This course introduces students to the foundational concepts and skills needed to communicate effectively in writing for academic study and professional development. Students will learn how to use the four stages of the writing process — prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing — to create written communication that meets its intended purpose for its intended audience. Students will also be introduced to rhetorical styles and the role of outside sources in academic writing. Constructing and implementing effectively-designed search strategies for information to answer a critical inquiry or research question are also addressed in this course.

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1. Use the four stages of the writing process — prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing — to create written communication that meets its intended purpose for its intended audience.
2. Use peer reader-response and instructor feedback to develop and implement a revision strategy.
3. Explain the role of voice, writing conventions, and style guides in academic and professional writing.
4. Determine the purpose, audience, and context for a range of rhetorical situations.
5. Select and apply rhetorical style(s) to communicate a message to an identified audience.
6. Use rhetorical situation analysis to develop a critical inquiry/research question with a defined scope.
7. Determine the nature and extent of information needed to answer a critical inquiry/research question for a range of rhetorical situations.
8. Construct and implement effectively-designed search strategies for information to answer a critical inquiry/research question.

This writing and reading intensive course is foremost intended to increase students’ exposure to and appreciation of literature in its many forms. Students will therefore read and discuss the primary genres of poetry, the short story, drama, and the novel. The second goal of the course is to hone students’ abilities to read, write, and think critically about the ways in which human experience itself is shaped by language in literary texts. Through the development of literary analysis skills and the practice of writing about literature, students will learn to communicate meaningfully about literature as an art form with aesthetic, social, cultural, and political significance.

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1. Articulate both emotional and intellectual responses to a diverse range of literary texts.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the aesthetic elements of fiction, poetry, and drama in their discussion and written responses to various works of literature.
3. Employ close reading techniques and understand that using theoretical perspectives affects the interpretation of literature.
4. Explain and synthesize analyses verbally and in writing through class discussion, group work, oral presentations, and papers.

This course promotes meaningful literacy instruction through the study of language, language acquisition, the study of sounds and sound formation, word formation, and how words combine into larger meaningful units. The prescriptive standardization of such language forms as spelling, semantics, pronunciation, style, and register are addressed in this course. Basic components of descriptive grammar, to include syntax, semantics, phonology, and morphology are applied. Students will have the opportunity to develop an appreciation for regional and ethnic dialects and examine how language changes and develops over time.

Grounded within the context of media studies, this course engages students in a critical and analytical exploration of the media and its influences on American culture and society. The course examines the various ways that the media functions as both a lens for interpreting culture and a tool through which culture is shaped. Through critical engagement with various forms of media, students explore the roles of film, visual art, television, music, mass media, and web- based media in shaping their understanding of literature, writing, and culture.

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1. Identify and define various forms of media and the guiding principles of how these media function.
2. Explain the media’s relationships with race, class, gender, sexuality, capitalism, and politics.
3. Analyze the role and influence of corporate advertisements, the government, and censorship within each form of media studied.
4. Describe the larger role of media as it pertains to shaping both American culture and society.
5. Explain how media studies can enhance one’s knowledge of both literary works and the craft of writing.
6. Identify and interpret various messages being sent by different forms of media and analyze the overriding purpose of those messages.
7. Examine the power of the media in shaping individuals and the larger culture.

For the past 150 years, American writers have grappled with the concept of what America is and what it might become. By reading fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction from 1865 to the present, this course explores how modern writers have shaped--and revealed--American identities. Readings may include authors of “Local Color” writing, Realism, the “Lost Generation,” and the Postmodern era, as well as writers of the Harlem, Southern, and Native American Renaissances, in their historical, literary, and cultural contexts. Through reading, writing, and research, learners will interrogate evolving American experiences. PREREQUISITE: ENG 500 The Writing Process

This course provides an overview of selected major works of British literature of the Anglo-Saxon period through the 18th century. Exploring poetry, prose, and drama, students analyze the themes and techniques through which varied texts reveal, shape, and sustain historical, cultural, and political events and forces. Although British Literature II is not required following this course, the two together provide an overview of the evolution of British literature and culture.

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1. Articulate, in writing and group discussion, the major political, social, philosophical, and cultural shifts in England from the Anglo-Saxon Period through the Enlightenment and discuss their influences on writers.
2. Identify and analyze the styles, techniques, and motifs of representative selected works from the following genres: the oral narrative, the heroic epic, the chivalric romance, the revenge tragedy, the courtly poem, the sonnet, the meditation, and the epistle.
3. Compare and contrast life experiences proscribed by class, culture, and gender, as evident in a variety of texts.
4. Explore the reciprocal relationships among literature, art, history, and culture.
5. Evaluate the technical competence and thematic poignancy of varied texts in order to assess and debate their canonical status.
6. Compose and revise polished literary analyses.

This course provides an overview of selected major works of British literature of the Romantic period through the present day. Exploring poetry, essays, and fiction, students analyze the themes and techniques through which varied texts reveal, shape, and sustain historical, cultural, and political forces. The works of major writers are emphasized, but attention is also directed toward the contributions of underrepresented authors. Although British Literature I is not a prerequisite for this course, the two courses combine to form an overview of British literature and culture.

This course is designed to bridge the ever-widening civilian-military gap in the United States by examining the twenty-first century war experience through literature. The course will explore stories in multiple genres such as fiction, poetry, memoir, drama, and blogs to gain insights into the value of stories portraying combat and its aftermath. The course will also explore representations of military families on the home front. In addition to assigned readings, learners will have the opportunity to design research projects tailored to their own interests. This course provides insight to those who work with veterans and/or military families in the fields of behavioral health, health care, business, or education, and to anyone exercising their civic duties in a democracy.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Articulate both emotional and intellectual responses to a diverse range of literary texts.
2. Identify the elements of war writing.
3. Apply the elements of war writing to a diverse range of literary texts through discussion and written responses.
4. Identify the political, social, and cultural context for twenty-first century war writing.
5. Develop related research question, access and evaluate information and present findings in writing and orally.

What are the qualities that make a particular work of children's literature endure? Why do some deceptively simple books remain favorites for years? Citing the work of psychologists, art historians, educators, and authors, students explore these and similar questions. The course considers picture books, traditional literature, and Young Adult novels. Students prepare annotated bibliographies of various genres, taking a personal look at the important role particular books play in the moral and social development of children.

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1. Compare and contrast the ideas of professionals from across the disciplines, e.g. psychologists, art historians, educators, etc. whose work focuses on children and their literature.
2. Apply specific criteria to evaluate various types of literature for children such as its stance on relevant developmental, behavioral, and cultural issues of concern to children.
3. Describe how a particular book may evoke various meanings to different children or to the same child at different developmental stages.
4. Critically analyze literature based on personal criteria through an application of the concepts developed by psychologists, art historians, educators, and authors.
5. Explicate the variety of categories and range of genres into which children’s books can be classified, providing some prominent examples in the major categories.

This course explores a wide range of literature for young adults, along with social and literary criticism that help to illuminate the impact of this literature. Through readings and discussion of both current and classic literature, students identify why literature is a powerful tool and how it can help young adults shape their lives. Learners respond to young adult literature through written analyses and critiques.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Discuss, explain, and respond to key works of literature for young adults.
2. Identify and analyze works of young adult literature across a variety of genres.
3. Evaluate works of young adult literature from the perspective of adults revisiting their adolescence.
4. Identify and assess central themes found in young adult literature.
5. Interpret and evaluate literature written for young adults according to its literary merits.
6. Compare and contrast the portrayal of adolescent issues in young adult literature with analyses of young adults’ challenges from other perspectives (e.g., psychological, educational, sociological, historical).
7. Construct a theory concerning the role of young adult literature in the lives of youth.

This course extends and refines writing, reading, and critical thinking skills. Through analysis of texts, study of language as a symbol system, and exploration of advanced expository and persuasive techniques, students identify and apply effective strategies for creating and communicating meaning in their own essays. Writing within the course integrates research and citation in ways that are appropriate to the individual learner’s chosen field of study. The workshop format of the course includes class discussion, individual conferences with the instructor, and peer critique of work in progress.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Identify expository and persuasive strategies and techniques in published texts by established authors.
2. Identify and delineate what makes successful rhetorical strategies and techniques work and evaluate their effectiveness in a given context.
3. Analyze surface meanings and subtexts in expository and persuasive written form by applying the principles of language as a symbol system.
4. Apply advanced composition strategies to the planning, drafting, discussing, and revising of original essays.
5. Demonstrate a general familiarity with the modes of discourse in at least one scholarly field and the ability to effectively integrate research from that field into an essay using accurate citation practices.

This course expands college writing skills by applying the core writing principles of defining one’s audience, drafting and revising, and delivering effective written communication to diverse professions. Emphasis is on writing in the accepted forms of the student’s major discipline. Students will research the conventions of a variety of genres common to professions in their area of study, selecting, reading, analyzing, and critiquing real-world examples of written communication. They will compose multiple drafts of varying lengths and depths, and revise those drafts to adjust for style, structure, content, and mechanics as appropriate.

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1. Apply at an advanced level the fundamentals of the writing process, including pre-writing, organizing, drafting, revising, and editing.
2. Develop methods of inquiry into the discourse community of their expected profession.
3. Prepare to participate in professional discourse through critical reading of legitimate texts and analysis of their patterns and norms.
4. Reflect upon and compare readers’ needs across a variety of genres and settings.
5. Compose writing that appropriately deploys facts and cites external sources within the conventions of their field of study.
6. Write effectively in both short and long forms common to the professions.
7. Synthesize multiple points of view effectively in writing.
8. Develop a writing voice appropriate to the expected field of professional practice.
9. Articulate a point of view and write to persuade readers. 1
10. Produce well-edited writing appropriate to real-world use in their profession.

This course explores how texts portray people with disabilities of many kinds – physical, emotional, social, and mental. The majority of texts are contemporary, but some will place images of disability in literature in their historical context. Students read literature written by both disabled and non-disabled authors in order to explore the ways that many stereotypical portrayals of disability undermine the disabled community. Studying disability in literature helps us to consider what our culture decides is “normal,” and asks us to contemplate what makes us human. The goal of this course is to discover how literature can help us understand the experience of the disabled, as well as our own responses to disability in our own lives and in our culture.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Become familiar with the history of the portrayal of disability in literature.
2. Make connections between literary portrayals and real-life situations.
3. Gain understanding of the varied experiences of the disabled community.
4. Develop skills of close and careful reading.
5. Enhance discussion skills through a focus on participating in classroom discussion and leading classroom discussion.
6. Develop writing skills through multiple drafts and peer response on papers.
7. Improve presentation skills with an end-of-semester presentation.

The goal of this course is for students to develop their own capacity for creative expression by writing in fiction, poetry, and other genres using the major craft forms and elements of the genre. They will also generate strategies for reading and interpreting contemporary published writing in the same genres. A workshop format will be used for students to learn how discussing works in progress with other writers can advance their own creative expression and support the creative expression of others. The workshop format will also introduce students to the unique challenges posed by the revision process in reworking an original creative work for an external audience.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Develop a personal prewriting strategy to overcome barriers to creative expression and generate ideas appropriate for fiction, poetry, and other forms of creative writing.
2. Develop their own capacity for creative written expression and facilitate the creativity of others through active participation in peer workshops.
3. Demonstrate proficiency in the workshop method of evaluating creative writing and providing constructive peer feedback.
4. Describe the major craft forms and elements within contemporary fiction, poetry, and other forms of creative written expression.
5. Generate strategies for reading and interpreting contemporary readings in fiction, poetry, and other forms of written creative expression.
6. Distinguish the unique challenges posed by the revision process in reworking an original creative work.
7. Synthesize ideas on the act of revision expressed in the works of published writers with an awareness of their own revision process.

As the new realities of the global village erode long-standing assumptions about discrete nationhood and fixed cultures, the concept of what it means to be an American is also shifting. Through representative literary works, this course explores the challenges individuals from various ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds confront within a pluralistic society. Students construct a more inclusive definition of culture, assess traditional attitudes about race and ethnicity, and appreciate just how deeply Native, African, Hispanic, Asian, and European Americans have enriched our national identity.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Define “culture” as a social, political, religious, linguistic, economic, and ethnic construct.
2. Explain how America is a nation of immigrants and appraise the ramifications of this heritage as it is depicted by selected writers who treat multicultural themes in their work.
3. Compare and contrast the traditions, belief systems, and customs of several co-cultures as represented in works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. 4.Evaluate the assumptions behind and the validity of such cultural myths as “America as melting pot,” “the Golden Mountain,” and “the American Dream” as embodied in specific literary works that focus on multicultural issues.
4. Compare and contrast the various waves of immigration into the U.S. and draw from literary accounts to evaluate societal and institutional responses to them
5. Realign their understanding of in- and out-groups; define ethnocentrism; analyze the roots of racial, ethnic, class, and cultural biases; and debunk cultural stereotypes.
6. Debate the benefits and losses related to cultural assimilation for selected characters in literature.
7. Interpret orally and in writing complex ideas, themes, and conflicts embedded in literary works.

This course surveys representative texts in English by ancient, Continental, Third World, colonial, and postcolonial writers. Readings from diverse periods and genres introduce major themes, movements, and topics in selected works from any or all of the following: antiquity, the Continent, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Discussions of political, historical, and cultural contexts suggest the powerful forces that have shaped and continue to influence literary forms and traditions outside the U.S. and Britain.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Identify several major ancient, Continental, Asian, African, Caribbean, Pacific, or Latin American writers and describe their most important works.
2. Describe the characteristics and major tenets of selected literary eras or movements that developed outside the American and British canons.
3. Analyze how specific authors and texts express and exemplify these characteristics and tenets.
4. Appraise how political, social, and historical events and movements influenced selected ancient, Continental, Third World, colonial, and postcolonial writers and their works.
5. Define literary terms and apply them in analysis and discussion of readings.
6. Interpret the complex ideas, themes, and conflicts embedded in literary works.

This course will explore several different kinds of graphic novellas, memoir, fantasy, social critiques, adaptations, etc. in an effort to understand how writers and illustrators weave words and images together to create meaning in unique ways that transcend traditional genres and harness new modes of expression. The students will have an opportunity to broaden their knowledge and appreciation of graphic novels as they apply critical concepts to their study and produce their own comics.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Identify how language and art combine to create meaning.
2. Identify the concepts necessary in creating a graphic novel, including the dynamics of sequential art.
3. Distinguish different genres of graphic novels.
4. Apply quality criteria to the creation and evaluation of graphic novels.
5. Explain the history and evolution of the graphic novel, including its influence on popular culture.
6. Analyze graphic novels as a medium of communication and a form of literary art.
7. Analyze and appraise different interpretations of graphic novels.
8. Apply research skills to scholarly works relating to graphic novels, including application to literacy instruction.

This class focuses on late 19th through early 21st century short fiction, including both the short story and the novella. Readings and discussion of primary works by selected authors combine with study of secondary commentaries that outline the evolution of and theories about the genre. Students develop a basis for interpreting complex texts and for analyzing the techniques and characteristics that give short fiction its distinctive literary flavor.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Recognize and employ technical terms associated with analyzing short fiction.
2. Relate the importance of specific writers’ lives to their stories, themes, ideas, subjects, and/or techniques.
3. Identify and compare the major trends and movements in short fiction from the late 19th to the current century, and examine their influences on the stories studied.
4. Analyze, compare, evaluate, and assess works of short fiction.
5. Integrate primary and secondary sources in oral and written analyses of stories and their writers.
6. Formulate an aesthetic based on (or in response to) aesthetics represented in assigned stories.

This course explores the interaction between film and literature in order to introduce students to major literary texts and their adaptations through film. Students will have the opportunity to read and analyze a selection of novels, plays, and poetry from major American and British writers. The course invites students to investigate cinematic interpretations of major works, and to position them within their historical and cultural contexts (taking careful consideration of portrayals of race, gender, class, religion, and sexuality). Students will practice analyzing literary text and film, and engage in scholarly and critical research. Additionally, they will use their work over the course of the semester to either create their own research on the topic or develop a lesson plan that incorporates literature and film for K-12 students. Selections of texts and films will represent commonly taught works.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Students will have the opportunity to:
2. Identify and analyze techniques and motifs of various literary and cinematic genres.
3. Explain and apply various literary and cultural theories for interpretation.
4. Explore and describe the reciprocal relationships between film, literature, and culture.
5. Compose and revise nuanced interpretations of written and visual texts.
6. Examine and articulate the influence of gender, race, class, religion, ethnicity, and sexuality when adapting texts for film.

This course focuses on Shakespeare's plays. Related areas - his life and times, his sonnets, the history of drama, etc. - may be studied to deepen students' understanding and appreciation of the plays. In addition to reading assigned plays and related materials, students will be expected to respond to the plays, both in class and in writing.

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1. Respond analytically to the assigned plays, as a result of participating in in-class discussions, writing response and formal papers, and presenting an oral report to the class or leading the class in a discussion.
2. Understand Shakespeare’s life and times as a result of reading related materials and/or class discussions.
3. Understand the basic elements and language of drama as a result of reading assigned texts and/or class discussions.

This course provides students with an in-depth study of how the portrayal of people with disabilities of many kinds—physical, emotional, social, and mental—in literature is reflective of the social and historical context in which it was written. Students apply close textual analysis of the imagery used to describe people with disabilities and evaluate the cultural attitudes this use of language reveals. Students read literature written by both disabled and non-disabled authors and analyze the ways that many stereotypical portrayals of disability undermine the disability community. Questions of how a culture decides what is “normal,” how portrayals of the disability experience in literature differ between adults and children, and how the advocacy role is portrayed in literature are also examined. The goal of this course is to discover how literature can challenge our own assumptions about the experience of the disabled by contemplating what ultimately makes us human.

View Course Outcomes:

1. Explain the history of the portrayal of disability in fiction and non-fiction in its social and cultural context.
2. Compare and contrast literary portrayals of disability and real-life situations.
3. Demonstrate understanding of the varied experiences of the disabled community through discussion and written responses to specific texts.
4. Analyze literary depictions of the disability experience from the perspective of adults, children, and caretakers.
5. Evaluate the impact of disability upon individual identity.
6. Distinguish the various functions of textual representations of disability, to include therapy, cultural critique, and advocacy.