Writing Courses: 099-101-102-150 200-level 300-level

Literature Courses: 100-level 200-level 300-level Senior Seminar

English Education Courses: 300-level and Graduate

Return to list of course schedules and descriptions

ENGL 100: Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric

See Schedule below

An elective course designed for students who wish additional help in reading, writing, and rhetorical analysis.

01: TBA	10:00 - 10:50 MWF
02: Laurence Musgrove	9:00 - 9:50 MWF
03: TBA	12:00 - 12:50 MWF
04: TBA	2:00 - 2:50 MWF

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ENGL 101: Critical Thinking and Writing

See Schedule below

Application of the principles of clear thinking and effective writing to expository and argumentative essays. Must be passed with a grade of C or better.
Prerequisite: Satisfactory performance on the English Placement Test or a passing grade in English 099.

01: TBA	8:00 - 8:50 MWF
03: TBA	10:00 - 10:50 MWF
04: TBA	11:00 - 11:50 MWF
06: John Gutowski	1:00 - 1:50 MWF
08: TBA	8:00 - 9:20 TTH
09: Angelo Bonadonna	9:30 - 10:50 TTH
10: TBA	11:00 - 12:20 TTH
11: Angelo Bonadonna	12:30 - 1:50 TTH
12: TBA	2:00 - 3:20 TTH
13: TBA	11:00 - 12:20 TTH
14: TBA	6:30 - 9:20 Tues.
15:TBA (South Campus)	11:00 - 12:20 TTH

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ENGL 102: Research and Writing

See schedule below

A continuation of English 101 but including training in writing documented research papers. Each instructor may choose a topic and assign selected readings, which provide the subject matter for student writing. Must be passed with a grade of C or better. Prerequisite: English 101 with a C or better.

01: TBA	9:30 - 10:50 TTH
02: TBA	9:00 - 9:50 MWF
03: TBA	6:30 - 9:20 M

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ENGL 150 01: Honors English: "Reading the Environment"	12:30 - 1:50 TTH
Carol Poston

This course is designed to open up issues of the self in relation to our natural environment, the world in which we live. We will collect information, discuss contemporary issues, and examine our assumptions using both written and "real life" texts. Everyone will compile a college writing portfolio which will include informal/journal response writing, an observation/description, an interview report, and a short documented research project. The portfolio will constitute the final product to be graded and will be due at the end of the semester.

Required text: Research Writing in the Information Age by Arnold, Poston, and Witek.

Prerequisite: Appropriate placement.
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ENGL 210 01: Introduction to Creative Writing	12:00 - 12:50 MWF
Laurence Musgrove

Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts Core requirement.
Introduction to writing poetry and short fiction. Students will compose several poems and at least one short story in the context of reading classic and contemporary literature.
(Cross referenced with ENGL 357 01: Creative Writing: Poetry and Short Fiction)
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ENGL 350 01: Advanced Rhetoric and Writing	10:00 - 10:50 MWF
Laurence Musgrove

This course is designed for students who desire additional practice in writing and rhetorical analysis. The course is especially well-suited for those students who wish a career in writing and editing or for students who want to develop advanced writing and research skills for graduate school.

Students will compose four writing projects with real audiences in mind and submit at least two of these for publication. These projects may include writing website content, informational brochures, opinion pieces, memoir, natural history, interviews, bibliographic essays, and speeches.

For more information, see http://english.sxu.edu/musgrove/eng350.html
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ENGL 354: Business and Professional Writing
01: Augustus Kolich	11:00 - 12:20 TTH
02: TBA	6:30 - 9:20 M

Principles of effective argument and exposition applied to writing about business and professional topics. Emphasis on clear and effective writing for the appropriate audiences.
Prerequisites: English 101 and 102, Junior standing, or consent of the instructor.
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ENGL 357 01: Creative Writing: Poetry and Short Fiction	12:00 - 12:50 MWF
Laurence Musgrove

Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts Core requirement.
This class meets with English 210 01: Introduction to Creative Writing (see description). Students taking the course for English 357 credit have three additional writing requirements:

1. two additional poems,
2. one additional short story,
3. one of the following three assignments

a. an eight page research project on the short fiction or poetry of a contemporary American author
b. an eight page research project on teaching creative writing in the secondary schools
c. an eight page research project on a Chicago author.

English 357 students will have individual conferences with the instructor on each of these additional requirements, and each poem, story, and research project will go through at least two drafts.
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ENGL 154: Introduction to Literature
01: TBA	9:30 - 10:50 TTH
02: TBA	6:30 - 9:20 Wed.
03: Musgrove	2:00-2:50 MWF

Close reading and analysis of poetry, fiction, and/or drama selections leading to a better understanding of how literature works and what it can do. Open to all students and designed for students who are not English majors. May be taken concurrently with English 101-102.
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ENGL 157: Introduction to Shakespeare
01: Norman Boyer	10:00-10:50 MWF
02: Norman Boyer	9:00-9:50 MWF

Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
(Revised 7/1/01) This is an introductory course in Shakespeare designed for students who are not English majors but who have perhaps read one or two plays in high school, seen some interesting film versions (or maybe only Shakespeare in Love), and want to read and see more. We will read seven plays: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV Part 1, Measure for Measure, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra (because of the major Cleopatra exhibit at the Field Museum this fall), and The Tempest. We will focus on the plays as literature to be read and discussed, as theatrical scripts for realization in a performance setting, especially in recent and classic film versions of the plays, and as reflections of Early Modern culture.

Requirements: two hour exams, a final exam, and an optional short paper (3-4 typed pages). Regular attendance and participation in class discussion are extremely important and will affect your grade.

Required texts: The plays listed above in the new Pelican Shakespeare editions from Penguin, and The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, 2nd ed., by Ross McDonald. Check my web page for a detailed book list.

This course does NOT satisfy the English major Shakespeare requirement or any other English major requirement. It does satisfy 3 hours of the University core requirement in literature and fine arts, and it counts toward the English minor and the School of Education English concentration.

Please note: I tend to revise my course descriptions after the department booklet is published. Check my web page for the most recent version.
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ENGL 201 01: English Literature to 1700	11:00 - 11:50 MWF
Norman Boyer

Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement for students with a strong background in literature.
Revised 7/1/01) This is an introduction to the historical study of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of the Renaissance. It is designed to increase your enjoyment and understanding of some of the greatest works of English literature, works that form the foundation for later British and American literature. We will read such "standard" authors as the Beowulf-poet, Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, Herbert, and Milton in the context of other cultural voices, including the work of women writers such as Marie de France, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, Aemilia Lanyer, Mary Wroth, and Katherine Philips. We will focus both on the close reading of texts and on broad themes and patterns of development, especially the social and historical position of literature, with a special interest in issues of class and gender, including the position of women as both authors and literary chatacters. We will also consider current critical debates and the role of the "canon" in teaching English literature.

Requirements: two short papers (3-5 typed pages), five mailing list postings (200-300 words each), midterm exam, and final exam. Regular attendance and participation in class discussion are extremely important and will affect your grade.

Required texts: M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt, et al, eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th edition, paperback volumes 1A, 1B, and 1C (packaged together--we'll actually use only 1A and 1B, but it's a bit cheaper to order all 3 packaged together than the two separately--and you get a free CD this way).

This course satisfies 3 hours of the University core requirement in literature and fine arts. It satisfies the English major requirement in English 201 or 202, and it counts toward the English minor and the School of Education English concentration.

Please note: I tend to revise my course descriptions after the department booklet is published. Check my web page for the most recent version.
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ENGL 203 01: North American Literature To 1865	9:30 - 10:50 TTH
Augustus Kolich

Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
American Literature from the Puritans to the Civil War: In this survey course, we will read selected authors from the period.

Requirements: Four (4) exams; no papers.
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ENGL 207 01: Introduction to Literary Interpretation	11:00 - 12:20 TTH
Nelson Hathcock

Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement for students with a strong background in literature.
Prerequisite: English major or English 101. Required of English majors but also open to English minors and other interested students with strong backgrounds in the study of literature. Should be taken as soon as possible by English majors.
This course provides a foundation in the principles of "close reading" and then introduces students to the schools of critical theory that have proliferated in the past forty years. Readings will include poetry, short stories, and a novel, most likely Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The course will enable students to construct better written arguments based on their engagements with literary texts of different genres.

Requirements: Three 4-5 page response papers; one 4-5 page research paper on a designated topic.
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ENGL 317 01: English Literature of the Victorian Period	12:30 - 1:50 TTH
Carol Poston

This course replaces ENGL 312 in the printed schedule.
In this course we will examine major Victorian issues such as "the Woman Question," the Industrial Revolution, and the discourse on geology and evolution in such representative writers as Tennyson, J.S. Mill, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Thomas Huxley, Christina Rossetti, and William Morris. We will cover genres of poetry, essay, and novel, with one Dickens novel being required along with one other of your choice. We will also bring in other cultural sources by way of panel discussions by students.

Course requirements: midterm and final exams with both objective and essay sections and a short critical paper. Each student will also participate in a panel presentation requiring research.

Required text: Volume 2 of the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
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ENGL 323 01: American Modernism	6:00 - 8:50 W
Nelson Hathcock

Note change of day from the printed schedule.
This course examines how a continental phenomenon crossed the Atlantic and made its impression on American letters in the first three decades of the 20th century. While modernism affected music, architecture, dance, painting, and sculpture, we'll be focusing primarily on the resulting experimentation in literary forms, devices, and styles.

Texts:
Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time (Scribners)
John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, (Houghton Mifflin)
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and other Poems (Penguin)
William Carlos Williams, Selected Poems (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Robert Frost, Early Poems (Penguin)

Requirements: 5-6 one-page papers on prescribed topics; one research paper (8-12 pages)
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ENGL 332 01: Introduction to Women's Studies	2:00 - 4:50 M
Carol Poston

(Cross referenced with HUM 232 01 and WMSTU 232 01)
This interdisciplinary course introduces women's issues, traditions, and texts from a variety of perspectives including historical, psychological, artistic/literary, and theological. Guest lecturers will address specialized issues. Students will keep journals and be encouraged to bring in contemporary issues for discussion, such as women in popular culture, women at work, violence and women, and psychological theories about women.

Requirements include midterm and final examinations and a critical paper using sources (8-10 pages). ( Note: Critical paper is not required for HUM 232/WMSTU 232.)
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ENGL 360 01: 19th Century Magazine Fiction	12:00 - 12:50 MWF
Judith Hiltner

This course examines the culture of American magazine fiction in the first half of the nineteenth century. Magazines were the most widely read forum for American fiction and the forum employed by most authors who aspired to be literary professionals, including Irving, Poe, Melville and Hawthorne, as well as scores of other writers less widely read in our own times but far more well known in the nineteenth century: Sara Parton ("Fanny Fern"), Margaret Fuller, N.P. Willis, D.G. Mitchell ("Ike Marvel") and a wide range of "southwestern humorists." The same audiences were reading the stories of all of these authors. We will read widely from their magazine writings, first of all to enjoy entertaining stories that offer up sensational gothic hauntings, social satire, sentimental effusions, broad humor and even profound probings of the human psyche. Our discussions will explore some of the following questions: How did the expectations and tastes of popular audiences influence what writers could say and how they said it? How does popular fiction, even stories exploiting the "other worldly" devices of the gothic tradition, or stories set in foreign places and "olden times," actually reflect pressing issues and concerns of the young nation in the generation preceding the civil war, a nation energized by the enthusiasms of democratic individualism, Manifest Destiny and an increasingly commercial economy, and a nation with mounting sectional tensions, increasing anxieties regarding the assimilation of "aliens," and shifting ideologies regarding race and gender.

The class format will include short background lectures, discussion of texts, and sharing with one another our informal (one page) "reaction writings" in response to assigned readings. In several 5-8 page essays, students will be provided with opportunities to explore the topics and texts that most engage them.
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ENGL 360 01: Cleopatra, Elizabeth, and the Female Political Space in English Renaissance Literature	1:00 - 1:50 MWF
Norman Boyer

(Cross referenced with Women's Studies Course: WMSTU 360 01)
(Revised 7/5/01) What political space exists for women in a patriarchal society such as Early Modern England? How can literary texts and visual images be used to "place" powerful women, even ruling queens, in their "proper" places or, alternatively, to interrogate patriarchal ideology? How can male writers "write back" against powerful women, and how can female writers "write back" against those male images? These are some of the questions we will be considering in this course. Originating in the major Cleopatra exhibit coming to the Field Museum in October, this course will investigate the place of powerful women in the political world of Early Modern England and how that place is contested in some important literary texts of the time as well as in modern scholarly debates.

We will begin with the historical Cleopatra and with classical, early modern, and current versions of her, including Michael Grant's modern biography, Virgil's Dido in the Aeneid, Mary Sidney Herbert's loose translation of Garnier's Tragedy of Antonie, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, and Elizabeth Cary's Tragedy of Miriam. We will then turn to the historical Elizabeth I by reading both a modern biography (Christopher Hibbert's The Virgin Queen) and her own words in the new Collected Works. We will probably then look at some early modern versions of women rulers such as those found in Spenser's Faerie Queene, Shakespeare's Henry VI plays, and Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca.

Requirements: a short paper/project on some aspect of Cleopatra in modern culture, a critique of the Field Museum's Cleopatra exhibit, five mailing list postings (200-300 words each), a short term paper/project of 6-8 pages on a topic related to the course, a take-home final exam, brief oral presentations of the first paper/project and the term paper project, and a few internet assignments.

Required texts: Michael Grant, Cleopatra (Phoenix Press); Virgil, Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (Bantam); Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, edited by A. R. Braunmuller (Penguin); Christopher Hibbert, The Virgin Queen: Elizabeth I, Genius of the Golden Age (Perseus Books); and Elizabeth I, Collected Works, edited by Leah Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose (U of Chicago P). Other texts will be available as handouts or online.

This course satisfies 3 hours of the University core requirement in literature and fine arts. It satisfies 3 hours of the English major requirement in 300-level British literature, and it counts toward the English and Women's Studies minors and the School of Education English concentration.

Please note: I tend to revise my course descriptions after the department booklet is published. Check my web page for the most recent version.
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ENGL 395 01: Senior Seminar: Nathaniel Hawthorne and His World	2:30 - 5:20 M
Augustus Kolich

The seminar will entail a cultural studies approach to Hawthorne. Students will write their Senior Seminar paper on either Hawthorne or one of his contemporaries. All the major novels and short stories by Hawthorne will be covered.

Requirements: Seminar Paper; two (2) oral reports; several short assignments.
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ENGL 395 02: Senior Seminar: The Moral Imagination in Modern World Literature	2:30 - 5:20 M
Maire Mullins

In this course, we will focus on the question, how does one live a good life? Toward that end, we will examine how this question is addressed in Modern World Literature. We will read "Neighbor Rosicky" by Willa Cather, A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen, The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Students will be expected to write short response papers, to complete a longer research project on one of the emerging themes of the course, and to lead a class discussion on their research project. The course will be presented in seminar format, with an emphasis on discussion.
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ENGL 373 01: Methods of Teaching English in the Middle and Secondary School	5:00 - 7:50 TH
ENGL 473 01: Methods of Teaching English in the Middle and Secondary School
Angelo Bonadonna

Required for English majors seeking certification at the secondary level.
This course involves the study of the principles, methods, and materials of teaching English in middle school and senior high school. Course requirements include class and field experiences (30 hours), the development of a unit of study (in any of the language arts areas-literature, writing, speech, drama, film, journalism, and so on), the teaching of practice lessons, reflective writing on course readings, and, as a culmination of all the course components, the development of a course portfolio.

All course activities and discussions are oriented around the question, What is needed to become an excellent English teacher? There are many ways, of course, to answer this question. The major course premise is the view that, of all the qualities one might name-of all the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that are desirable for a prospective teacher to possess-the foremost quality is a professionally reflective habit of mind. Defining and exemplifying this disposition is a central concern of the course in general, and the portfolio project in particular.
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