ENGLISH

SPRING 2000

UNDERGRADUATE COURSE OFFERINGS

 

WRITING

ENGL 099 01: College Preparatory Writing 10:00 - 10:50 MWF
Laima Rastenis
An intensive introductory writing course designed to assess the individual needs of students, to strengthen their paragraph and essay writing skills, and to better prepare them for the writing demanded of them in English 101 and other college courses. Required of students whose performance on the English Placement Test indicates that they need this course. Graded on a pass/fail basis only.

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: Laima Rastenis 12:00 - 12:50 MWF

02: tba 9:30 - 10:45 TTH

03: tba 6:30 - 9:20 Tues.


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.

02: Norman Boyer 10:00 - 10:50 MWF
03: Norman Boyer 11:00 - 11:50 MWF
Topic: (both sections) The Language of Who We Are: Contemporary Discourses of Race, Gender, and Politics.
This course is designed to introduce you to the world of academic discourse and to the research process by way of one of the most important tools of academic discourse, analytical writing. Our approach is through an examination of the power of language to lead us (or mislead us) and of the effect our own use of language has on others. Through reading, discussion, and writing, we will consider such topics as language variety, the language of prejudice and discrimination, and the language of politics (something we will have plenty of opportunity to observe as the presidential, congressional, and local political campaigns get into full swing). Your writing in the course will include a short paper on a language issue, several short papers and reports related to your research paper topic, and a longer analytical documented research paper of 10-12 pages on an academic topic of your choice, which may involve a language issue but does not have to. Regular attendance and participation are essential.

Required texts: Language Awareness: Essays for College Writers, 7th edition (1997), edited by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark; Writing Analytically, 2nd edition (1999), by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen; and MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th edition (1999), by Joseph Gibaldi. You will also need a handbook; I will order Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide (1998), by Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors, for those who do not have a handbook from English 101 (The St. Martin's Guide does not count as a handbook). Prerequisite: English 101 with a C or better (strictly enforced).

Please note: Use will be made of e-mail and the Internet in conducting this course. If you do not already have Internet access (through the University or on your own), please arrange for it before the beginning of the semester. (An SXU computer account will automatically be created for all students enrolled for spring 2000 courses, according to a new policy.)

04: John Gutowski 12:00 - 12:50 MWF
Topic: Popular Culture
This course will help students to:
Acquire a basic foundation for a critical perspective on popular culture.
Read widely and comparatively, both academic writing and other kinds.
Analyze the ideas, contexts, and rhetorical strategies of what they read.
Enhance capabilities for college level expository writing.
Develop questions for further inquiry in response to their readings.
Conduct research appropriate to the questions they want to answer.
Use the appropriate conventions of discourse to communicate their answers to those questions.

Required Textbook: Axelrod and Cooper, The St. Martin's Guide to Writing, 5th ed.
Nachbar and Lause, Popular Culture: an Introductory Text.

05: Augustus Kolich 1:00 - 1:50 MWF
Topic: The Day the Universe Changed
The research in this course centers on James Burke's video series, The Day the Universe Changed, which was produced and aired in 1985, and his companion book, reissued in 1995. In both the series and the book, Burke examines how the introduction of new ideas in western culture came to change the way people lived. His emphasis is on how technology fashions what we know and what we can think - a topic appropriate to all of us as we face the next thousand years. Students will watch the nine-part video series in class and read the companion book.

Requirements: Numerous short writing assignments; one documented essay (8-10 pages)

07: Laurence Musgrove 11:00 - 12:20 TTH
Topic: Presidential Campaign 2000
In this section of English 102, students' writing and research will focus on the presidential campaign of 2000. Students will compost a portfolio of writing including the following ingredients.
1. Political Stances: A survey of students' attitudes toward politics and politicians.
2. Goals 2000: A list of goals for learning about politics and the 2000 campaign.
3. Sound Bites: Short responses to assigned readings in Time Magazine and Civility by Stephen Carter.
4. My Platform: An essay explaining student's political beliefs, attitudes, and criteria for judging political candidates.
5. Bumpersticker.com: An essay analyzing the ways parties and candidates use the Internet to advertise their political beliefs.
6. Taking the Pulse: An essay revealing results of student-designed survey polling political attitudes of family and friends.
7. Decision 2000: Final Research Project in which student reveals the candidate which best fits his or her political requirements.

09: Poston
Topic: Reading the Environment 8:00 - 9:20 TTH
This course is designed to teach research writing as a process, beginning with observation and interview research, then searching electronic and written texts in a library setting. While there will be shorter, graded written assignments, the course will culminate in the research paper of 10-15 pages which we will produce in well-defined stages. The theme for the course is reading the environment in all its many aspects.

Required texts: Reading the Environment by Melissa Walker and Research Writing in the Information Age by Arnold, Poston, and Witek.

01: tba 9:00 - 9:50 MWF
06: tba 9:30 - 10:50 TTH
08: tba 12:30 - 1:50 TTH
10: tba 8:00 - 8:50 MWF
11: tba 6:30 - 9:20 Tues.
12: tba 2:00 - 2:50 MWF


ENGL 354: Business and Professional Writing
A: Maureen Bigane 1:00 - 1:50 MWF
R: Nelson Hathcock 6:30 - 9:20 Mon.
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 101-102.

 

LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND TEACHING

ENGL 154 01 : Introduction to Literature 9:30 - 10:45 TTH
TBA
Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
Close reading of selected short fiction and poetry, with an emphasis on developing student confidence and skill in interpretation. Reading selections attempt to reflect a broad range of modern and contemporary voices in literature, and a variety of stylistic and thematic concerns. Class is organized around group discussion, with occasional short introductory lectures. Students write several interpretive essays, and frequent brief, informal responses to the day's readings

ENGL 158 01: Introduction to Literary Interpretation 12:00 - 12:50 MWF
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 will focus upon strategies of reading literature - poetry, short fiction, and novels - and constructing solid arguments about what we've read. The first half of the course will be devoted to the fundamentals of close reading, and the second half will introduce students to some major critical approaches, as applied to a novel.

ENGL 202 01: English Literature Since 1800 12:30 - 1:45 TTH
Carol Poston
Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
English 202 surveys British literature from 1780 to the present and includes poetry, essay, short fiction and one novel. The class is reading, not writing, intensive, but I will ask for occasional short response papers (ungraded) and one brief (3-5 page) critical paper not requiring documentation. Requirements include regular attendance, participation in class discussion, and three exams including both objective and essay components. Text: Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume 2.

ENGL 204 01: American Literature Since 1865 9:00 - 9:50 MWF
Nelson Hathcock
Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
Major works from the Civil War to the present, examining the validity and influence of such "movements" as modernism, realism, and postmodernism in the works of such writers are Twain, Chopin, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Frost, West, Ellison, O'Connor, Lowell, Pynchon, and DeLillo.Assignments:

ENGL 235 01: Sports and Literature 1:00 - 1:50 MWF
John Gutowski
Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
Reading and analysis of sports classics in poetry, fiction, drama, and personal experience writing. Focus on the sporting experience as metaphor for life and on the various ways that sports events are transformed into literature.

ENGL 260 01: Women and Literature 12:30 - 1:45 TTH
Maire Mullins
Recommended for the Literature/Fine Arts core requirement.
In this course we will read literature by women writers and view films that focus on the themes of vocation, survival and friendship. We will begin by studying the short novel Babette's Feast, by Isak Dinesen and the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Both of these writers focus on the possibilities/challenges which the women artist faces. Next, we will read The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett and O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. These novels also examine the woman artist, but explore women's friendship with other women and with men as well. We will view the film When Harry Met Sally, and examine the possibility/impossibility of male/female friendship. Alice Walker's The Color Purple brings all of these themes together but also explores the most crucial issue for most women: survival. We will finish the course by viewing Thelma and Louise and The Piano. Requirements: a short essay after each work plus a final examination.


ENGL 304 01: Shakespeare: Major Plays 1:00-1:50 MWF
Norman Boyer
Our aim is to gain an appreciation and understanding of some of Shakespeare's finest plays. We will tentatively be reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, Henry V, Troilus and Cressida, King Lear, Coriolanus, and The Winter's Tale. We will attempt to situate the plays both within their early modern literary, theatrical, historical, and social contexts and as the focus of modern cultural, theatrical, and educational interest. Course requirements include participation in discussion, weekly one-page responses, one short paper on some aspect of Shakespeare criticism (5 pages), one long paper (10-15 pages), a midterm exam, and a final exam. Required text: The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Stephen Greenblatt, et al.
Please note: This is an advanced course designed for English majors and minors, not an introductory course. Others are welcome but should have a background in literary interpretation (such as that provided by English 158) or a strong interest in Shakespeare and experience in reading several plays. Also please note: Use will be made of email and the web in conducting this course. If you do not already have internet access (through the University or on your own), please arrange for it before the beginning of the semester. (An SXU computer account will automatically be created for all students enrolled for spring 2000 courses, according to a new policy.)


ENGL 313 01: Twentieth Century British Literature - "The Great War"
Carol Poston 11:00 - 12:20 TTH
The U.S. entered World War I in 1917, one year before it ended, and American military casualties were nearly as great from the flu epidemic as from warfare. For Europe, however, and Great Britain in particular, World War I was "the Great War" that shaped the culture and society of the whole century.

Our study will examine texts that explore the Great War and its aftermath, literary and visual. Literary texts may include poets Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, T.S. Eliot and prose writers Virginia Woolf, Vera Brittain, E.M. Forester, and D.H. Lawrence. Visual presentations will include "All Quiet on the Western Front" and the masterful "Gallipoli" starring the young Mel Gibson.

Requirements: two exams (midterm and final with both essay and objective portions), one panel presentation, and one short critical essay (3-5 pages) from that presentation.


ENGL 340 01: Literary Criticism 10:00 - 10:50 MWF
Augustus Kolich
This survey course covers the major theoretical developments in the 20th century - - from thematic formalism to gay/lesbian/queer theory. Emphasis is placed on theory, interpretation, and practice, with literary texts introduced for theoretical application. This course is strongly recommended for those students going on to graduate school in English or law school after graduation.

Requirements: 4 short exams; 2 oral presentations; 2 papers (4-5 pages each).


ENGL 346 01: Modern English Grammar 2:00 - 3:15 TTH
Laurence Musgrove
To what degree can we teach students to write correctly? Why do students continually struggle with comma placement? How can we teach stylistic maturity? What do teachers and their students need to know about grammar? What is the best way to respond to error in student writing?

This course is designed to help prospective English teachers understand effective ways to teach grammar, usage, and sentence style at the secondary level. We will be reading two texts on the latest research into "teaching grammar," Grammar and the Teaching of Writing by Rei Noguchi and Lessons to Share on Teaching Grammar in Context by Constance Weaver. A third text Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing by Harry Noden, offers practical strategies and materials for integrating grammar in the writing class.

Course requirements include a class portfolio with the following ingredients.
1. A resume
2. A list of learning goals detailing what the student wants to learn about teaching grammar and how the students wants to improve as a writer
3. A reading journal
4. In-class sentence exercises
5. An essay analyzing the style of two fiction or non-fiction writers
6. An interview with a secondary teacher on teaching grammar
7. A midterm essay
8. A personal handbook
9. A final essay


356 R: Teaching of Writing 5:30 - 8:20 M
Angelo Bonadonna
The premise of this course is the notion that the best way to begin learning how to teach writing is to study how you yourself have learned (and continue to learn) to write. By reflecting on your intuitions about writing, you'll be better equipped to understand and appreciate the research and intuitions of the scholars and writers we as a class will be reading throughout the semester. Thus, one of the principal assignments throughout the semester will be a journal in which you react to and reflect on the course readings in the context of your own remembered development as a writer.

Our readings will address a variety of practical teaching of writing issues, including teaching the writing process, writing about literature, revising, collaborative learning, grammar and writing, the writing workshop, journals, responding to writing, the rhetorical nature of writing, and others. Other course work besides the readings and journal include two reaction papers, a research paper, and participation in a small group that will lead class on two separate days during the semester.


ENGL 360 01: Introduction to Japanese Literature and Culture 9:30-10:45 TTH
Maire Mullins
The primary aim of this course will be to cultivate a greater and more insightful understanding of contemporary Japanese culture through the reading of literature, essays, and philosophical works, the viewing of films and videos, and the study of the principles of Zen through its expression in ikebana, the tea ceremony, and Zen gardens. We will read Daisetz T. Suzuki's Zen and Japanese Culture, Merry White and Sylvan Barnet's Comparing Cultures; Kathy Davidson's Thirty -Six Views of Mount Fuji; Natsumo Soseki's Kokoro; and Shusako Endo's Silence. We will study the film techniques of Yasujiro Ozu and Akiro Kurosawa and view Tokyo Story and The Seven Samurai, and we will take part in a Japanese tea ceremony as well as witness an ikebana display.

Requirements: two take home examinations, a response journal, and a final short paper.


ENGL 360 02: Twentieth-Century Novel 11:00 - 11:50 MWF
Augustus Kolich
The major genre in the twentieth century was the novel, but there is yet no clear consensus as to who the major novelists were in this century. A short list of possible candidates always seems incomplete or perhaps biased. Thus, for this course, I have selected a series of novels that might be considered as "unusual," while recognizing that this thematic principle is arbitrary at best. The list of authors includes: William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury), James Joyce (The Portrait of an Artist), Albert Camus (The Plague), Franz Kafka (Metamorphosis), Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), D.M. Thomas (The White Hotel), Kathy Acker (Empire of the Senses), and Ralph Ellison (The Invisible Man).

Requirements: 2 oral reports, 2 essays (4-5 pages each), mid-term and final.


ENGL 360 03: Nineteenth Century American Magazine Fiction 2:30 - 5:20 M
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. Mithcell ("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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