped games
or branching narratives, and reading or playing
games, students will also be responsible for peer
evaluation and critique.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution:
ENG-231 Web Writing & Digital Design
Design your own website. Create an interactive
environment. Analyze literature with algorithms.
This course unfolds at the intersections of
creative writing and technology. We will explore a
range of digital humanities, including open-access
research design, digital mapping, and multimodal
writing. This class consists of a series of
workshops, during which students will craft texts
in multiple genres, such as personal narratives,
free-verse poetry, and drama. Then, we will
practice using a series of digital platforms that
will enhance students' storytelling through
multimodal writing. By the end of the semester,
students will have experience with computer
coding, digital mapping, crafting original work in
Google Sites, and video production. There are no
prerequisites or tech requirements for this
course. No previous knowledge of coding is
necessary. Computers, cameras, and apps will be
made available, so it is not necessary to own a
personal laptop to complete this course
successfully. Most of the resources featured here
are freely available so students develop
multimodal writing skills that are applicable to
multiple, open-access media in diverse contexts
beyond our class together.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies
ENG-234 Medieval & Renaissance Literature
The study of English literature from its
beginnings to the end of the Renaissance.
Readings will include Beowulf; selections from
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; Elizabethan Poetry
(including Book I of Spenser's The Faerie Queen);
drama and prose; and Milton's Paradise Lost.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-215
ENG-235 Introduction to Shakespeare
A study of the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare.
Analyzing Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic
techniques, we will examine some of the comedies,
histories, and tragedies of the greatest
dramatist in English. We will also look at the
plays' major themes, styles, and sources. This
course also includes as a final assignment, work
as a member of a team on the presentation of a
scene from one of Shakespeare's plays.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-216
ENG-236 English Literature 1660-1800
This course examines works by some of the
best-known poets, essayists, and novelists from
the Restoration and 18th Century in Great
Britain, including Dryden, Swift, Pope, Fielding,
and Johnson. The responses of different authors
to ongoing cultural conflicts will help structure
our survey. Rhetorical techniques and the
development of genres will be ongoing concerns.
There will be special emphasis on the comedies of
the time by Wycherly, Etherege, Behn, Congreve,
Gay, Steele, and Sheridan, not only as texts for
performance and reading, but also as objects the
authors' contemporaries reviewed with vigor and
used to construct theories about comedy and
satire.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-217
ENG-237 English Literature 1800-1900
A study of the life and literature of the early
and middle 19th century as reflected in the
poetry, fiction, and essays of this period. Texts
will vary from year to year but will be drawn
from the works of major poets (Wordsworth, Keats,
Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and Hardy), novelists
(Austen, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, and
Hardy) and essayists (Wordsworth, Carlyle,
Macaulay, Ruskin, Arnold, Huxley, and Pater).
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-218
ENG-238 Intro to English Literature After 1900
This course will introduce students to the major
writers and literary trends of the British Isles
after 1900. We will begin with the dawn of
Modernism, after which we will trace important
political, cultural, and aesthetic changes
reflected in 20th and 21st century texts. How did
the disintegration of the British Empire and two
world wars affect British cultural identity? How
was the clash between the rural and the urban
reflected in the past century? We will focus on a
variety of genres-fiction, non-fiction, poetry,
and drama-and examine the experimentations with
language and form in Modernism and Postmodernism,
as well as representations of gender roles and
race in selected texts by Joseph Conrad, Wilfred
Owen, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce,
Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, George
Orwell, Samuel Beckett, Doris Lessing, Eavan
Boland, Muriel Spark, Angela Carter, and others.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-214
ENG-239 American Literature Before 1900
A survey of major writers and literary trends
from the period of exploration to the
Naturalists. We will study the forging of the
American literary and social consciousness in the
writings of the early explorers, through the
Native American oral tradition, and in works by
Bradstreet, Edwards, Franklin, Emerson, Thoreau,
Hawthorne, Jacobs, Melville, Douglass, Whitman,
Dickinson, Twain, James, Crane, and Chopin.
Guiding our study will be questions like "What is
'American' about American literature?" and "In
what ways do myths generated by our formative
literature continue to shape our personal and
national identities?
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-219
ENG-240 American Literature After 1900
This survey introduces the writers and trends of
our century, from realism and naturalism through
modernism to the rich, fragmented energy of
postmodernism and multiculturalism. Writers
covered vary from year to year but may include
Henry James, James Weldon Johnson, Edith Wharton,
Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, William
Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, Ernest
Hemingway, Margery Latimer, William Faulkner,
Langston Hughes, Willa Cather, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, J. D. Salinger, Allen Ginsberg, Gary
Snyder, Amiri Baraka, John Barth, Raymond Carver,
Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Louise Erdrich,
Sandra Cisneros, Toni Morrison, and Don DeLillo.
This course is offered in the spring semester.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
Equated Courses: ENG-220
ENG-241 African American Literature
This course will introduce students to the
critical study of African American literature as a
means of racial identity formation and political
and philosophical articulation. Among other
things, African American art, literature, music,
and cinema reflect an attempt to grapple with
issues of human psychology, justice, love, race,
and democracy. The readings, videos, and
recordings are meant to provide a source of
material for examining what, if anything, African
American literary producers have to say about what
it means to be human, why and how race matters,
the nature of justice, the efficacy of love,
gender and class identities, and the possibility
of creating a society of equals. Lastly, in-class
discussions and out-of-class projects are meant to
assists in skill development for (in the words of
bell hooks) transgressive engagement with all
texts and media.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature, Global Citizenship, Justice, and Diversity
Equated Courses: BLS-271
ENG-250 Southern Gothic Literature
This class is about the ghosts that haunt the
literature of the American South. After the Civil
War, when the ideal of the pastoral plantation
crumbled, Southern writers sought to contend with
the brutal historic realities that had always
lurked behind the white-pillared façade: poverty,
violence, slavery, racism, patriarchy. Southern
Gothic literature- which emerged in the early 19th
century and continues strong today-is marked by
dark humor, transgressive desires, grotesque
violence, folk spiritualism, hereditary sins,
emotional and environmental isolation,
supernatural forces, and punishing madness. In
this class, we will listen to the stories that the
ghosts of the American South have told, and still
tell today.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts
Equated Courses: BLS-272
ENG-260 Multicultural Literatures
The course will introduce students to the
history, methodology and major problems in black
studies. This survey will explore the
interdisciplinary nature of black studies
scholarship and the challenges it presents to
traditional academic models. The issue of the
politicization of the academy and the
relationship between black scholarship production
and service to the black community will also be
covered. The course will draw from a number of
literary sources (Toni Morrison, Houston Barker,
Henry Louis Gates), cultural theorists (bell
hooks, Mark Anthony Neal, Cornel West) and
historical works (Nell Painter, John H. Franklin,
Alberto Raboteau.) This course will serve
students interested in the study of the black
experience. All majors are welcomed. Meets the
Diversity Requirement for the PPE major.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature,
ENG-270 Special Topics: Lit/Fine Arts
Since the content of this course varies from
semester to semester, it may be repeated for
credit upon the instructor's approval.Topics vary
with each scheduled offering. Refer to Student
Planning's section information for descriptions of
individual offerings, and applicability to
distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
ENG-287 Independent Study/Lang.
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-288 Independent Study
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-290 Topics in Writing Studies
This is an introduction to the study of language
and psychological behavior. We will consider
current issues in language and the mind,
including the structure and processing of
language, language acquisition in children, and
how humans store and retrieve linguistic
information. No previous experience in
linguistics is necessary, although it would be
helpful if the student has taken Introduction to
Psychology. There will be weekly quizzes, a short
paper, and a comprehensive final examination.
Topics vary with each scheduled offering. Refer to
Student Planning's section information for
descriptions of individual offerings, and
applicability to distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-296 Religion and Literature
A study of religious themes and theological
issues in literary works.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
ENG-297 We Get Lit: Reading Like a Pro
Scientists have beakers and microscopes; social
scientists have surveys and interviews, but what
are the research tools for studying literature?
How can you become a better, more confident reader
of poems, plays, or short stories? In this course,
you will learn how to "get" literature. Your
professor will introduce you to the tools you can
use to understand a writer's craft, identify a
range of allusions and metaphors, and ask better
questions of texts. You will read a variety of
genres of literature (novels, plays, poems) while
developing a vocabulary that is essential to
literary analysis. You will also learn some of the
major "schools of thought" in literary studies,
that is, the theories scholars have used better
understand why writers write, why readers read,
and why teachers across the globe assign certain
texts to students. All English majors taking the
literature track are required to take this course,
preferably during their freshman or sophomore
years. English majors taking the creative writing
track are encouraged but not required to take this
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature/Fine Arts, Literature
ENG-298 Business & Technical Writing
Business and technical writing get work done.
People who can communicate effectively have an
advantage in the workplace. In this class,
students will develop writing skills for a range
of professional circumstances. Students will craft
documents to address specific audiences and
purposes, especially in increasingly diverse
workplaces; design templates and visually
appealing documents; create professional digital
portfolios; and identify skills and qualities that
make each individual an asset to professional
organizations.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies
Equated Courses: ENG-411
ENG-300 Studies in Historical Contexts
Refer to the Course Descriptions document on the
Registrar's webpage for topics and descriptions of
current offerings.
Prerequisites: One previous course in English at Wabash
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-302 Writing in the Community:Grants/NonProf
In this course, students will partner with local
nonprofit organizations to write grants and
promotional materials (such as newspaper
articles, website text, short video, pamphlets,
etc.). Students will learn the fundamentals of
grant writing, including how to tailor tone and
content to specific audiences, the arts of
brevity, concision, narrative persuasion, and
grammatical/syntactical precision. This course
includes a significant community
engagement/service learning component, as
students will work directly with Crawfordsville
and Montgomery County nonprofit organizations.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies
ENG-310 Studies in Literary Genres
Topics vary from semester to semester. Refer to
the Course Descriptions document on the
Registrar's webpage for Topics and Descriptions
of current offerings.
Students taking this course for credit toward the
English major or minor must have taken at least
one previous course in English or American
literature. No more than one course taken outside
the English Department will be counted toward the
major or minor in English.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-311 Creative Nonfiction Spec Topics Workshop
This course is primarily a workshopping course,
which will focus on generation and revision of
original creative nonfiction, with an emphasis on
producing polished, publishable work. Texts will
include craft/theory books, anthologies and
literary journals. The course will have a critical
essay component, a close study of the craft of a
particular writer or some formal question.
Students will also be responsible for detailed
peer critique. Each version of the course will
focus on a different subgenre of creative
nonfiction, such as memoir, personal essay, or
travel writing.
Prerequisites: At least one other creative writing course, or permission of
the instructor.
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language, Language Studies
ENG-312 Poetry Special Topics Workshop
This course is primarily a work-shopping course,
with a critical essay component-close study of the
craft of a particular writer or some formal
question. Students will continue to read and study
published work, such as the annual The Best
American Poetry anthologies. Each version of the
course will vary some in focus. For instance, one
course might focus on postmodern poetics, while
another might focus on narrative poetry and prose
poetry.
Prerequisites: At least one other creative writing course, or permission of
the instructor.
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-313 Fiction Special Topics Workshop
This course is primarily a workshopping course,
which will focus on generation and revision of
original fiction, with an emphasis on producing
polished, publishable work. Texts will include
craft/theory books, anthologies and literary
journals. The course will have a critical essay
component, a close study of the craft of a
particular writer or some formal question.
Students will also be responsible for detailed
peer critique. Each version of the course will
focus on a different subgenre of fiction, such as
the novel, fabulist short fiction, or interactive
fiction.
Prerequisites: At least one other creative writing course, or permission of
the instructor.
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies, Language
ENG-314 Theory and Practice of Peer Tutoring
This course introduces students to composition
and rhetoric theories, to theories behind
peer tutoring, to the confluences and conflicts
between the different theories, and to the,
at times, obscured foundations of the different
theories. After critically reviewing
multiple theoretic approaches, the course shifts
to the practice of peer tutoring and
reconciling reality with theory when they start
observing or conducting sessions in the
Writing Center. As the course progresses, the
focus shifts to mentoring writing,
describing and teaching composition methods, and
using grammar options as rhetorical
tools. The course is required for all Writing
Center Consultants, but it is open to English
Majors and Minors and students in Education
Studies. Students taking the course to work
in the Writing Center will start conducting
sessions towards the middle of the semester.
Prerequisites: FRT-101 and FRC-101
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language Studies
Equated Courses: EDU-314
ENG-330 Studies in Special Topics
In this course, we will focus on major Anglophone
and Francophone authors writing in and about
formerly colonized territories such as parts of
the Caribbean, Senegal, Zimbabwe, South Africa,
India, and Ireland. We will focus on gender roles
and race in connection to the literary canon, and
we will discuss a dialogue between the center of
the empire (London) and the "margins" (British
colonies). How did the authors describe conflicts
between assimilation and resistance in the
colonial and postcolonial milieu? How were the
national, cultural, and individual identities
affected by decades of foreign imperial presence?
Can we trace any intersections between postmodern
and postcolonial themes? To understand and enjoy
the texts, we will also study the political
context of European imperialism and the
anti-imperial resistance, as well as the major
premises of Neocolonialism, Postcolonialism, and
Postmodernism.Refer to the Course Descriptions
document on the Registrar's webpage for topics and
descriptions of current offerings.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-340 Studies in Individual Authors
Topics vary from semester to semester.Refer to the
Course Descriptions document on the Registrar's
webpage for topics and descriptions of current
offerings.
Prerequisites: One previous course in English Literature at Wabash
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-350 Studies in Media
Topics vary with each scheduled offering. Refer to
Student Planning's section information for
descriptions of individual offerings, and
applicability to distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: One previous course in English at Wabash
Credits: 0.5-1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-360 Studies in Multicult/Nat'l Lit
Topics vary from semester to semester. Refer to
the Course Descriptions document on the
Registrar's webpage for topics and descriptions of
current offerings.
Prerequisites: One credit from English at Wabash.
Credits: 0.5-1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-370 Special Topics: Lit/Fine Arts
Topics vary with each scheduled offering. Refer to
Student Planning's section information for
descriptions of individual offerings, and
applicability to distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: One course credit in English Literature at
Wabash, or permission of the instructor.
Credits: 0.5-1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-387 Independent Study/Lang Studies
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-388 Independent Study/Lit Fine Arts
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-390 Topics in Writing Studies
Topics vary with each scheduled offering. Refer to
Student Planning's section information for
descriptions of individual offerings, and
applicability to distribution requirements.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-410 Academic & Professional Writing
The goal of this course is for the student to
gain greater awareness and control over his
writing for a variety of academic and
professional purposes. Students who wish to
improve their college writing and those who plan
to attend law or graduate school, teach, or write
professionally would be well served by the
course. We will focus in particular on clarity in
writing, argumentative techniques, the demands of
different genres, and developing a personal
voice. Limited enrollment. This course is offered
in the spring semester. STUDENTS MAY TAKE EITHER
ENG 410 or 411, BUT NOT BOTH.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Language
ENG-487 Independent Study
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-488 Independent Study
Individual research projects. The manner of study
will be determined by the student in consultation
with the instructor. Students must receive
written approval of their project proposal from a
department Chair before registering for the
course.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5-1
ENG-497 Seminar in English Lit
These are seminars designed primarily for English
majors (although occasionally English minors
enroll in them). The topics vary depending upon
the research and teaching interests of the
faculty. They demand a high level of student
involvement in research and discussion. Several
short papers and a long critical essay are
required. Note: the two seminars are offered only
in the fall semester.
Prerequisites: none
Credit: 1
Distribution: Literature
ENG-498 Capstone Portfolio
In these two half-credit courses, the student
writes and revises a portfolio of his work in a
single genre. The portfolio should include the
writer's best work, accompanied by an
introductory aesthetic statement. During the
first semester in 498, the student will meet in
workshop with other senior writers in their
chosen genre. In the second semester in 499, the
writing concentrator will further develop and
revise his portfolio, and give a reading of his
work. The portfolio courses will provide
workshops to help students in publication and in
application to graduate programs. Readings in the
courses will be varied; some will be guides for
practical instruction, others will be theoretical
or craft texts to help the student find formal
coherence in his portfolio.
Prerequisites: none
Credits: 0.5
Distribution: Language Studies
ENG-499 Capstone Portfolio
In these two half-credit courses, the student
writes and revises a portfolio of his work in a
single genre. The portfolio should include the
writer's best work, accompanied by an
introductory aesthetic statement. During the
first semester in 498, the student will meet in
workshop with other senior writers in their
chosen genre. In the second semester in 499, the
writing concentrator will further develop and
revise his portfolio, and give a reading of his
work. The portfolio courses will provide
workshops to help students in publication and in
application to graduate programs. Readings in the
courses will be varied; some will be guides for
practical instruction, others will be theoretical
or craft texts to help the student find formal
coherence in his portfolio.
Prerequisites: ENG-311, ENG-312, or ENG-313
Credits: 0.5
Distribution: Language Studies