Please
note that writing courses are listed under "English" in
all department course listings and college catalogs
EAP 121 and 131 are reserved for students
whose native language is not English and whose placement scores indicate
their need for the intensive preparation these courses provide.
EAP 121. English for Academic Purposes (For Nonnative Speakers of English)
(6 contact hours per week, 3 credits. 9 lab hours per semester.)
This high intermediate "content-based" English as a Second Language (ESOL) course, reviews sentence structure and works towards perfecting English paragraph composition. Students learn to draft simple narratives. Journals are required in response to all readings, which are carefully selected literary pieces on sociological topics. The course stresses grammar, reading, and writing skills development, using readings that emphasize sociological themes, situations, and terminology. Attached to the course are12 hours of required tutorials plus attendance at two workshops per semester in the English Writing Center.
Prerequisite: Direct placement through testing by the ESL Resource Center.
EAP 131. Advanced English for Academic Purposes (For NonnativeSpeakers of English)
(6 contact hours per week, 3 credits. 15 lab hours per semester.)
This course is the second and last in the English Department's ESOL sequence. Itprepares students for ENG 100 and ENG 101 by offering intensive instruction in grammar, reading, and writing skills development. The course incorporates readings with criminal justice themes and asks students to analyzethem both orally and in writing. Students will progress from simple to more sophisticated narratives and will ulimately write an argumentative essay. The course also requires 15 hours of one-to-one tutoring plus attendance at five ESL Resource Center workshops throughout the semester.
Prerequisite: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) 121 or direct placement through testing by the ESL Resource Center.
ENGW 100. Literacy Inquiries
(3 credits, 6 contact hours per week, 6 lab hours per semester.)
This course introduces students to the literacy skills, habits, and conventions necessary to succeed at college-level work. While offering students techniques and practices of invention and revision, the course also teaches the students the historical, educational, or literary aspects of literacy as a scholarly topic. For example students may study issues of prison literacy, educational policies of literacy, or representations of literacy in literature. Practice ACT exams are also given throughout course.
ENG 101. Composition I: Exploration and Authorship: An Inquiry-based Writing Course
(3 credits, 3 contact hours per week.)
This composition course introduces students to the skills, habits, and conventions necessary to prepare inquiry-based research for college. While offering students techniques and practices of invention and revision, this theme-based composition course teaches students the expectations of college-level research, academic devices for exploring ideas, and rhetorical strategies for completing investigative writing. It is suggested that students visit the Writing Center or Center for English Language Support for at least six hours of tutoring during their English 101 course.
Prerequisite: Freshmen who have passed the ACT writing exam (7 or higher), who have completed the John Jay sequence of EAP 121 and EAP 131 courses, or who are qualified through transfer credits will be eligible for this course.
Note: English 101 is a prerequisite for all courses at the 200-level.
ENG 201. Composition II: Disciplinary Investigations - Exploring Writing across the Disciplines
(3 hours plus conferences, 3 credits.)
This composition course introduces students to the rhetorical characteristics of cross-disciplinary writing styles. Instructors choose a single theme and provide students with reading and writing assignments which address the differing literacy conventions and processes of diverse fields. Students learn how to apply their accumulated repertoire of aptitudes and abilities to the writing situations presented to them from across the disciplines.
Prerequisite: English 101 or a transferable course from another institution.
Note: English 201 is a prerequisite for all courses at the 300-level or above.
ENG 215. Poetry Writing and Reading
(3 hours plus conferences, 3 credits.)
Students learn to write poetry through reading and imitating the techniques of the great poets of the past and present. Use of fixed forms like the limerick, haiku, and sonnet to generate poetry. Variations on standard genres like the nature description, seduction poem, or aubade. Imitating catalogues, extended metaphors, tone of voice. How to publish poetry.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
ENG 216. Fiction Writing
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Supervised practice in the writing of fiction, including popular fiction, with classroom analysis and discussion of student work. Strong emphasis on dialogue and characterization techniques. Depending on student interest, specific types of fiction may be considered, such as mystery novels, Gothic romances, and science fiction.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
ENG 233. Journalism
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Journalistic writing such as news articles, editorials, reviews, interviews and featurearticles. Newspaper and magazine production are approached in theory and through actual practice.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
ENG 235. Writing for Management, Business and Public Administration
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Development of the writing skills required for careers in law, business, civil service, or public administration. Extensive practice in the various forms of correspondence, interoffice memos, informal reports, minutes of meetings, summaries, briefings, and presentations. Preparation of job application letters and résumés. Practice in proofreading, revising, editing. Development of reading comprehension through close study of business-related writings. One or more sections of English 235 will be designated as Computer Laboratory sections. Students who enroll in these sections have the opportunity to learn word processing techniques and are required to spend approximately two extra hours per week in the laboratory, outside of class time, to complete their assignments on the computer.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
ENG 245. Advanced Expository Writing
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A non-specialized follow-up to the required composition courses. Nonfiction writing that explores the interaction of structure and content, purpose and audience. Use of prewriting techniques, selfediting, peer criticism.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
ENG 250. Writing for Legal Studies
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
The course entails intensive study of and practice in writing in a variety of argument templates, using the principal rhetorical forms, with an eye toward developing effective techniques of proofreading and editing. Intensive grammar and style instruction enable students to offer global and sentence level responses to the writing of peers. One hourly weekly practicum required.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
ENG 255. Argument Writing
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Intensive study of and practice in writing in a variety of argument templates, using the principal rhetorical forms, with emphasis on developing effective techniques of proofreading and editing. Intensive grammar and style instruction enable students to offer global and sentence level responses to the writing of peers. A weekly practicum required.
Prerequisite: A grade of B+ or higher in the English 101-102 or English 101-201 sequences.
ENG 316. Advanced Argument Writing and Response: Theory and Practice
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Sequel to English 255 that combines composition practice with exposure to theories and paradigms of responses to writing. Intensive reading and discussion of theoretical texts that reflect a variety of reader-response theories and techniques as well as responses to writing in the disciplines enable students to sharpen their critical skills and become expert judges of the composition process, their own writing, and of writing across the curriculum. Weekly practicum required.
Prerequisite: English 255.
ENG 328. Forensic Linguistics: Language as Evidence in the Courts
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Forensic linguistics explores the complex relationship between linguistics and the law. The course will consider critically the role of language and its power in the legal process. It will also examine how oral and written argumentation can be used or misused to the disadvantage of social groups and thus to detriment of minorities, including women, children, and nonnnativespeakers of English. The involvement of linguists as expert witnesses in the legal process will also be explored. One court visit is required. This course is especially helpful for forensic psychology majors.
Prerequisites: English 102 or 201, any 200-level English or Literature course, and one of the following: Psychology 101, Sociology 101 or Criminal Justice 101.
LITERATURE COURSES
Prerequisites for all literature courses on the 200-level are English 101and 102. Prerequisites for all literature courses on the 300-level are English 102 and Literature 230 or Literature 231 or Literature 232 or Literature 233, unless otherwise noted. Prerequisites may be waived only by permission of the Chairperson of the Department of English.
LIT 203. New York City in Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An examination of literary works set in New York City exploring the city's strengths--its sophistication, its diversity, its intellectual resources and institutions, its freedom, and its anonymity, as well as the social and psychological problems facing its inhabitants.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 212. Literature of the African World
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Literature of the African World is a critical examination of exciting literary voices from Africa, the Caribbean and North America. Authors, such as Wole Soyinka, Ngui wa Thiong'o, Buchi Emecheta, Derek Walcott, Leopold Senghor, Michelle Cliff, Louise Bennett, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Reginald McKnight, and August Wilson, give the course its unique flavor. The readings in short fiction, prose, poetry, and drama which explore thematic concerns such as tradition vs. modernity, colonialism, rites of passage, and oral narrative traditions, enable students to gain an indispensable diasporic perspective that will enlarge their view of themselves, their world and literature.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 219. The Word as Weapon
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Is the pen mightier than the sword? An examination of the writer's approach to correcting society's ills. Readings in satire, invective, polemics, burlesque, lampoon, and muckraking bysuch writers as Swift, Dickens, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, and Joseph Heller. Students also write satires of their own.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201, and one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 223. African-American Literature (Same course as AAL 223)
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of the writing of African-Americans from colonial times to the present, with special attention to influential African-American writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Toomer, Hughes, Wright, Brooks, Ellison, Baldwin, Baraka, and Malcolm X. Readings in novels, plays, autobiographies, short stories, poems, folktales, and essays will explore a wide range of African-American aesthetic responses to life in the United States.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
The core literature baccalaureate requirement for the baccalaureate degree can be fulfilled by taking either Literature 230 or Literature 231 and either Literature 232 or Literature 233. The requirement cannot be waived or fulfilled except as indicated.
LIT 230. Classical Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of early or fundamental literature in a variety of cultures. Close readings and analysis of epics, lyrics, dramas, and sacred texts, with an eye to literary form and style as well as content. Discussion of appropriate literaryconcerns, such as heroism, divinity, sacrifice, duty, and justice.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 231. Medieval and Early Modern Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of literature from 600 through the 17th Century. Close readings and analysis of sagas, romances, plays, and poetry, with an eye to literary form and style as well as content. Discussion of appropriate literaryconcerns, such as faith, courtly love, loyalty, power, and loss.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 232. Modern Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of literature from the 18th Century to the present. Close readings and analysis of fiction, drama, and poetry, with an eye to literary form and style as well as content. Discussion of appropriate literary concerns, such as reason, freedom, idealism, materialism, and alienation.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 233. American Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of American literature from its beginnings to the present. Close readings and analysis of American fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction, with an eye to literary form and style as well as content. Discussion of appropriate literary concerns, such as liberty, individualism, utopianism, race, and success.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 290. Special Topics
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A single-semester course dealing with an announced topic, theme, or author.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 309. Contemporary Fiction
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Writers today try to make sense out of the moral, cultural, political, and social changes in the world since World War II. A study of novels and short stories written in the past several decades by major international authors such as Marquez, Roth, Amis, Rushdie, Mishima, Oe, Mailer, Allende, Morrison.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 313. Shakespeare
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of representative plays typifying each period of Shakespeare's development.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 315. American Literature and the Law
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
The course will bring together American literary and legal texts in order to examine the ways in which the two can illuminate each other. It will focus on the works of American literature that take law as their central theme; works that include trials or are inspired by famous cases; works that have lawyers as protagonists; and works that address issues of law and justice. Students will also bring methods of literaryanalysis to bear on the study of important cases or legal decisions in order to understand the rhetoric of law, the unstated assumptions contained in it, and the voices excluded from it.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 316. Gender and Identity in Literary Traditions
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
This course will provide a close examination of how gender functions to shape both authorship and literary texts. Students will investigate how writers use conventions of sex and gender, and how readers critically assess these literary representations. The instructor will choose the genre and periodization in any given semester. Emphasis will be divided between primary literary texts, relevant historical documents, and selected theoretical commentary.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 327. Crime and Punishment in Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A study of works treating the theme of crime and related matters, such as motivation, guilt, and responsibility. Works are considered from the psychological, sociological, and philosophical points of view, as well as from the purely literary standpoint. Authors include Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Dostoevski, Poe, Melville, Burgess, Capote.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 340. The African-American Experience in America: Comparative Racial Perspectives (Same course as AAL 340.)
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An examination of African-American life through the works of both African-American and white writers. The course will look at the inter-relationships and differences between African-American and white perspectives. Authors such as Du Bois, Melville, Wright, Baldwin, Twain, Faulkner, Ellison, Welty, Morrison and Styron may be read.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 352. New Fiction
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
World literature from the closing decades of the 20th Century and the onset of the 21st. Readings can include Pamuk, Smith, Whitehead, Phillips, Roy, Ishiguro, Kingsolver.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 360. Mythology in Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Examination of mythological themes like the creation of the world, the loves of gods with mortals, the descent into the underworld, and the heroic quest as they appear in such writers as Homer, Ovid, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Yeats. Greek, Roman, Teutonic, Indian, and African myths areamong those studied.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 362. The Bible as Literature
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A non-doctrinal introduction to the Bible. Selected books from the Old and New Testament approached as literary and historical documents. Structure, characters, themes, and archetypes. Modern translation to be used.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 390. Individual Reading
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Submission of a project of reading and research for approval by the instructor. A paper and periodic conferences are required. Special arrangements may be made to do this workover the summer.
Prerequisites: English 102 or 201, and junior standing or above.
LIT 401. Special Topics
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
Specific study of a topic chosen by the instructor and students.
Prerequisite: Any 300-level literature course, and English 102 or 201.
FILM COURSES
Special Topics in Film
These courses are a survey of significant films and major filmmakers on a special topic in film (such as New York City in film, the rebel in film, film and society), through an examination of the cinema as an artform shaping and reflecting the changing perception of its society.
LIT 283. New York City in Film
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A survey of significant films and major filmmakers on the special topic, New York City in film, through an examination of the cinema as an art form shaping and reflecting the changing perception of its society.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
LIT 284. Film and Society
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
A survey of significant films and major filmmakers on the special topic, film and society, through an examination of the cinema as an art form shaping and reflecting the changing perceptions of its society.
Prerequisite: English 102 or 201.
Film Genres
Students will undertake an in-depth study of the evolution and aesthetics of a major film genre or comparison of two major film genres (such as the gangster film, film noir, the science fiction film, road movies) through an examination of conventions of motivation, character, action, locale, and iconography. The course will emphasize the genre's film treatment of the fundamental cultural conflicts that exist in society.
LIT 323. The Crime Film
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An in-depth study of the evolution and aesthetics of two major film genres, the gangster film and the film noir, though an examination of conventions of motivation, character, action, locale, and iconography. The course will emphasize the genre film's treatment of the fundamental cultural conflicts that exist in society.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 324. Road Movies
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An in-depth study of the evolution and aesthetics of a major film genre, road movies, through an examination of conventions of motivation, character, action, locale, and iconography. The course will emphasize the genre film's treatment of the fundamental cultural conflicts that exist in society.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 325. Science Fiction Film
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An in-depth study of the evolution and aesthetics of a major film genre, the science fiction film, through an examination of conventions of motivation, character, action, locale, and iconography. The course will emphasizethe genre film's treatment of the fundamental cultural conflicts that exist in society.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
Filmmakers
Students will undertake an intensive study of the work and vision of a major filmmaker or comparison of two major filmmakers through an examination of theme, style, structure, and view of cinema. Special emphasis will be placed on the recurrent artistic concerns as well as the philosophic, psychoanalytic, and political concerns that identify the work of an important cinematic author.
LIT 330. Alfred Hitchcock
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An intensive study of the work and vision of Alfred Hitchcock through an examination of theme, style, structure, and view of cinema. Special emphasis will be placed on the recurrent artistic concerns as well as the philosophic, psychoanalytic, and political concerns that identify the work of an important cinematic author.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 331. Steven Spielberg
(3 hours, 3 credits.)
An intensive study of the work and vision of Steven Spielberg through an examination of theme, style, structure, and view of cinema. Special emphasis will be placed on the recurrent artistic concerns as well as the philosophic, psychoanalytic, and political concerns that identify the work of an important cinematic author.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
LIT 332. Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee
(3 hours, 3credits.)
An intensive study of the work and vision of Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee through an examination of theme, style, structure, and view of cinema. Special emphasis will be placed on the recurrent artistic concerns as well as the philosophic, psychoanalytic, and political concerns that identify the work of important cinematic authors.
Prerequisite: one of the following: Literature 230, Literature 231, Literature 232, or Literature 233.
