Course Descriptions

English Course Descriptions

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(Enter Datatel Course Numbers with the dash. i.e. ENGL-100; use commas to separate multiple Course Numbers)

ENGL-100 - ENGLISH COMPOSITION 1  3 credits
The objective of this course is to improve the student's ability to communicate effectively in writing. Areas covered in this course will include introduction of basic writing patterns, effective construction of paragraphs and essays, and preparation of the documented research paper. PREREQUISITE: DWRT-099 (minimum grade of C-) or placement at college-level English.
ENGL-101 - COLLEGE ENGLISH 2  3 credits
This course is a continuation of English Composition 1 with specific emphases on developing critical thinking skills; analyzing and interpreting college-level texts; utilizing primary and secondary research sources; and continuing development of effective writing methodologies and skills. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100 and permission of NextStep advisor. Restricted to Verizon New England NextStep program
ENGL-110 - HONORS ENGLISH COMPOSITION 1  3 credits
This honors-level Composition 1 course parallels the standard description for a section of ENGL-100. The objective of this course is to improve the student's ability to communicate effectively in writing. Areas covered will include introduction of basic writing patterns, effective construction of paragraphs and essays, and preparation of the documented research paper. In addition, students will be required to submit work that is representative of honors-level coursework. To that end, more time is dedicated to developing argumentation and research skills. Two documented research papers will be assigned. All work for the course will be kept in a portfolio; at the end of the semester, students will submit a portfolio review essay, critiquing their progress. Equivalent to ENGL-100. PREREQUISITE: DWRT-099 (minimum grade of C-) or placement at college-level English.
ENGL-200 - ENGLISH COMPOSITION 2: AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE  3 credits
This course involves the close reading and class discussion of fiction, poetry and plays, and writing essays about literature. Emphasis is on the role of individual literary works as expressions of universal human experience. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100.
ENGL-201 - BUSINESS ENGLISH  3 credits
This course is designed to prepare business students to meet the requirements of writing all kinds of communications in the business world, emphasizing the construction of proper business letters, resumes, and memoranda. Students develop an understanding of correct style, form, and tone and gain an ability to write clear and concise business communications. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100.
ENGL-202 - TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING  3 credits
Instruction has been organized to emphasize methods involved in the writing process. Special emphasis has been placed on the factors which report writers must consider and the processes they must follow in writing a report. Students will become acquainted with the techniques of analyzing a writing situation, methods of investigating the problem, organizing the report, and preparing the final copy. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100. *Course was previously WRIT-202*
ENGL-203 - FUNDAMENTALS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION  3 credits
Students will learn the techniques of effective oral communication, and will present researched speeches on a variety of organizational patterns. Being educated means having something to say, this course will help you say it. *Course was previously SPCH-203*
ENGL-210 - HONORS ENGLISH COMPOSITION 2  3 credits
This honors-level English Composition 2 course parallels the standard description of Introduction to Literature: close reading and class discussion of fiction, poetry, plays, and essay assignments involving writing about literature. In this course, reading and writing assignments are appropriate to the honors level. A research essay and a 20-minute presentation to the class are required. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100,minimum grade A-; or ENGL-110, minimum grade B.
ENGL-300 - LITERATURE OF THE WESTERN WORLD 1  3 credits
This course examines literary classics of Western culture to develop both an appreciation of their intrinsic worth and an awareness of their significance in the history of ideas and literature. Readings are from the Biblical, Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance periods and might include portions of the Old Testaments; selections from epic narratives such as Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Milton's Paradise Lost; selected poetry of Sappho, Catullus, Petrarch; selections from frame narratives such as Dante's Inferno and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Prerequisites: ENGL-100, ENGL-200 is strongly recommended.
ENGL-301 - ENGLISH LITERATURE: ANGLO-SAXON TO NEOCLASSICAL PERIODS  3 credits
Readings in English literature from the Anglo-Saxon to the Neoclassical periods are studied with attention to their content and style. Such works as Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, King Lear, and Paradise Lost are examined as representations of major literary and intellectual movements in Britain. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100: RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200. Honors component available.
ENGL-302 - AMERICAN LITERATURE: 1620-1860  3 credits
The growth of American literature from the Colonial period to the Civil War reflects major developments in American thought, beliefs, and values. Such writers as Bradford, Bradstreet, Edwards, Franklin, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and Stowe will be the basis of our close, critical reading and discussion, representing our literary and intellectual heritage. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100: RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200. Honors component available.
ENGL-304 - INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE 1  3 credits
This course is designed to accomplish two aims. First, there will be a concentrated study of the writings of African Americans, including the oral tradition. Secondly, this course will focus on developing an awareness of the unique quality of African-American life and culture, as well as of its contributions to world literature. Honors component available. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100
ENGL-305 - CHILDREN'S LITERATURE  3 credits
Children's Literature is an elective one-semester survey course. Students read and analyze picture storybooks, folklore, children's poetry, and young adult novels. Selections are multicultural. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200
ENGL-308 - WOMEN IN LITERATURE  3 credits
This course will focus on the roles, myths, and stereotypes of women in different historical periods, and relate these roles to the social structure, the status, and function of women in the particular social setting in which the literary works were written. The study will enable us to discover to what extent the image of women in literature reflects reality, and to what extent it is an ideal encouraged to keep women in a particular role. An anthology of short stories by internationally-known women writers is a required text, along with Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200. Honors component available.
ENGL-309 - SEX AND SEXUALITIES IN WESTERN LITERATURE  3 credits
This course will focus on the diverse ways issues of sex and sexuality have been played out on the textual stage of Western literature. Armed with critical frameworks (including Foucault’s History of Sexuality), students will grapple with the continuum of sexualities depicted in literary works as well as the medicalization of sexuality originating in the 19th century and continuing into the present day. The primarily 19th and early 20th century readings will be weighted towards those sexualities that have been historically marginalized including what we now term gay/lesbian/and bisexual. These texts will span the genres of poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction, and include works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, William Bradford, Christina Rossetti, Tennyson, Melville, Oscar Wilde, EM. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf Radclyffe Hall, and Tennessee Williams. Historical contextualization will be offered by the writings of Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, and Freud. PREREQUISITE: An open mind and successful completion of ENGL-100, ENGL-200 (recommended) or permission of instructor.
ENGL-319 - INTRODUCTION TO JOURNALISM  3 credits
An introductory course designed to explore the overall area of journalism as related to producing a weekly student newspaper. The class is conducted as a workshop with instruction focused on news reporting, feature writing, and page layout.
ENGL-321 - INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING: POETRY  3 credits
The emphasis of this course is on the writing of poetry, although students will also have the opportunity to write fiction and drama, using contemporary and traditional models for their work. During the semester, students will write poems in a variety of forms from free to formal verse including haiku, sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, ghazals, and pantoums. For each genre, students will practice appropriate strategies, including the use of imagery, metaphor, rhyme and rhythm, point-of-view, dialogue, characterizations, and plot development. Preparation of a portfolio is required of each student. Final projects will include a class reading of finished pieces and publication of a literary magazine. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-200, or ENGL-100 and permission of instructor. Honors component available.
ENGL-329 - LATINO WRITERS IN THE U.S.  3 credits
This course will introduce students to contemporary writings by Latino writers who are living or have lived in the U.S. Students will develop a greater understanding of one of America’s largest, most diverse, minority populations and the social, cultural, and economic issues with which it contends. Close reading of works in various literary genres (including social and cultural criticism) will be used to expand on such issues and themes as assimilation, cultural and gender identity, ethnic identification, cultural conflicts, cultural isolation, political and economic struggles, and perceptions of mainstream America. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; ENGL-200 recommended.
ENGL-345 - THE AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN SHORT STORY  3 credits
This course explores the evolution of the short story. Born from the epic tale and Westernized by Chaucer, the short story emerged in the mid 19th century. This course analyzes and evaluates the major classic and contemporary short story writers, along with their techniques and contributions to our literary heritage. An anthology of classic and contemporary short stories featuring internationally-recognized authors is the basis of study.
ENGL-350 - EARLY NON-WESTERN LITERATURE  3 credits
This course involves reading and discussion early fiction, plays, poetry, and non-fictions of several regions of the non-Western world such as Africa, the Middle East, south Asia, and east Asia. Literature selections will be studied in relation to their cultural context and their expression of universal human experience. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; ENGL-200 recommended.
ENGL-351 - NON-WESTERN LITERARY VOICES  3 credits
This course involves reading and discussion of 20th century fiction, plays, poetry, and non-fiction of several regions of the non-Western world such as Africa, the Middle East, south Asia, and east Asia. Literary selections will be studied in relation to their cultural context and their expression of universal human experience. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; ENGL-200 recommended.
ENGL-361 - INTRODUCTION TO THEATER (REPLACES THTR-361 SPR. 07)  3 credits
This course will involve the student in the major aspects of the theater experience: classic plays will be read and analyzed for character, plot, and dramatic conflict; scenes will be read and acted; and live performances will seen. Learning to appreciate theater is learning to appreciate life. 3 hours lecture.
ENGL-380 - LITERATURE IN SOCIETY  3 credits    Course Offered Thru SCE Only
In this course, students will explore 19th and 20th century authors and how these authors perceive the relationship between individuals and society. The images of gender, social class, race, and culture will be examined through reading selections of drama, non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. This thematic unit will focus on literature in various stages human experiences: Growing Up and Growing Older, Women and Men, Money and Work, Peace and War, and Varieties of Protest. Prereq: ENGL-100, ENGL-200 recommended
ENGL-400 - LITERATURE OF THE WESTERN WORLD 1  3 credits
This course examines significant literary works of Western culture from the 18th century to the modern era, to develop both an appreciation of their intrinsic worth and an awareness of their significance in the history of ideas and of literature. Reading are from the prose, poetry, and drama of the Age of Enlightenment, the Romantic period, the period of Naturalism, and the early 20th century. Readings might include selections from Moliere's Tartuffe, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Rousseau's Confessions, Goethe's Faust, Shelley's Frankenstein, Flaubert's A Simple Heart, Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground, Woolf's A Room of One's Own, and other brief works. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100 RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200
ENGL-401 - ENGLISH LITERATURE 2: ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM  3 credits
This course is a continuation of English Literature 1 and consists of readings from the Romantic period to the twentieth century. Works of such writers as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Dickens, the Brownings, Joyce, and Woolf may be included in the course. The works are studied from the same critical perspective and with the same emphasis as in ENGL-301. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200. Honors component available.
ENGL-402 - AMERICAN LITERATURE: 1860-PRESENT  3 credits
Readings of American fiction, poetry, and drama from the Civil War to the present, ranging from Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, to Frost, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner and several contemporary writers. This course continues the survey of American literature from the same critical perspective as ENGL-302. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; RECOMMENDED; ENGL-200. Honors component available.
ENGL-404 - INTRO. TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE 2  3 credits
This course is designed to accomplish two aims. First, there will be a concentrated study of the writings of African-Americans from slavery to the present, including not only the usual fiction, essays, and poetry, but also fold tales, orations, and slave narratives. There will also be some exploration of the role of African-American women in fiction. Secondly, this course will focus on developing an awareness of the unique quality of the African-American experience as it has defined the various modes and themes that characterize African-American literature.
ENGL-408 - WOMEN IN LITERATURE 2  3 credits
This course will serve as a natural progression of the basic survey course in Women in Literature. However, rather than focusing on short stories by women, Women in Literature 2 will examine women’s short novels, plays, essays, and poetry. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100; RECOMMENDED: ENGL-200. Honors component available.
ENGL-421 - INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING: FICTION  3 credits
The emphasis of this course will be on the writing of fiction, although students will also have the opportunity to write poetry and drama using contemporary and traditional models for their work. During the semester, students will learn various strategies of characterization, plot development, use of dialogue and stream of consciousness, point of view and others. Assignments will include: a story in a sentence, writing a compelling scene, flash fiction, and writing the short story. Preparation of a portfolio is required of each student. Final projects will include a class reading of finished pieces and publication of a literary magazine. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-200 or ENGL-100 and permission of instructor. Honors component available.
ENGL-900 - DIRECTED STUDY IN ENGLISH  
Projects for advanced individual study by special arrangement with the instructor and approval of the Department and School Chairpersons. Students are expected to demonstrate willingness and ability to work on their own with minimal assistance. Variable Credit.
JOUR-900 - DIRECTED STUDY IN JOURNALISM  3 credits
Projects for advanced individual study by special arrangement with the instructor and approval of the Department and School Chairpersons. Students are expected to demonstrate willingness and ability to work on their own with minimal assistance.
SPCH-203 - FUNDAMENTALS OF SPEECH-ENDING SUMMER 07, REPLACED WITH ENGL-203  3 credits
Everyone must communicate in life, and this course is about communicating in personal affairs, employment, and society. Students will write and present talks about a variety of topics and situations. Being educated means having something to say; this course will help you say it.
THTR-110 - FUNDAMENTALS OF ACTING  3 credits
This course introduces students to the art of acting with emphasis on characterization, voice, and movement. In addition, varieties of acting techniques, script analysis, improvisation, and theater exercises will be used to prepare monologues, duet scenes and one-act plays. Additional emphasis is on acting as a method of improving self-presentation and self-development.
THTR-310 - COLLEGE THEATER WORKSHOP 1  1 credit
This is a play production course. Each semester a play is chosen to be prepared and performed at the end of the semester. Students may select one, two, or three credits and participate on a limited or standard course time basis. Students will be involved in various theater activities: acting, set construction, set decoration, props, lights, and costumes. This course may be taken by students, faculty, and staff as a co-curricular activity with or without credit. PREREQUISITES: SPCH-203 or ENGL-100.
THTR-311 - COLLEGE THEATER WORKSHOP 2  2 credits
This is a play production course. Each semester a play is chosen to be prepared and performed at the end of the semester. Students may select one, two, or three credits and participate on a limited or standard course time basis. Students will be involved in various theater activities: acting, set construction, set decoration, props, lights, and costumes. This course may be taken by students, faculty, and staff as a co-curricular activity with or without credit. PREREQUISITES: SPCH-203 or ENGL-100.
THTR-312 - COLLEGE THEATER WORKSHOP 3  3 credits
This is a play production course. Each semester a play is chosen to be prepared and performed at the end of the semester. Students may select one, two, or three credits and participate on a limited or standard course time basis. Students will be involved in various theater activities: acting, set construction, set decoration, props, lights, and costumes. This course may be taken by students, faculty, and staff as a co-curricular activity with or without credit. PREREQUISITES: ENGL-203 or ENGL-100.
WRIT-202 - TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING  3 credits
Instruction has been organized to emphasize methods involved in the writing process. Special emphasis has been placed on the factors which report writers must consider and the processes they must follow in writing a report. Students will become acquainted with the techniques of analyzing a writing situation, methods of investigating the problem, organizing the report, and preparing the final copy. PREREQUISITE: ENGL-100.