English courses

(4 credits) An introduction to academic writing, emphasizing the writing process. Students learn strategies for pre-writing, drafting, and revising of expository essays. The course includes analysis of model essays and discussion of model essays and an introduction to research-based writing. Note: This course does not count toward an English major or minor.

(4 credits; alternate years, consult department) This course will enable students to develop a theorized practice for responding to writing. Students will study methods of response, conferencing strategies, approaches to revision, English as a Second Language (ESL), interpersonal dynamics, and the ethics of text intervention. They will also explore contemporary research in the composition field, which will help them better respond to writing and improve their own writing skills. As a course requirement, students must satisfy a practicum commitment by working a minimum of one hour per week (for pay) in the Writing Center. Prerequisite: Declared English teaching major, declared public relations major, or permission of instructor. When Offered: Every fall.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) To paraphrase Salman Rushdie, the Empire has written back. The last half of the 20th century has produced a number of literary texts written in English by authors from the recently independent nations of the Old British Empire. These texts have proved so rich in both literary value and cultural context that their authors, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, Chinua Achebe, and Rushdie himself, have won the most prestigious literary prizes available. We will be reading and appreciating these books, both as ripping good yarns, and as significant cultural documents that teach us much of how members of other societies think, feel, and act. Prerequisite: ENG250LC.

(2 credits) This course functions primarily as an introduction to rhetoric and rhetorical analysis. It is designed to introduce students to the major and the minor in writing and rhetoric. Topics include the rhetoric of ancient Greece, definitions of rhetoric, past and present, rhetorical analysis of texts, and analysis of the rhetor's purpose, situation, genre and audience. Note: Students should attempt to take at least one other course that includes significant writing assignments during the same semester.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Aesthetic Experience) Literature and film is an introduction to the art of adaptation. Although we are frequent viewers of film, we are not always good readers and interpreters of visual texts. We will read original literary texts and view adaptations. Through class discussion, writing, and practice students will learn the visual language of film and understand the nature of adaptation.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Literary Contexts) ENG250LC offers students an introduction to literary study. The topics of individual sections vary by instructor and term. After completing this writing-intensive course, students will be able to imagine other lives, times, and places by reading a variety of texts; empathize with characters who have diverse stories and perspectives; analyze different genres of literature using the tools of literary study; craft a coherent essay with a clear thesis and careful textual analysis; articulate ways that literature speaks to and informs their own lives; express delight in God through the beauty of language and literary text; and witness God?s presence in the world through literature. Topics include: American Literature and the Rhetoric of Freedom: Americans often regard freedom as the defining characteristic of both their nation and themselves. This course examines how the rhetoric of freedom has been a force in American literature. We will complicate our understanding of American freedom by examining how it has been continually redefined throughout the nation?s literary history. We will consider how minority and oppressed groups have used the rhetoric of freedom to advance their own liberation and how Christian religions concepts and language have contributed to this rhetoric. Students will practice reading and writing critically and become familiar with a variety of literary genres, including historical narrative, autobiography, poetry, drama, essays, short stories, and novels. Literature in the World: This course teaches students to appreciate the aesthetic value of literature and consider its cultural contexts. The course explores the beauty of language, the importance of understanding the self and others, and invites readers to consider how literature contributes to our contemporary culture. The course is arranged thematically and content varies from year to year. Themes may include, but are not limited to: immigration, war, poverty, the power of metaphor, and visual art and literature. Literary Imaginations: For literature to be more than ink stains on white paper, we must use our imaginations to give it life. In this course we shall read works from throughout human history and around the world (India, Greece, Italy, England, Russia, Nigeria, Ireland, Japan) to imagine and understand the world that people have believed in, created, and inhabited. The Lives of Others: This course explores 4000 years of stories, from ancient Mesopotamia to the American South. Plays, poems, epics, and autobiographies broaden our perspective on the world and deepen our understanding of being human. Two central themes of the course are perceptions of difference and expressions of faith. Strangers, Gods, and Monsters: As careful, critical readers, we will come face to face with all sorts of strangers, gods and monsters (both mythic and modern) as we journey through New Mexico deserts, English monasteries, modern day American prisons, contemporary Nigerian villages, Aboriginal healing ceremonies, and deep into the heart of Japan?s 17th century Samurai culture. Disney: What do a pocket-sized dragon, a talking willow tree, and a confused rooster have in common? Their characters debuted in film. Disneyâ??s Mushu, Grandmother Willow, and HeiHei were not in the original stories from which Disney drew inspiration. This course is an introduction to the art of adaptation and explores many of the literary contexts upon which the Disneyâ??s storytelling empire was built. Students will learn how to research, analyze, and discuss written and visual texts, and to create their own adaptations of literature through papers, storyboards, and multimedia projects.

(2 credits, alternate years, consult department) This course examines the field of young adult literature in its various genres: realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will develop criteria for book selection and learn ways to respond ethically to young adult literature. Prerequisite: ENG250LC. ENG292 is also recommended.

(4 credits, alternate years) William Shakespeare never attended college, yet he saw the world sharply in his mind's eye. He wrote piercingly about kings and college students, warriors and witches, goblins and gravediggers, his 1,000 characters have never been off the stage in 400 years. In this course we read eight plays which fathom the range of human experience and take the English language to the height of expressive beauty. Prerequisite: ENG250LC

(2 credits) Most middle schools and high schools expect their English teachers to teach writing and grammar. What are the goals of teaching grammar? What grammar should young writers know? This course takes a rhetorical approach to the study of grammar and to its use in the teaching of writing. Prerequisite: NWC101 and sophomore standing.

(2 credits) A study of professional writing. In a writing workshop setting, students will learn to adjust style, tone and content to accomplish a definite purpose with an identified audience. They will also learn strategies for creating texts that are clear, concise and accurate. The course is especially useful for those whose career goals require facility in written communication, such as those studying marketing, public relations, advertising, management or law. All students will choose a professional to be their mentor on a writing project related to the career they are interested in. Students will also build a small portfolio of professional writing that includes letters, a memo, a resume and a research report. Prerequisites: sophomore class standing).

(2 credits) (Writing intensive) A study of some of the best contemporary American non-fiction writing on such subjects as politics, the arts, religion, natural science and medicine. Students write on similar topics and develop their own style by emulating such models. Prerequisites: sophomore class standing or permission of instructor.

(4 credits) (Writing intensive) Students will be introduced to the foundations of reading and writing narrative and verse (fiction and poetry) and will, through an exploration of a wide range of styles, come to understand both the historical aspects of each genre (i.e. how the art's been practiced and done before) and how those genres are currently practiced (i.e. what's poetry and fiction look like today?). Students will learn to read work closely and actively, as writers, and will learn how to be in communication (both written and oral) with text.

(4 credits; alternate years, consult department) A study of the methods of persuasion: logical and emotional appeals and trustworthiness, ways of structuring arguments, and persuasive style. Students will learn to create and critique arguments on a variety of subjects. Prerequisites: sophomore class standing or permission of instructor.

(3 credits, alternate years, consult department) Students will study and practice methods for teaching English and speech in middle school and high school. Pre-service teachers will examine national standards for English/Language Arts and develop their pedagogy for teaching writing, literature, speaking, and listening. This course requires a 30-hour practicum. Prerequisites: EDU102 and ENG250LC. EDU 307 is strongly recommended. Note: Does not count toward an English major or minor. Cross-Referenced: Cross-referenced in theatre/speech.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) A study of prose and poetry in the United States from America's beginnings through the end of the Civil War. The course will focus on the works of Colonial and Romantic writers and the literatures of Native and African Americans. Special attention will be given to defining the qualities and concerns that make this literature distinctively "American." Prerequisite: ENG250LC.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) A study of prose and poetry in the United States from the Civil War until the present. The course will study works by realists (including regionalists) and modernists, as well as contemporary writers. Prerequisite: ENG250LC.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) Students will explore the nature and design of fiction by studying and analyzing a range of short fictional genres, learning to read fiction the way its writers read it, and participating in a fiction writing workshop. Attention will be given to purposes of language, to relationships between reading and writing, and to narrative as a mode of thinking and an expression of culture. Prerequisite: ENG292 or permission of instructor.

(4 credits; non-yearly, consult department) Students will explore the broad and flexible genre of creative nonfiction, from the works of Montaigne, originator of the modern essay, to the lyric essay and works that stretch and blur the line of nonfiction. Attention will be given to the use of language, sentence structure, metaphor and scene, pushing narrative beyond surface description to deeper meaning. Prerequisite: ENG290WI or permission of instructor.

(4 credits; alternate years, consult department) Students will actively explore the nature and design of poetry by studying a range of poetic genres and styles, learning to read poetry as writers do, and writing poetry in a writing workshop. Attention will be given to the purposes of language, to relationships between reading and writing, and to poetry as a mode of thinking and an expression of culture. Prerequisite: ENG292 or permission of instructor.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) A journey through ten centuries of British literature, from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, culminating in the great Christian epic, Milton's Paradise Lost. Prerequisite: ENG250LC.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) The industrial revolution resulted in an urbanized, more literate population. Writers of the time sought to reach a popular audience in a way unparalleled in English literary history. We shall read Austen, Wordsworth, Dickens, Eliot and their contemporaries, examining what they thought of and had to say to the common people of their day. Prerequisite: ENG250LC.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) England was largely depopulated of young men and nearly reduced to rubble by two world wars. The nation that arose, stripped of its empire, has continued to be a literary center. We shall read Shaw, Yeats, Eliot, Heaney and others, examining how they have analyzed and expressed the modern human condition. Prerequisite: ENG250LC.

(2-4 credits) Specific subject matter of this course will vary from semester to semester, but will always focus on an issue in composition studies or a genre of writing. Courses will include both readings and student writing within the genre and will be designed to welcome both majors and non-majors. Prerequisite: ENG290WI or ENG292 or permisson of the instructor. Note: The course may be taken more than once as long as the topic of study is different, and will count toward the advanced writing course general education requirement.

(2 credits; alternate years, consult department) Fantasy Writing is a junior-level reading and writing workshop. Students will engage several sub-genres of fantasy literature by reading and discussing classic and contemporary texts and writing their own stories. A final portfolio of original fiction, a seminar on at least one author's work, and participation in workshops and group work will form the basis for evaluation. Note: ENG 292WI is recommended, but not required.

(2 credits, alternate year, consult department) The Art of Blogging is a writing workshop designed for those interested in the world of online writing, reviewing and commentary. Students will learn to draft and create an intelligent, culturally-relevant blog that brings other writers' opinions into conversation with their own insights. Prerequisites: ENG250LC, ENG221, ENG290WI or ENG292; or permission of the instructor.

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) Some writers are especially interested in the ways people transform places and the ways places influence people. The elements of a place--the mountain ranges, shopping malls, grasslands, forests, migratory patterns of animals, rush of automobiles, or the portals of cyber-places-- shape the imagination. This course examines significant literary works, especially non-fiction, that explore the relationship between persons and places. In particular, we will examine the tension between the writer's need to construct definitions of "home places" and how the places themselves respond to human "home making." Prerequisite: ENG250LC

(4 credits, alternate years, consult department) America is home to a variety of peoples and literatures; this course focuses on the development of literatures produced by those outside the Anglo-European tradition whose experiences tell a different story about America. The goal of the course is to enrich students' views of the content of American Literature and to familiarize them with a culture or cultures with which they may not be conversant. The course may be taught as African American, Native American, Asian American, or Hispanic American literature. Alternatively, the instructor may choose to focus on literatures in contact and conflict with one another, for example, the turbulent confluence of Native American, Anglo, and Hispanic Literatures of Nueva España. Prerequisite: ENG250LC. Note: See the instructor for the specific offering before enrolling. This course may be taken more than once, provided a different literature is studied.

(2-4 credits, non-yearly, consult department) Specific subject matter of this course will vary from semester to semester, but will always focus on an issue in rhetorical studies or a genre of writing. Courses with writing as their emphasis will include both readings and student writing within the genre. Note: The course will be designed to welcome both majors and non-majors. The course may be taken more than once as long as the topic of study is different.

(4 credits; alternate years, consult department) Designed to provide solid grounding in Greek and Roman rhetorical theory and practice including studies in pre-literate rhetoric and the theories of Aristotle and Plato, among others. Some attention is also given to the Christianizing of rhetorical theory during the Middle Ages. Finally, the course concludes with the examination of trends in contemporary rhetoric studies and topical applications. Prerequisite: junior class standing, ENG235 recommended.

(4 credits may apply toward the major)

(4 credits; alternate years, consult department) The heart of the course is an advanced project in artistic, journalistic, or scholarly writing. Students also assemble a portfolio of their best writing and related work, plan writing or study beyond college, and read to gather perspectives on their vocation. Prerequisite: ENG292 and one of the following: ENG350, 351 or 352.

(4 credits) Students in this Senior Seminar will consider the role of the arts in their lives, both as they have studied the arts at Northwestern, and as the arts will find a place in their lives going forward. As works of art develop in the artist's concentrated attention, the state we call "inspiration," so the experience of the work of art is an experience of concentrated attention to the thing itself, losing oneself in the work. While interpretation of the work in the broadest sense (both recognizing its structure and identifying its essential themes) can help to enrich the experience, the experience itself is the point. For aesthetic experience responds to the call of beauty, and in it we enter the presence of God. Prerequisites: Literature major or permission of instructor.

(4 credits, non-yearly, consult department) In this seminar we analyze interpretive problems in literature and their relation to cultural theories and conditions. Particular attention is given to questions germane to Christian experience and thought. Note: Specific subject matter will vary from year to year and might include such topics as a literary period, a national literature, a specific author, or literary genre. This course may be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.