Summer 2011 Course Descriptions

ENGL 110      ENGL 271      ENGL 511      ENGL 995
ENGL 120      ENGL 308      ENGL 590      ENGL 996
ENGL 125      ENGL 320      ENGL 591      ENGL 998
ENGL 209      ENGL 397      ENGL 593      ENGL 999
ENGL 225      ENGL 398           

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ENGL 110
College Composition I:  Expository Writing
3 credits

May 16-June 24
11:00-1:00 MTWR
Eric Wolfe

The object of this course is to train students in techniques of college-level reading and writing so they become active participants in the projects of analysis and interpretation that constitute the work of the university.

In a flexible workshop setting, you will learn strategies of revision and intellectual reflection, learning how to work recursively as you read, re-read, write, and re-write intellectually challenging essays that mediate between theoretical frameworks and real-world examples (both personal and cultural). While the focus of the course is on “expository”, scholarly prose, you will read a variety of texts (paintings, advertisements, videos, buildings, automobiles, etc.).

With the help of the instructor and your peers, you will draft, critique, and revise your work, building a collection of rough drafts and final drafts for evaluation by the instructor. Grading criteria and common expectations for the amount and kinds of writing to be produced in the course are spelled out in the course packet distributed to each student at the beginning of the semester.

Required Texts:
     Ways of Reading
     They Say, I Say
     UND Guide to College Composition (4th ed.)

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ENGL 120
College Composition II: Writing from Research
3 credits

June 27-August 5
9:00-11:00 MTWR
Elizabeth Barnum

Writing from Research teaches independent research in the academy. The course builds on the techniques and skills learned in English 110, by teaching critical research writing. English 120 is designed to stimulate thinking and writing on a broad range of topics within a specific field of research. Individual sections are organized around a particular subject or issue, but the purpose of English 120 is common to all sections: by mid-semester we expect each student to be doing critical research in an area of interest that is both personal and academic.

Students in 120 are invited to become active researchers, developing ways of understanding unfamiliar subjects by building on personal interest and knowledge. By the end of the semester students will produce a long critical research paper that develops an argument by applying skills of academic analysis to a particular case study. Instructors will offer guidance in the development and revision of theoretical ways of thinking, teaching students how to conduct independent research and how to make scholarly use of research materials.

Writing from Research is designed to invite all students to find a way of becoming passionate about a particular aspect of academic writing. The texts used in the course are designed to get things started, but it is the responsibility of the individual student, in collaboration with the other participants in the class, to make the subject personally interesting.

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ENGL 125
Technical and Business Writing
3 credits

May 16-June 24
9:00-11:00 MTWR
Lori Robison

June 27-August 5
9:00-11:00 MTWR
Simone Finneman

Technical and Business Writing is designed as a writing course to follow at least one semester of freshman composition (English 110 being the standard expected prerequisite). It is a course in composition for students interested in professional careers, particularly for future scientists, engineers, technicians or writers of nearly any kind of specialized report.

This course is specifically designed to provide for the technical or professional student who desires to develop technological work, particularly the process of researching, preparing, and writing a professional report substantial in length and competent in quality.

Required Text:  Oliu, Brusaw, Alred. Writing that Works, 10th ed.

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ENGL 209
Introduction to Linguistics
3 credits

May 16-June 24
9:00-11:00 MTWR
Xiaozhao Huang

This introductory course is designed for you to learn different areas of language involved in our daily life. Topics include morphology, semantics, syntax, phonetics, phonology, sociolinguistics, language changes, history of writing systems, and language acquisition. Course requirements: assignments and examinations.

Required Textbook: Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams (2011). An Introduction to Language. 9th ed. Wadsworth, Cengate Learning.

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ENGL 225
Introduction to Film
3 credits

June 27-August 5
ONLINE
Michael Anderegg

http://distance.und.edu/

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ENGL 271
Reading and Writing about Texts
3 credits

May 16-June 24
11:00-1:00 MTWR
Adam Kitzes

What sort of activity takes place when we read? Is there more than one way to read a text? If so then what makes one method better than another? What happens when we designate a text as “literary” – what sorts of claims are we making about the nature of the language, our expectations for what we might learn from the text? What sorts of objectives are we after when we write about a text, and what approaches can we take in order to reach them?

What kind of knowledge do we produce when we write, say, an analysis of a story or a poem? These are a few of the basic questions which will guide us through the selections of readings, and which determine the nature of our assignments. This course is not designed to be a survey of an historical period, nor an introduction to a genre (e.g. “Poetry”). By no means is this a “Great Books” course. The readings here were selected in order to offer you a sample of different types of literature. You are not expected to like everything – though hopefully you will like many and dislike only a few. You should have no trouble finding yourself engaged with all of them.

Likewise, your writing assignments are designed to give you experience with different approaches to writing. You will not simply write “essays.” Different assignments will ask you to work on specific techniques, make specific types of arguments, and engage both critical and creative parts of your mind. Because this course is designed to be an advanced writing course, we will emphasize writing as a process. Many assignments are designed in stages, with opportunities for revision along the way.

It is always my hope to get people excited about literature. It is also my expectation that, over the course of the term, you will become more thoughtful about what it means to read and write about literary texts.

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ENGL 308
The Art of Writing Nonfiction
3 credits

May 16-June 24
1:00-3:00 MTWR
Sharon Carson

This is 6-week summer course with a special focus on narrative journalism as a form of literary and artistic non-fiction. We will be working on projects which allow students to experiment with, and develop, their voices as thoughtful interpreters of current events and to write about interesting places, people and issues.

We will work in two genres of narrative non-fiction: written narrative journalism (including works produced for new media), and audio documentary. For both genres we will read--or listen to--already produced works by American and international writers. You will read some very talented contemporary writers as well as some very famous pieces of narrative journalism from the past.

We will also listen to, and analyze, a few especially compelling works of audio documentary. (Students who are especially interested in this art form will have the option to produce their own experimental and short sound pieces.)

The course is an excellent opportunity to work seriously on your own writing and your capacity for sustained critical thought about interesting questions. It is especially well suited for students who are interested in writing about current events, community politics, social and arts issues, and working on interviews as a form of literary art.

In addition to the required books for the course, we’ll work with numerous handouts, audio clips, radio project websites, and several readings on narrative journalism and documentary theory. The course requires no previous experience with journalistic writing, and does not require expertise in current social issues or events. It does require serious interest in these things, and a willingness to work hard for six weeks.

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ENGL 320
Studies in American Fiction:  Genre Fiction
3 credits

June 27-August 5
1:00-3:00 MTWR
Chris Nelson

“Beach reading”; “airport novel.” Genre fiction has become a broad label usually synonymous with “popular” fiction but also a sense of the formulaic that book publishers depend on for marketing purposes. A genre-bound novel will often announce itself through placement within a certain section (mystery, romance, detective, science fiction, fantasy, horror, to name a few), as well as through the use of cover illustrations, review quotes, and other marketing devices that emphasize certain images or markers thought to define that genre. Yet the boundaries of particular genres are always in flux, shading into one another and shifting over time; the science fiction of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for example, is often claimed by the horror genre. As the fiction that often dominates best-seller lists as well as store bookshelves, genre fiction also acquires the label of the non-serious or anti-intellectual, but the Shelley example, like many others such as Cormac McCarthy, Henry James, H.G. Wells, Jane Austen, Joyce Carol Oates, Benjamin Black, Edgar Allan Poe, etc., complicates this definition of genre fiction. In this class, then, we will read short fiction and novels from multiple genres and consider what elements of those fictions result in their placement within a particular genre. We will also consider what criteria are used to separate genre fiction from “Capital L” Literature and what enables some authors to cross over from the domain of genre fiction to regular inclusion in academic, canonical literature anthologies and syllabi. Fair warning: some of the reading for this class will contain disturbing and/or graphic themes and imagery.

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ENGL 397
Cooperative Education
1-8 credits, repeatable to 15

Prerequisites: 15 credits completed in English; 2.5 GPA; 2.75 GPA in English.

A course designed to offer English majors work experience related to their disciplinary training in close reading, careful writing, and interpretative analysis. S/U grading only.

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ENGL 398
Independent Study
1-4 credits

For English majors only.

Prerequisite: Written consent of the department. Supervised independent study. Only 6 hours may apply to the 36-hour English major.

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ENGL 511
Problems in Literary Criticism:  Theorizing Bodies
3 credits

May 16-June 24
2:00-4:45 MTR
Yvette Koepke

Whether you need to fulfill your graduate theory requirement or want to deepen your theoretical insights, taking this class will give you the opportunity to explore your own interests in ways that will be directly applicable to your ongoing work. And in either case, taking a theory class in the summer session makes it easier to engage with this challenging subject matter with fewer competing responsibilities.

“The body” is an interdisciplinary site where different theoretical positions and approaches intersect, providing an ideal jumping off point for any concern. Indeed, whether we list some of the perspectives---feminist, queer, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, phenomenology, race/ethnicity/postcolonial, disability, science studies---or the theorists---Foucault, Butler, Sedgwick, Gilroy, Merleau-Ponty, Grosz, Deleuze, Haraway, Bakhtin, Scarry, Baudrillard---that we will read, we see that this topic simultaneously offers a useful overview of the field of critical theory and a fascinating focal point that’s one of the current “hot” areas for scholarship. Bodies and embodiment open up the large-scale question of postmodern/poststructuralist theory’s “linguistic turn” as well as the issues of everyday life (technology, illness, appearance, difference, sexuality). This class will be designed to support students as they build on our common framework to pursue their own projects.

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ENGL 590
Readings
1-4 credits

American Literature; Cinema; English Literature; English Language; or Creative Writing. Supervised independent study. Repeatable. Department consent required.

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ENGL 591
Readings for the Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam
1-4 credits

Supervised independent study on approved topics. Repeatable for a maximum of 6 credits. This course is exempt from the normal "Incomplete" reversion schedule. A grade is assigned upon completion of the appropriate comprehensive examination. Department consent required.

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ENGL 593
Research
1-4 credits

American Literature; Cinema; English Literature; English Language; or Creative Writing. Independent study of a problem in the field resulting in a long research paper or a series of short reports. Repeatable. Department consent required.

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ENGL 995
Scholarly Project
2 credits

As a common course number uniform throughout the graduate school, English 995 Scholarly Project will serve the purpose described in the graduate catalog as a required component of the non-thesis option in fulfillment of the M.A. degree.  Department consent required.

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ENGL 996
Continuing Enrollment
1-9 credits

Continuance in the program. S/U grading only.  Department consent required.

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ENGL 998
Thesis
1-4 credits

Department consent required.

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ENGL 999
Dissertation
1-9 credits

Department consent required.