English

Professors

Scott Boltwood, Chair

Jennifer Krause

Matthew Kelley

Ruth Ann Marotta

Shanita Jackson

Degrees and Certificates

Courses

ENGL 100: Foundations of Writing

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Review of writing skills expected in college-level courses, including ability to write clear and correct Standard English prose in paragraphs and short essays. A student enrolled in English 100 must earn a grade of at least C- in order to take 101.

ENGL 101: Writing

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Development of writing skills necessary for academic work at all levels, including skills in rhetoric, grammar, electronic research, and documentation. At least a C- is required to fulfill the college's writing requirement.

Prerequisites

Grade of 'C-' or better in ENGL 100.

ENGL 199: Writing Review

Program
Semester Hours 1.0
Review and practice in grammar and writing skills expected of successful college graduates. For students referred to English 199, the course becomes a graduation requirement. At least a C- is required in order to receive credit for the course if a student is formally referred to the course.

ENGL 200: Reading & Writing About Literature

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Instruction in reading and analyzing literature, writing academic discourse, and using electronic research and documentation. Introduction to different genres and selected critical theories. English majors should complete this course before the end of the sophomore year. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 230: Introduction to Creative Writing

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

The writing of poetry, fiction, and other creative projects; instruction in reading literary texts with attention to the crafts of poetry, prose (fiction and nonfiction), and drama. Development of workshop practice and instruction in research for creative purposes.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101 or instructor permission.

ENGL 231: Introduction to Poetry

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to the reading and enjoyment of poetry through the study of poems from selected time periods and diverse cultural traditions. English majors in the creative writing track are encouraged to take this course prior to English 322. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 232: Introduction to Short Fiction

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to short fiction, including stories and short novels, with attention to a variety of forms from classical narrative to fantasy and expressionism. English majors in the creative writing track are encouraged to take this course prior to English 323. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 233: Introduction to Drama

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to drama, with a focus on the literary issues specific to drama as a form of narrative; consideration of dramatic genre and theory, and some attention to staging and performance, with an introduction to important playwrights of the tradition. English majors in the creative writing track are encouraged to take this course prior to English 325X. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 234: Introduction to Film

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to film techniques and conventions; consideration of social, artistic, and historical contexts of films,how they shape and are shaped by their time; and systematic exploration of such influential film genres as silent film, documentary, film noir, New Cinema, and auteur analysis.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 245: Introduction to African American Literature

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Survey of African American literature form the 18th to the 21st century, with attention to the fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama across the African American experience and the resulting literary traditions. From slavery and its abolition, segregation and the Jim Crow South, the civil rights movement, to contemporary social movements and aesthetics. 

ENGL 250: Major British Writers I

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to earlier British literature with attention to selected works by authors including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Donne, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson. English majors should complete this course before the end of the sophomore year.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 251: Major British Writers II

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to later British literature with attention to selected works by authors including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, G. Eliot, Woolf, Yeats, and T.S. Eliot. English majors should complete this course before the end of the sophomore year.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 252: Major British Writers III

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to literature from 1945 to the present and its diverse cultural, social, and political contexts.  Study of English-language authors from the British Isles, Africa, India, and the Caribbean, with attention to English as a language of world literature.  English majors should complete this course before the end of their sophomore year.  

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 255: Major US Writers I

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Survey of writing in the United States through World War I, with attention to selected works by Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Douglass, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Crane, Chopin, and Dreiser, that introduces students to American Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 256: Major US Writers II

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Survey of writing in the United States after World War I, with attention to selected American authors from Eliot, Hemingway, Moore, and Fitzgerald to the present.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 321: Advanced Expository Writing

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Reading and writing longer forms of exposition, persuasion, narration, and analysis, with emphasis on clarity of style, argument, and advanced editing and research skills. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 322: Writing Poetry

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

The writing of poetry, with attention to traditional prosody and innovations in contemporary poetry. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 323: Writing Prose Fiction

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

The writing of prose fiction, with emphasis on techniques of characterization, voice, plot development, and theme. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 325X: Introduction to Scriptwriting

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Introduction to the major components of scriptwriting; emphasis on dramatic action, character, and dialogue; tools and techniques of scriptwriting; focus on the imagination and creativity of the student through the development of a short script.

ENGL 326: Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

The study of creative nonfiction, with inspiration from writing based on topics from personal narratives to the natural world. The composition of original writing inspired by personal and professional interests for a range of publications, from journals to blogs. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 328: Nature Writing

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

The writing and study of nature writing as a genre and pertinent literary forms, with attention to writing from Thoreau, Carlson, Leopold, Abbey, Berry, Lopez, Dillard, and Bass. This course is taken as part of the Semester-A-Trail Program. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 332: Critical Perspectives in Lit

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

An applied study of critical perspectives on literature and related literary theories, including New Criticism, New Historicism, Feminism, Postcolonialism, Structuralism, and others. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 333: Linguistics

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Overview of general linguistic theories, including applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. Nature, development, and acquisition of both first and second languages including knowledge of phonological, morphological, and semantic aspects of English and their impact on the development of vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical competence. 

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 350: Special Topics

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Selected topics within any area of literature, comparative cultures and literature, criticism, and creative writing.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 360: Shakespeare

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Representative comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances from his early, middle, and late periods, studied in the context of cultural and dramatic history and the Elizabethan theatre.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 362: Studies in Major Authors

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

A study of the works, life, and culture of a single major author in the Anglophone tradition. Possible topics include Austen, Chaucer, Dickens, Faulkner, Milton, Woolf. May be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 364: Studies in Literary Traditions

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Study of a selected ethnic, national, regional, or cultural literary tradition. Rotating traditions will include Multiethnic American, Irish, women's, Southern, and Appalachian traditions. May be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites

ENGL 101.

ENGL 450: Senior Seminar

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Analysis of a selected topic in literature with related study of genre and schools of critical theory. Students in the literature and secondary education tracks complete a critical project. Students in the creative writing track may elect to complete a combined critical-creative project. Evaluation of student presentations by members of the English Department. 

Prerequisites

Senior English major, or departmental permission.

ENGL 460: Independent Study

Program
Semester Hours 4.0

Advanced independent research in a special area of literature and criticism, or a creative writing project, under the supervision of a faculty member.

Prerequisites

Departmental permission.

ENGL 470: Internship I

Program
Semester Hours 6.0

Work experience related to the student's major, jointly supervised by the department and a professional in the field. Although the usual internship will carry either three or six hours credit, a student may elect to arrange an internship carrying between two and six hours credit with the permission of the department. Each hour of credit will require forty hours at the internship site.

Prerequisites

Departmental permission.

ENGL 471: Internship II

Program
Semester Hours 6.0

Work experience related to the student's major, jointly supervised by the department and a professional in the field. Although the usual internship will carry either three or six hours credit, a student may elect to arrange an internship carrying between two and six hours credit with the permission of the department. Each hour of credit will require forty hours at the internship site.

Prerequisites

Departmental permission.

ENGL 490: Honors Project

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Independent research in a special topic for honors.

Prerequisites

Senior status, GPA of 3.0 or higher.

ENGL 491: Honors Project

Program
Semester Hours 3.0

Independent research in a special topic for honors.

Prerequisites

Senior status, GPA of 3.0 or higher.