English Course Descriptions – Spring 2011

All literature courses fulfill the College of Arts & Sciences literature requirement and MPSL culture track requirement.
Any writing course 200 or above fulfills an advanced writing requirement. _________________ 

32616 EN 160 01 1 Reading Roundtable:  Modern Memoir Fitzgerald T 2:00-2:50  15 

This weekly one-credit roundtable will examine one of the most popular genres: the contemporary memoir. We will read works by David Sedaris, Elizabeth Gilbert, Rick Bragg, Joan Didion, Thomas Lynch among others as we consider what makes a story worth telling, whose stories get told and why, as a culture, we’re obsessed with other people’s lives.
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30777 EN 170 01 1 Contemplation Writing Roundtable Braniger W 2:00-2:50  15

This course offers a space for cultivating practices for contemplating self/other relationships. Keeping in mind the intimate relationship between reading and writing, we will learn about and engage in the contemplative practices of self-writing (a kind of journal-keeping), correspondence (letter-writing), and various forms of meditation, including zazen, yoga, tai ‘ji, deep listening, and silence.  We will observe, remember, imagine.  We will broaden our notion of what it means to think by focusing on living in the present moment. 
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35404 EN 170 03 1 Renga Writing Roundtable Brooks W 3:00-3:50  21 

Renga Writing Roundtable, is a student centered one-credit workshop modeled after Japanese renga writing groups. This writing workshop meets as a weekly writing & editing circle. For the spring 2011 semester, we will explore the Japanese and English traditions of collaborative renga writing. Renga calls on each participant to provide imaginative readings of a previous verse, then add a new linked verse to create a new poem. Therefore each link connects to the previous verse and shifts into a new creation. And the process continues, with writers creating a new poem out of every two links until the end of the renga. We will read two books: Narrow Road to Renga: A Collection of Renga and the One Hundred Frogs: From Renga to Haiku to English. Students read and write about the renga writing tradition, and engage in renga writing in class teams and through entire class collaborations.
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34716 EN 180 01 1 Intro to Tutoring Roundtable Crowe tba   10

This course provides you with theoretical and experiential grounding in peer tutoring of writing, engaging you in examining and experiencing the roles of peer tutor and collaborator. Throughout the course our concerns will be practical as well as pedagogical. We will explore the philosophy of the Writing Center and how it fits into the theoretical/ pedagogical approaches to peer tutoring, and move into practice, focusing on interpersonal dynamics, audience adaptation, and collaborative learning. You will engage in active sharing and development of tutoring styles, skills, and strategies, investigate writing in the disciplines, and engage in self-reflection concerning the practice of peer tutoring. This course will be a combination of discussion, reflection, group work, and tutor presentations which will allow us opportunities to share, analyze, and critique as well as connect theory and pedagogy to real world tutoring experiences.
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35414 EN 200 01 3 History of Technology Fitzgerald MWF  9:00-9:50  10 Prerequiste: Sophomore 
35159 IN 251 06       10

This semester we will trace the trajectory of digital culture and social media over the course of the past 20+ years as we attempt to gain an understanding of the ways in which technology, has, historically, impacted our social relationships, our ideas, economies and communication practices. At its core, this course is about the impact of technology on culture and the impact of culture on technological structures and innovations. We will explore issues of ethics, responsibility, authorship, knowledge-making, as well as how concepts such as community, communication, 
identity, privacy, property, nation have been altered by technology throughout history and particularly in contemporary social practices. Students will collaborate with Dr. Fitzgerald’s IN 151 and EN 301 courses on a project covering M.T. Anderson’s Feed. Additionally, students will create and lead a forum on ethics in the digital age for the campus community. 
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32617 EN 201 01 3 Intro to Creative Writing Frech TR 9:30-10:45  15

EN 201, as the department's introductory creative writing workshop, will cover the essentials of form and structure (rhyme & meter, figurative language, narrative point of view) with an eye for improving and situating our own writing, whatever it is we wish to write.  The expectations of critical writing and class presentation are limited in terms of length, but essential to our developing a vocabulary for talking about work and improving our own.  We will write a few assigned creative responses to familiarize ourselves with form as a vehicle for meaning and a model for structure.  Every effort in the course will focus on improving the student's own writing.
Fulfills advanced writing requirement
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35124 EN 210 01 3 Business & Professional Writing Wells MWF 9:00-9:50  20 Prerequiste: IN 151
35125 EN 210 02 3   MWF  11:00-11:50  20 IN 151
The primary goal of Business and Professional Writing is to prepare you to be a successful writer in a professional setting and/or business career. To be successful in any profession, you must understand the use and purposes of writing in various organizations. In business, it is fundamental to understand that most documents are designed to persuade – whether your objective is to “sell” an idea to a colleague, a manager, a partner, or a client.
You will be engaged in real-world case studies to practice skills such as: listening, non-verbal communication, group and teamwork communication, cross-cultural and international communication, and workplace electronic communication. Based on a problem-solving approach, this course will prepare you to succeed at various writing tasks you will encounter including memos, fliers, brochures, newsletters, instructions, procedures, policies, document designs, business correspondence and messages, proposals, formal reports, resumes, and job application letters. Business and Professional Writing will provide you with a theoretical understanding of writing in the workplace and a practical application of essential communicative skills and writing skills necessary for your future career.
Fulfills the advanced writing requirement for English majors, and the advanced Business Communications requirement for Business majors.
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31995 EN 215 01 3 Newswriting I Freeman TR 12:30-1:45  25

Newswriting I is an introduction to basic methods of news reporting and writing.  Students learn Associated Press style basics and an introduction to journalism ethics while writing the basic types of news stories:  obituaries, advances, follow-ups, breaking news, controversy and research-based.  Focuses on print journalism, but also addresses broadcast newswriting.
Fulfills the advanced writing requirement for English majors.
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34747 EN 220 01 3 Theatre of Identity in the U.S.: Magagna TR 9:30-10:45  10 Prerequiste: IN 151
35151 IN 250 06 3       A Survey of Literary Drama     15 Prerequiste: Junior
    
This course will introduce students to the study of American drama as a literary text. We will examine major works from 20th- and 21st-century U.S. drama. Specifically, we will explore the genre through the lens of the theatre of identity: works which center on issues of who we are (or who we are taught to be) in relation to our societies and cultures. We will trace the big question – Who am I? – through several time periods, and will examine it from the intertwined and evolving perspectives of race, class, gender, and sexuality. As playwrights create roles for actors, so we will ask how those roles reflect our own: as daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, lovers, friends, Americans, and just plain humans. Playwrights covered may include: Wilder, Glaspell, Williams, Miller, Hansberry, Valdez, Wilson, Kushner, Deavere Smith, and Vogel.
Recommended as a course that fulfills the College of Arts & Sciences literature requirement.
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35415 EN 222 01 3 Contemporary Adolescent Literature Jewett MWF 2:00-2:50  25 Prerequiste: IN 151

Adolescent or young adult (YA) literature is literature written for and about youth ages 13-18. In this course students will: 1) broaden their understanding of YA literature and its place in the literary canon and 2) frame YA literature in a rich, literary, historical and social context. Using critical thinking and analysis skills commonly associated with the reading of “classic” literature, students will examine and discuss a broad range of texts and genres including graphic novels, memoir, historical and science fiction, and novels written in poem or script format. Assigned readings will explore a variety of contemporary themes, social issues and topics such as: incarceration, racism, euthanasia, drug addiction, eating disorders, war, disability, ethnic identity, homosexuality, slavery, suicide, and prostitution.
Recommended for all English Education majors. 
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30797 EN 232 01 3 American Literature 1900-present Magagna MWF 10:00-10:50  25 Prerequiste: IN 151

This course surveys a wide range of modern American writers from around 1900 to the present. It examines these writers in the cultural, intellectual, and historical contexts of the 20th Century. Units will include Naturalism, Regional and Social Realism, the Harlem Renaissance, Modernism, Postmodernism, and contemporary American voices (including post-9/11 literature). We will read across the genres, including poetry, prose, and drama. Along with close readings and examinations of the literature, we will also look at a broad range of the cultural contexts that have influenced modern and contemporary American literature, including the fine arts, history, religion, politics, and popular culture.
Fulfills the English core Literatuare in the 20th Century requirement or American Lit requirement for English Education majors.
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35126 EN 233 01 3 Literature of Civil Rights Movement Matthews, Anne TR 3:30-4:45  11 IN 151
35152 IN 250 07       15 Prerequiste: Junior

Through essays, autobiographies, and oral testimony, students will read and hear about the Civil Rights movement from some of the people who lived through it and fought for it: James Baldwin, Anne Moody, Richard Wright, and many others, whose searing accounts leave an indelible mark on our awareness of ourselves, of others, of history.  Students will write two major essays and co-teach one class.
Recommended as a course that fulfills the College of Arts & Sciences literature requirement.
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35127 EN 250 01 3 Introduction to Film O’Conner R 6:00-8:55  15 Prerequiste: IN 151
35196 IN 250 10       15 Prerequiste: Sophomore

This three-credit film studies class is essentially an introduction to viewing film as an aesthetic art form, with some emphasis on cinema terminology and technique, the history of film, and the relationship between film and literature. A significant theme running throughout the course will be "the American Dream, the American Nightmare," or an examination of how cultural and national identity, including our hopes and fears, are reflected in the films we make and watch in the United States.  Includes such films as Birth of a Nation, The Gold Rush,  Citizen Kane, Stagecoach, Grapes of Wrath, It's a Wonderful Life, The Godfather, Do the Right Thing, American Beauty, War of the Worlds,  and Juno.
Recommended as a course that fulfills the College of Arts & Sciences literature course requirement.
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35128 EN 270 01 3 Computer-Aided Publishing Frech W 5:00-7:25  20

This course is an introduction to layout and design as well as computer tools that assist designers in their tasks. The course will revolve around Adobe InDesign 2.0. In addition, you will work with image software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. By the time you finish this course you will be able to:

• Use InDesign to design a variety of professional materials
• Know the key concepts of layout and design
• Know how to adapt rhetoric for a business-oriented audience
• Have fun doing all of the above

Class sessions will be a combination of presentation and discussion, followed by workshop time for you to practice what we covered that day.
Fulfills a publishing requirement for English majors, but does not fulfill advanced writing requirement.
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31997 EN 280 01 1 Decaturian Newspaper Staff Wells tba   20 

Staff members of the Decaturian, Millikin's campus newspaper, receive credit for writing and other staff responsibilities. This course can be repeated each semester for up to eight credits.
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35526 EN 300 01 3 New Media Writing Fitzgerald MWF 11:00-11:50  20 Prerequiste: EN 215

In the introduction to Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold argues that in the future people will be divided between “those who know how to use new media to band together [and] those who don’t” (xix). This course guides you through an overview of how and why we have arrived at this point. New Media Writing explores various Web 2.0 technologies as remediated writing situations including: social networks, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, vids, tagging and other social media tools, raising questions about the strategies and cultural factors which shape new media communications. Students taking this course are expected to participate publicly in social networks and collaborate with Dr. Fitzgerald’s IN 151 and IN 251 courses on a blog which covers and explores M.T. Anderson’s Feed. Issues we will address include the relationship between print and digital culture, content licensing, perspectives on authorship, and the various rhetorics of digital texts. No prior experience in new media technology is required. Those who complete this course will know how to use blogs, tags, Twitter, and Flickr productively, and have a framework for understanding and evaluating new social media tools and platforms.
Fulfills advanced writing requirement for English majors or the publishing course requirement.

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35418 EN 301 02 3 Advanced Creative Writing Braniger TR 11:00-12:15  20 Prerequiste: EN 201

Modern English tanka has its roots in Japan’s ancient waka and modern tanka traditions.  Poets of the early 20th century Japanese tanka reform movement challenged the ancient tradition by writing about what is taboo.  Communicating the inner life become essential in defining the poetics of modern Japanese tanka.  The emphasis on emotional states and inner landscapes of mind and soul remains an important element in modern English tanka.

We will focus our study and composition on the tanka poetry writing tradition.  We will read and study composing practices for individual tanka, as well as tanka “strings” and “sequences.” We will write, read, and edit our own tanka, strings, and sequences for performance and publication.   To honor the visual element of Japanese tanka, we will seek opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration as we explore designs for merging the performance of image and text.
Fulfills an advanced writing requirement.

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30828 EN 310 01 3 Applying Writing Theory Zhao TR 2:00-3:15  20 An Adv. Writing Course

Applying Writing Theory introduces you to major contemporary writing theories and offers you opportunities to apply these rhetorical and writing theories to your own writing and/or to the teaching of writing. This course focuses on major theories on composing processes and provides an overview of important elements of the writing process—invention, arrangement, argument, audience, style, and grammar. This course asks you to apply theories through such writing assignments as reading response papers, writing theory research project, grammar/style essay, writing theory application essays, and developing your own writing theory and/or writing pedagogy.
Fulfills the Applying Writing Theory course requirement for writing majors and English Education majors.
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35130 EN 322    01 3 Major English Authors II Banerjee TR 3:30-4:45  25 Prerequistes: IN 151 & 1 lit course

This course is both a historical and thematic survey of British literary texts from just before 1800 to the present. During this period one of the major influences upon British identity formation was the historical, cultural, and material reality of the empire.  Personal and national experiences of empire were, however, constantly mediated by cultural notions of race, gender, and class. This course follows the thematic thread of British identity formed through the expansion, transformation, and degeneration of the Empire. However, the course is also organized in chronological order with three major periods: the Romantics, the Victorians, and the 20th century (Modernism and Postcolonialism). Discussion in the class would range from inquiring into the intersections of race, class, and gender with the effects of empire as well as learning the hallmarks of each of these periods.
 
The three modules in which the course is divided are as follows:
Unit 1: The Romantics—Emergent Empire and Transformations of British Society
Unit 2: The Victorians—British Empire Coloured Red
Unit 3: The Twentieth Century—Empire Breaks Up
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33089 EN 325 01 3 Shakespeare and the Marvelous George MWF 9:00-9:50  25 Prerequiste: IN 151

It has been said of Shakespeare’s comedies that wonder is the most prevalent emotion displayed. This section of Studies in Shakespeare will explore that sense of wonder in a number of Shakespeare’s plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Tempest. How does Shakespeare produce this sense of wonder? What role does the fantastic play in these pieces? Upon what sources did he draw?
Fulfills the English Department Shakespeare and Literature to 1700 requirements. Fulfills the literature requirement. Fulfills the dramatic lit requirement for Theatre majors.
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35131 EN 335 01 3 International Literature: Empire Writes Back Banerjee MW 6:00-8:30  10 IN 151
35170 IN 350 07 3      12 Prerequiste: Junior

Indian writing in English or the “Indo-Anglian” tradition in literature is not a contemporary phenomenon. Its origins can be traced to the infamous "Minute of 2 February 1835 on Indian Education," authored by Lord Macaulay. In it Macaulay expressed a desire to create "a class of interpreters between us [the English] and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect" (359). However, Macaulay did not anticipate that this class of interpreters would, put the master's tools to subversive use. For decades Indian writers have used the colonizer's language, English, to produce an Indian reality that is very different from anything Macaulay might have envisioned. Thus, the twentieth century witnessed the rapid development of what is the "Indo-Anglian" tradition. In this class we will read a series of well-known novels, essays, and plays (and their filmic adaptations) by Indian authors who are central to Indo-Anglian literature. We will begin this course with E.M. Forster’s “A Passage to India.” Forster’s novel serves as a backdrop of Orientalized consciousness that not only epitomized western response to India/ns, but also partially influenced in India’s self-construction. As we explore the development of this tradition, we will pay particular attention to the important social and cultural developments in Imperial and Post-Independence India, as well as to the diversity of contemporary Indian writing.
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35419 EN 360 01 3 Gender, Race, & the Environment in J. R. R. Tolkien George  MWF 10:00-10:50  20 Prerequiste: IN 151
35420 EN 420 01 3              Prerequiste: Junior

You’ve seen the Lord of the Rings’ films. You’ve heard rumors about an upcoming 2-part film of The Hobbit. Now study the literature. This course will explore Tolkien’s representation of gender, race, and the environment in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. EN 360 fulfills the English Department’s Studies in Fiction or British Literature after 1700 requirements.
Fulfills a Gender Studies minor requirement. Fulfills a literature requirement.  Fulfills the Literary Traditions in the 20th C requirement.
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34756 EN 366 02 3 Global Women’s Writing Zhao MWF 2:00-2:50  12 Prerequiste: IN 151
35170 IN 350 07 3      12 Prerequiste: Junior

Cross-listed as a course for Global Studies, English Advanced Writing, and Gender Studies Minor, this advanced course invites students to examine the global exclusion of women and women’s rhetorics in the masculine rhetorical traditions.  Students will read brilliant women writers who have been globally and systematically silenced by various historical, social, cultural, and ideological paradigms, and been recently “discovered” in the mainstream literary and rhetorical traditions of America, Europe, and Asia. Through reading and writing, students will understand the power of culturally diverse rhetorics and learn to apply these diverse rhetorics in their writing as well as in their everyday life. Students will also be encouraged to formulate their personal theory of rhetoric by incorporating culturally diverse rhetorical theories.
Fulfills Literature in the 20th C. requirement, the Studies in Literary History requirement, the Global Studies requirement and Gender Studies minor requirement.
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35133 EN 380 01 3 Adv. Topics in Journalism: Practical Journalism Wells  MWF 2:00-2:50  15 Prerequiste: EN 215

Topics in Journalism: Practical Journalism is a blend of advanced journalistic theory and hands-on experience, with an emphasis on the practical application of the art of journalism. You will be involved in beat news writing (on a rotational basis), story assignment, story construction, meeting hard deadlines, newsroom editing practices, production and layout, handling ethical and legal issues, and other real-world newsroom problem-solving challenges. You will be primarily engaged in practicing journalism skills in a real-world environment by writing for the student-run newspaper, the Decaturian, which is published every two weeks during term. You will advance your writing skills by providing news, features, reviews, opinion pieces and other types of stories required for the newspaper. Practical Journalism will provide you with a theoretical understanding of writing in a newsroom and a practical application of essential reporting skills and writing skills necessary for your future career. Materials produced for this course will be suitable for your English-Writing Major portfolio.
Note: This is a variable credit course, and may be taken for up to eight semesters. The first time it must be taken as a three-hour credit; it may be taken as a one-hour credit thereafter.
Fulfills an advanced writing requirement for English majors. 
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33458 EN 382 01 1-3 Art of Publishing Brooks TR 12:30-1:45  10 Prerequiste: Consent only

Art of Publishing Module is a learning practicum in publishing. Students learn by working as an editor or student leader carrying out specific responsibilities for Bronze Man Books, Millikin University’s student publishing company. Students may enroll by consent only, following applications and interviews for needed positions in the publishing house. Interviews will be conducted on advising day or the day before advising day. Watch for campus posters promoting this opportunity. Possible student positions include: editor, acquisitions editor, assistant editor, legal research, production manager, art director, designer, sales manager, marketing manager, marketing research, publicist, and advertising manager. For questions contact either one of the co-teachers: Randy Brooks or Ed Walker. (1 to 3 credits) consent only.
Fulfills a publishing requirement for English majors, but does not fulfill advanced writing requirement.
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34746 EN 382 02 1 Broadside Publishing    Frech  W 4:00-4:50  10 Prerequiste: Consent of instructor

Blue Satellite Press prints poetry broadsides (more commonly known as posters) in letterpress formats.  We will learn aspects of design and print production that letterpress printing encourages: layering, color “interaction” and font as a design element, all aspects one can learn in computer layout, but only with deliberate, conscious effort.  And we will be doing the editorial work of an ongoing press: selection of work to print, communications with poets, and distributing the printed broadsides.
Fulfills a publishing requirement for English majors, but does not fulfill advanced writing requirement.
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35324 EN 480 80 1-3 Internship:  Professional  Writing Fitzgerald tba   10 Prerequiste: Consent of department chair

Professional Writing Internship is an opportunity for you to gain experience working as a writer a few hours a week. In the past, students have interned for local organizations writing and designing brochures, web sites, books, newsletters, grant proposals, and other documents. You can establish a network of contacts for future job referrals and build up a portfolio of successful documents. You must complete a learning contract including (1) site supervisor contact information, (2) task description, (3) learning goals, and (4) professional expectations. See Dr. Fitzgerald for further details and help getting placed.
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35168 IN 350 05 3 Literature of the Holocaust Matthews, Andy TR 11:00-12:15  25 Prerequiste: Junior

We will first look at the history of the Holocaust, considering whether it ought to be seen as a unique incursion of evil into history or as a product of normal historical processes and human behaviors.  We will consider the related issue of perpetrators’ motives: sadism, anti-semitism, and/or normal psychological factors in the context of the “Final Solution” as a government program and a large-scale industrial project (we will consider the role of language in facilitating mass murder).  Much of our time will be spent with survivors’ testimony.  A major pre-occupation will be the de-humanization of victims, along with testimony as an affirmation of truth, meaning, and humane values in the context of their negation.  Another major pre-occupation will be our role as “witnesses of witnesses”—our (in)capacity to make ourselves available to what survivors have to tell us.  Throughout, we will consider why and to what extent we ought to identify with victims, bystanders, and/or perpetrators.
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