English Courses Offered

The following courses are offered within the English Department:

 

ENGL 090: Basic Writing (1 credit hour – Fall)

This course is a basic writing course designed to introduce students to college writing and prepare them for the similar (but more demanding) writing of College English I, the entry-level writing course.  The primary focus is on basic skills (punctuation, spelling, mechanics), issues of style at the sentence/paragraph level, and structure and organization for essay writing. The course will be a combination of whole group and individual instruction based on diagnostic indicators. This course is graded as pass/fail and credit for this course will not count toward graduation.

 

ENGL 120: Introductory English Composition (3 credit hours – Fall and Spring)

This course covers descriptive, narrative, and expository writing as required for successful college study and the responsibilities of a well-educated person. It includes a concentrated review of the principles of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics, as well as research and documentation. The final examination is common to all sections of the course. Students who receive a “C” or better in ENGL 120 at KWU will receive credit for passing the English Proficiency Exam.

 

ENGL 121: Intermediate English Composition (3 credit hours – Fall and Spring)

This course includes argumentative and persuasive writing, critical analysis and interpretation of various kinds of rhetoric, and study of ethical problems involved in rhetoric, as well as logic, library research, and documentation. Students prepare a term paper. Prerequisites: ENGL 120 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 125: Introduction to Literature (3 credit hours – Fall and Spring)

This course is an introduction to literature as a humane art (that is, an especially enriching means of sharing human experience). Various genres are studied, including poetry, fiction, and drama. Prerequisite: ENGL 120.

 

ENGL 206: World Literature (3 credit hours – Odd year Fall)

The purpose of World Literature is to introduce the student to a variety of literary texts which have greatly influenced culture around the world. Readings are chosen from the literary traditions of several nations and cultures from ancient times up to the twentieth century. Prerequisite: ENGL 121.

 

ENGL 209: Major British Writers I (3 credit hours – Odd year Fall)

This course surveys British literature from its beginnings to the end of the Neo-Classical Period in the eighteenth century. It may include Beowulf, Chaucer, Wyatt, Marlowe, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Milton, Dryden, Behn, Goldsmith, and Samuel Johnson among others. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 210: Major British Writers II (3 credit hours – Even year Spring)

This course surveys British literature from the beginning of the Romantic Period in the late eighteenth century to the present. It may include Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Carlyle, Mill, Ruskin, Dickens, Browning, Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, Hardy, Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Beckett among others. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 211: American Literature I (3 credit hours – Even year Fall)

This course surveys American literature from the colonial period through the nineteenth century. It may include Bradford, Bradstreet, Edwards, Wheatley, Franklin, Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Hawthorne, Bryant, Longfellow, Stowe, Douglass, Dickinson, Whitman, Twain, and the works of Native American origin among others. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 212: American Literature II (3 credit hours – Odd year Spring)

This course surveys major American writers from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. It may include, among others, E.A. Robinson, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, O’Neill, Eliot, Pound, Frost, Cather, Stevens, Hughes, Steinbeck, O’Connor, Baldwin, Updike, and Morrison. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 230: The Film (3 credit hours – Even year Spring)

This course is an introduction to film as a humane art: its history, its techniques, its aesthetics, its relation to other arts, and its criticism. The class will discuss of selected films and certain writings on film. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 286: Special Topics (3 credit hours – On demand)

This course provides the opportunity for intensive study of special topics and selected materials for underclassmen. Under different subtitles this course may be repeated for credit. Possible topics include Introduction to Creative Writing and Introduction to the Short Story. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 301: Shakespeare (3 credit hours – Odd year Spring)

This course includes representative comedies, tragedies, histories, and sonnets by William Shakespeare. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 302: History and Development of the English Language (3 credit hours – Even year Fall)

This course will provide background in basic concepts of linguistics, principles of language change and historical linguistic study, the development of the English language, and basic applied sociolinguistics. Designed to introduce undergraduates, especially English and English Education majors, to concepts of history, structure and development of language, this course will prepare students for further academic linguistic study, literary criticism, and teaching.

 

ENGL 305: Studies in British Literature (3 credit hours – Odd year Spring)

This course provides the opportunity for intensive study of special topics and selected texts in British Literature. Under different subtitles, the course may be repeated for credit. Possible topics include Thomas Hardy, Chaucer, Satire, The English Lyric, The Development of the English Novel, and Women Writers from Austen to Wolfe. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 306: Studies in American Literature (3 credit hours – Even year Spring)

This course provides the opportunity for an intensive study of special topics and selected texts in American Literature. Under different subtitles, this course may be repeated for credit. Possible topics include Mark Twain, The American Realists, The Harlem Renaissance, Melville and Hawthorne, Literature of the 1920’s, Chief American Poets, and Women Fiction Writers. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 307: Studies in World Literature (3 credit hours – On demand)

This course provides the opportunity for an intensive study of special topics and selected texts in world literature (that is, literature not originating in the British Isles or in what is now the United States). Possible topics include Modern European Literature, Symbolism as an International Movement, The African Novel, Contemporary South American Fiction, Tragedy, Comedy, Sartre and Camus, Comparative Mythology. Prerequisite: ENGL121 or the equivalent.

 

ENGL 360: Creative Writing: Fiction (3 credit hours – Odd year Fall)

Through writing exercises, students in this course will learn to craft dialogue, scene, memory, and detail.  By applying these skills, students will write several short stories throughout the semester, each developing particular aspects of prose fiction.  Students should expect to read and discuss contemporary short fiction, to write prose exercises and their own original short stories, and to learn about and participate in workshops.

 

ENGL 361: Creative Writing: Non-Fiction (3 credit hours – Even year Fall)

Designed to familiarize students with the techniques and narrative structures of creative nonfiction.  Students will learn to employ the elements of fiction writing– use of scene, dialogue, character, story, imagery, and metaphor– to express personal experiences, as well as social, ethical, and political ideas. Students will read from the many sub-genres of creative nonfiction: personal essays, memoirs, travelogues, political arguments, and cultural critiques.

 

ENGL 362: Creative Writing: Poetry

This workshop-oriented class focuses specifically on the craft and process of poetry writing from a poem’s initial draft to its advanced revision.  Students spend time discussing the poet’s craft, assigned readings, and other students’ writing.  Readings, class discussions, and student presentations act to familiarize students with various writing styles and aesthetic issues.

 

ENGL 380: The English Language: Grammar, Syntax, and Evaluation (3 credit hours – Odd year Spring)

This course is designed to review the writing process, to introduce students to the beginning writer’s 10 most common errors, and to offer opportunities for students in English Education to teach a writing lesson and evaluate student writing samples.  This course, while required for English Education majors, would be helpful to any student who needs to improve English usage and grammar skills.

 

ENGL 404: Seminar in Literary Criticism (3 credit hours – Even year Fall)

The seminar includes a historical review of major approaches to literary criticism and an application of critical methods to individual projects culminating in seminar papers. It is a capstone for majors in English, English Education, and Literature and Language. Open to juniors and seniors with those majors.

 

ENGL 485: Special Topics (3 credit hours – On demand)

This course provides the opportunity for intensive study of special topics and selected materials for upperclassmen. Under different subtitles this course may be repeated for credit. Possible topics include: The History of the English Language, Film Comedy from Sennett to Capra, Anglo-Saxon, Translation: Theory and Practice, The Films of Ingmar Bergman, and Languages of the World. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 or equivalent.

 

ENGL 490: Independent Study (Variable credit – On demand)

Independent Study consists of research, readings, or other scholarly investigation or creative work. See Independent Study under Alternate Means to Academic Credit for a more detailed description.