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Undergraduate Course DescriptionsCurrent English courses are described below. For descriptions of all English courses, refer to the Undergraduate Catalog. Fall Semester 2009English 204: Literature for Children English 299x: Introduction to Queer Theory English 302: Developing Elementary English Language Arts with Multicultural Literature English 307-1: Fiction Writing English 307-2: Fiction Writing English 320: English Linguistics English 362: Medieval British Literature English 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing English 406: Advanced Creative Nonfiction English 407: Advanced Fiction Writing English 422: Studies in Authors English 436: Theory and Research in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) English 437: Methods and Materials in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) English 444: Senior Seminar on Text and Intertextuality English 489: Practicum in Literary Editing English 491: Literature of African American Traditions Fall Semester 2009 Course Descriptions: ENG 204: Literature for ChildrenInstructor: Peggy Rice
ENG 299X: Introduction to Queer Theory
Professor: Will Stockton
ENG 302: Developing Elementary English Language Arts with Multicultural LiteratureENG 302 is a new course that is required for Elementary Education Majors who have English language arts as their concentration area. It focuses on the development of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and visual representing using multicultural literature and includes guided laboratory experience Prerequisite: Admittance into the Elementary Education Program; ENG 204 English 307-1: Fiction Writing Barbara Bogue, Associate ProfessorPrerequisite: 285 (not to be taken concurrently)The course centers on the fundamentals of the short story—original language, three dimensional characters, complex plot—and with an emphasis on the student’s ability to write clearly and dramatically. Writing is revision and close reading—of one’s own work, peers’ and published writers’ works. The course includes free writing exercises and short assignments on elements of the craft during the first half of the semester, full-class workshops on students’ original works during the second half of the semester, and throughout, in-depth class discussions of the techniques of craft employed by authors recognized in the field. Writing exercises and in-class readings of the same encourage and nurture the imagination and the confidence to recreate the fictional dream on the page. The class provides an audience and the opportunity to create a community of writers who respect each other and the art form. The course is designed for those who wish to develop their story writing skills, as well as for those who plan to continue the study of writing fiction in English 407.
Required Text: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (7th edition only), Janet Burroway, and supplemental materials handed out in class. 307-2: Fiction WritingProfessor Sean Aden LovelaceWriting is an art and craft, creative inspiration blended with very hard work. In this class, we will focus on the work—reading, writing, discussing fiction, both professional examples, and our own personal writing. The goal is to develop technical ability and understanding of craft and technique; and to define and cultivate a personal aesthetic—or, at least, do some serious thinking about it. A portion of the class will concentrate on the development of a critical vocabulary, in-class writing exercises, and the discussion of pieces of short fiction. Obviously, fiction is a massive “world,” and we will analyze the usual and expected aspects: plot, setting, character, and so on. However, I would like to focus on objects in fiction (as in what is there and why?), figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, etc.), conflict (locating it and why it’s important), and mood, or atmosphere. Be sure to think about these specific aspects with every fiction piece we read.
Another portion of the class will be dedicated to workshop, or peer review, of your own original fiction (knowing this, you shouldn’t submit any work that you aren’t comfortable sharing with the class). Every student is expected to thoroughly read their peers’ work, and to give thoughtful and respectful feedback. Although focusing on workshopping student stories at this time, we will continue with exercises and our discussions of published fiction as well. Texts: · The Road by Cormac McCarthy · Flaming Iguanas by Erika Lopez · Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami · Flash Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories by James Thomas and Robert Shapard. · We will also have handouts and stories on reserve, and/or Blackboard. Contact Professor Lovelace (salovelace@bsu.edu) with any questions. ENG 320: English LinguisticsThe aim of this linguistics course is to raise your awareness of the complex organization and systematic nature of language, the primary means of human communication. In a sense, you will be studying yourself since you are a prime example of a language user. Most of your knowledge of language, however, is unconscious, and the part of language that you can describe is largely the result of your earlier education, which may have provided you with confusing or misleading notions about language. This course is intended to clarify your ideas about language and bring you to a better understanding of its nature by introducing you to the basic principles of linguistic science and the major areas of the field, including, but not limited to, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. This is not a course about just one particular language, but about human language in all its aspects. Some of the data to be analyzed will come from languages with which students are familiar, but students will also work with data from languages with which they have no prior familiarity. ENG 362: Medieval British Literature: Chaucer’s Canterbury TalesFew writers have been so influential in English literature as Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400). Determining why is part of the goal of this course, which offers a close study of Chaucer’s alternatively pious and profane, idealistic and satirical, romantic and raunchy Canterbury Tales. We will situate the Tales in the context of the tumultuous late-fourteenth century, focusing particularly on heretical challenges to religious orthodoxy and the effects of economic developments on traditional models of social organization. Course requirements include two papers and vigorous participation. Please be advised that we will read The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. By mid-semester students will demonstrate pronunciation proficiency in the language, a skill guaranteed to make friends envious. ENG 405: Special Topics In Creative Writing (Inspirations)Prerequisite: ENG 306 or 307 or 308Professor Jill Christman
INSPIRATIONS "There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers." ~H.L. Mencken
This Special Topics course in Creative Writing will explore sources of inspiration for writers of poetry and prose—and of course, we will scour the museums, the world, and the library shelves for inspirations to spark our own big creative projects that will be the capstone of this course. What is it that you can’t stop thinking about? How do you locate your obsessions and inspirations for your writing? Here are some of things we will study together.
ART & IMAGES: The novelist Richard Powers studied a photograph by the German photographer August Sander—Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance, 1914—pulled out the story of those three men, looking at every shadow and expression, and came away with a novel of the same name. BOOKS: Julie Powell started cooking recipes in her tiny apartment kitchen from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, and 365 recipes and a popular blog later, she came away with Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. PLACES: Believe it or not, Joe Wenderoth started going to Wendy’s. A lot. And after many, many burgers and Biggies, he completed a collection of poems called Letters to Wendy. PEOPLE: Susan Orleans got obsessed with John Laroche, a rare orchids dealer, and spent many days in the Florida swamps tracking Laroche and the story that would become The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession. Course requirements will include: field trip reports, quizzes, short writing exercises, creative reading responses, workshop critiques, and a totally inspired and inspiring final creative project in the genre of your choice.
ENG 406: Advanced Creative NonfictionPrerequisite—English 306Professor Jill Christman
This advanced writing workshop will focus on the writing of real lives—your lives—and the navigation of those slippery spaces between remembering and forgetting, truth and invention. This semester, we will split our reading between short-short creative nonfiction (from the online journal Brevity), personal essays (River Teeth’s 2009 ten-year anniversary creative nonfiction reader), two or three book-length memoirs (TBA), and Abigail Thomas’s Writing Memoir. We’ll read with a writer’s attention to style and technique as we get in the practice of asking the questions that are essential in the crafting of real-life material: What’s the story here? What’s urgent and pressing and true? How do we decide what to put in and what to leave out? How do we construct memory on the page and how does forgetting fit in? What’s the difference between invention and lying? What responsibility do we have to history? How does solid research and interviewing contribute to our construction of nonfiction narratives? How do our expectations as readers change when we’re told something is nonfiction? How do our obligations as writers change? And so on. My hope is that when we apprentice ourselves to the books on our reading list, we will practice the habit of art, honing our technical skills while we locate the patterns in our lives and the world that have something to say about the human condition. In order to write well, we must read, and so we will divide our time between workshops of student work and the discussion of published texts. Over the course of the semester, you will write two essays (6-8 pp) and a final long revision (12-16 pp). Other requirements will include: quizzes and short writing exercises, presentations, creative reading responses, and workshop critiques. ENG 407-1: Advanced Fiction WritingPrerequisite: ENG 307 (Not to be taken concurrently 407) Barbara Bogue, Associate Professor A continuation of English 307 Fiction Writing with a focus on the short story and an emphasis on the student’s ability to write clearly and dramatically. The workshop is designed for careful and considerate criticism of students’ work, plus the reading of published literature. Attention continues on the “root problems” of the writer: self-confidence, self-respect, and the freedom to write. The value of a writing class is assumed inasmuch as it addresses the individual’s fundamental need to be perceived and acknowledged in the atmosphere of a community of writers. Writing is revision and the workshop is intended to assist the author with that task. Formal class sessions will be replaced on several occasions by individual conferences with students. Assignments will differ, somewhat, during the first weeks of classes for students who have elected to repeat 407. At this level of writing, an essential aspect of the course is to produce a piece of work of literary quality that is absent explicit and/or graphic sex or violence to sensationalize the submitted story. A handout for criteria for grading of a short story will be distributed during the first class meeting. Each student will create two new stories and, toward the end of the semester, will turn in one of the two stories (after receiving comments from the workshops on each and my written comments and assessment). All drafts submitted will count toward your final overall grade. Participation in classroom discussions of published literature read and in workshops, as well as attendance, will also be factored in to the final grade.
Texts: Writing Fiction (Seventh Edition)—Janet Burroway (required) Best American Short Stories, particular edition to be announced—(required)
English 422: Studies in AuthorsDr. Robert D. Habich
The American Transcendentalists
This course will cover the works and times of those American writers of the mid-nineteenth century known (reluctantly) as the "Transcendentalists." Canonized now, in their own time they were on the cutting edge of literary, educational, and social change as they explored what it meant to be an individual in an increasingly conformist and commercialized society. These were the bad boys—and girls—of American literature.
READINGS
In addition to work by Emerson, Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller, we will address the full range of Transcendentalist writing and thinking, including selections by Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Jones Very, and the Brook Farmers, and examine the responses of other American writers who critiqued the Transcendentalists (such as Louisa May Alcott, Poe, and Whitman) and extended them (Frost, for instance). We’ll learn about their work and their lives, and along the way we will take up issues of social and religious reform that contextualize Transcendentalist thinking: the miracles controversy, women's rights, slavery, communitarianism, and the like.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
In addition to required attendance, the completion of all readings, and three ungraded “fact-finding missions," each student will be asked to do the following graded assignments:
1. an interview (via letter or e-mail) with a publishing scholar of the American Transcendental writers (20% of final grade) 2. two short (4-5 page) papers on specific texts we have read, one an interpretive analysis, the second a personal response and evaluation (each paper, 20% of your final grade) 3. a course project of your choosing that builds upon and extends one of the short papers (20% of your final grade), and 4. a final examination (20% of your final grade).
ENG 425: Film Studies
This course has two objectives: to help you understand the languages of cinema (visual, aural, narrative) and to inquire into the functions of movies in our culture. You will develop a vocabulary of terms that will allow you to observe and interpret the technical aspects of film, including photography, sound, shot design, and many other details. And you will become familiar with some theories of how films relate to the culture at large, exploring questions such as how our background and individuality influence our reception of films, and whether films represent or shape our culture (or some combination of the two). Films will include Rear Window, His Girl Friday, Citizen Kane, Pan’s Labyrinth, Alien, and others. Assignments will include a mid-term and final, a short scene analysis, and a group project focusing on in-depth analysis of one film. Texts: Gianetti, Understanding Movies and Kolker Film, Form, and Culture Back to topENG 436: Theory and Research in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)WhY study TESOL?Having a TESOL background will bring you new career opportunities both in and outside the country. If you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, you may want to consider taking this course (and ENG 437)!
Do you like another language? Do you like English? Are you interested in learning another language? Are you interested in teaching? Are you interested in different countries? Are you interested in people from different cultures? Are you interested in teaching American culture to foreigners? Are you interested in teaching English abroad? Are you interested in helping students who recently arrived in the US?
Course Description This course surveys theories and research in second language acquisition, in particular, how specific factors influence language acquisition. Some of the factors we will examine are first language influence, age of acquisition, personality, and first language culture. The overall objectives of this course are to understand the mechanisms and the phenomena of language learning and to apply that understanding to English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching.
Course schedule This course meets Mondays at 6:30.
I am not a teaching major. Can I still take this course? If you are a teaching major, you can add an ESL license or concentration to your current program. However, this course is NOT limited only to teaching majors. If you are interested in teaching English abroad, this course (and ENG 437) will provide you with the valuable background you will need to be successful in your career.
Any questions? If you have any questions about the course or anything related to TESOL, please feel free to contact Dr. Megumi Hamada at mhamada@bsu.edu.
ENG 437 (Methods and Materials in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
The aim of this course is designed to help teachers of K-12 students understand, recognize and address the language acquisition challenges of non-native English speakers, both in the U.S. and abroad. Students will receive hands-on experience in local schools, familiarizing themselves with the standards for English language learners, while they develop and use practical techniques and materials to teach ESL/EFL based on second-language acquisition principles. Students will also consider and develop strategies that help English language learners acquire the language, academic, and social skills they need in order to become fully participating members of their schools and communities.
English 444: Senior Seminar on Text and Intertextuality
Dr. Kenan Metzger
In this class students will examine their own experiences as English majors and how these experiences have formed them as unique texts. We will read and analyze scholarly works on subjectivity and authorship to try and determine how each of our individual experiences is actually shaped by a myriad of influences. In particular, we will examine theories of semiotics and poststructuralism as a lens to conduct close readings of texts about issues of sociocultural concerns and intercultural connections. The readings include print and non-print materials, and include the seminar participants as texts upon which others write and which others read. The main evaluation will be an in-depth exploratory research paper that will be presented to the class and turned in for revision once during the semester before the final copy is due at the end. This paper will explore the ideas we examine in the course as well as the students’ own experiences.
ENG 464: ShakespeareThis course offers a close study of eight plays and the sonnets. The plays will most likely include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, 1 Henry IV, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth. While keeping an eye on Shakespeare’s present “cultural currency,” we will situate the plays in the historical context of the English Renaissance – a period characterized by the rebirth of classical learning, the Protestant Reformation, the formation of capitalist economies, and considerable colonial expansion. Course requirements include two papers, one requiring research into recent scholarship on one or more plays. English 489: Practicum in Literary EditingProf. Sean LovelacePrerequisites: English 285 and Permission of InstructorThe students in this class will be responsible for producing the Spring 2009 issue of The Broken Plate, a literary magazine produced by Ball State undergraduates. We will accept submissions from writers around the country, as well as writing from Ball State undergraduates. Student editors will be responsible for all aspects of magazine production, including soliciting submissions, selecting quality work, designing the magazine, and promoting and selling the issue. Other requirements include magazine and book reviews, readings and quizzes, software tutorials, and an individual literary editing project. Texts may include literary magazines, Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors, and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. English 489 is now a year-long, 6-credit, immersive learning course. Students will also enroll in English 299X in Spring 2009. Please email Sean Lovelace at salovelace@bsu.edu if you are interested in this class.
ENG 491: Literature of
African American Traditions
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