English Department Courses

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT COURSES

ENG 91	CORE ENGLISH	3 credits (6 equated/billable), 6 hours
Prerequisites: placement test Corequisites: ENG 92, unless exam English 91 emphasizes analytical and critical thinking through writing assignments across academic disciplines. The student will learn how to use class discussions and readings as the basis for composing organized and well-developed essays. Students work in collaborative groups to analyze and challenge ideas and learn how to revise and edit their work effectively. Additionally, students will be provided with practice in grammar, vocabulary enrichment, and sentence structure. The course will support students' successful performance on the CUNY/ACT writing test and provide a foundation for further academic work.
ENG 92	DEVELOPMENTAL READING	1 credit (3 equated/billable), 3 hours
Pre-requisite: Placement test Co-requisite: ENG 91, unless exempt As the complement to ENG 91, ENG 92 is a reading coursedesigned to help students develop strategies from improving comprehension through discussions of and written responses to crossdisciplinary texts. Students will learn to become active readers, to summarize and explain their understanding of ideas, and to support their analysis with appropriate references to the readings. By the end of the semester, students will have acquired strategies for improving their reading speed and their close reading skills, and for performing successfully on the CUNY/ACT reading test.
ENG 94	SKILLS AND WRITTEN COMPOSITION	3 credits (4.5 equated/billable), 4.5 hours
Pre-requisite: A score of 6 on the ACT (Writing) and 80 or higher on the ACT (Reading). Open only to entering students without transfer credit for ENG 110. This course expedites students’ learning of the basic reading, writing and critical thinking skills necessary to pass the ACT midway through the semester and strenghtens their composing skills so they will be able to produce the increasingly complex essays expected of students in ENG 110 by the end of the semester. The course provides extensive expository writing practice using readings studied at the 110 level. Students will submit at least six revised essays in modes such as description, narration, comparison/contrast, process analysis, argumentation and cause and effect. They will be introduced to the use of print and online secondary sources and complete a research project.
ENG 110	EXPOSITORY WRITING	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisite: Passing CUNY/ACT Reading and Writing tests, or Exemption English 110, a foundational writing course, is designed to strengthen students' composing skills so that they will produce increasingly complex and better-structured essays. Reading and responding to interdisciplinary texts representing various rhetorical modes, students will practice paraphrasing and summarizing these texts, enrich their vocabulary, and improve their writing, revision, and proofreading skills. Additionally, students will be introduced to the use of print and on-line secondary sources. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to respond critically in writing, to a variety of texts, integrating their own ideas with those presented in the readings.
ENG 111	LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisite: ENG 110 or Department permission. English 111, the second semester of freshman composition and a foundational writing course, introduces students to techniques for close reading of literary texts. This course develops students' critical thinking skills through the study of literary elements such as plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism, and irony. Additionally, students will learn the Modern Language Association (MLA) system of parenthetical citation and how to incorporate quotations into their analysis of literary texts; they will also complete a research paper by consulting both print and on-line sources. By the end of the semester, students will be able to interpret and write critically about each of the three major genres: poetry, fiction, and drama.
ELECTIVE COURSES
ENG 200	MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE	3 credits. 3 hours
Pre-requisite: ENG 111 This course introduces the student to major English writers of prose, poetry and drama from the late Middle Ages to the end of the English Renaissance. It lays the foundation for further studies in English at the 300 and 400 levels. Students will acquire mastery of the Modern Language Association (MLA) system of parenthetical citation and will work at incorporating quotations and paraphrases into their analysis of literary texts. Students will complete a research paper using referred literary sources. A consistent and correct use of university-level English is required to pass the class.
ENG 202	TECHNICAL WRITING	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisite: ENG 111 In this course, students will perform tasks related to the technical writing process in order to write effectively on the job. In addition to learning to generate written documents for the technical and business professions, this course will focus on skills such as defining purpose, understanding readers, understanding clients, constructing effective sentences and paragraphs, composing drafts, testing drafts and revising the quality of finished documents. At the completion of the course, students will be able to create communications that willsucceed in the workplace.
ENG 203	CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisite: ENG 111 This course, offered in a workshop format, will introduce students to various aspects of the craft of writing fiction, poetry and personal memoir/autobiography. Reading from the work of established writers will serve as a frame for explorations ofdifferent genres, focusing on the essentials of literary criticism as a means of understanding these works. Students will be encouraged to pursue publication possibilities in small presses as well as online websites and e-zines. Weekly reading and writing assignments, oral presentations and midterm assessment of the rewriting process, a portfolio of the student’s completed work and instructor conferences are required.
ENG 204	CREATIVE NON-FICTION: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisite: ENG 111 A creative writing course and workshop in autobiography and memoir, the course will focus on critical reading of significant works in the genre, on the tools used to craft these works and analysis of how personal experience can be intertwined with first hand research and secondary sources in creative ways. Students will be expected to practice the craft and submit original creative works to workshop through several short essays and to produce one full length essay. A final portfolio will include the full-length essay of 8-12 pages as well as critiques, several short papers and assignments produced and developed through workshops.
ENG 210	STUDIES IN FICTION	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisite: ENG 110 or Department permission. In this course students will further develop skills in the interpretation and written analysis of full-length works by major modern writers such as Dostoyevsky, Ellison, Morrison, Kafka, Woolf, García Marquez, Allende, and Atwood. Students will write several short comparative essays and will complete one research paper using print and on-line sources as well as conventions for citation. By the semester's end, students will be able to compare the various writers' works, interpreting their themes, narrative styles, characterizations, and points of view, with attention to each author's particular contribution to what is considered modern fiction.
ENG 211	THE MODERN AMERICAN NOVEL	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisites: ENG 111 or Department permission Students will analyze major works of 20th century American fiction, identifying their themes, styles, and structural components. A variety of male and female novelists will be< studied in relation to their cultural milieu. Students will write short papers and complete one research project using print and on-line resources. By the end of the semester, students will have broadened their perspective of American literature and culture as seen through the works studied.

ENG 212	STUDIES IN DRAMA	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission In this course students will read, discuss, and closely analyze works by playwrights such as Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, Moliere, Marivaux, Ibsen, Strindberg, Williams, Brecht, Miller, Hansberry, Wilson, and Deveare Smith. Students will write short comparative essays and complete one research paper using print and on-line sources as well as conventions for citation. By the end of the semester, students will have gained an understanding of dramatic genres such as comedy and tragedy, and theatrical movements from antiquity to modern times.
ENG 213	SHAKESPEARE	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission In this course, students will examine Shakespeare's life within the cultural and political influences of his age and trace the evolution of the playwright's career through close study of selected Shakespearean histories, comedies, and tragedies. Students will be encouraged to attend performances and/or view videotapes of his plays. Development of the students' ability to read and understand the Shakespearean play within the genre of drama is a primary objective of the course. Students will write short papers and complete one research project using print and on-line resources. Upon completion of this writing-intensive course, students will have gained an in-depth understanding of the playwright, his works, and the time and place in which he lived and wrote.
ENG 214	READINGS IN POETRY	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission An introduction to the genre of poetry, this course will expose students to a selection of poems that are generally regarded as classics. Students will learn to summarize, discuss, and interpret these poems, thus increasing their familiarity with ways that various poets use image, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, pun, verse, and rhythm. To demonstrate their control of the course materials, students will write explications and critical commentary about selected texts, at times using print and on-line sources as well as conventions for citation. By the end of the semester, students will be able to use the critical terms taught in class to analyze a range of poetry, spanning several centuries, cultures, and representing different forms.
ENG 215	THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE [video] Meet the Professor	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 This course introduces students to the literary meaning and use of the central religious text of Western literature, the Judeo-Christian Bible, and will examine the textual history and exegesis of selection of Biblical texts, for example: Genesis, the Book of Job, the Book ofJonah, the Song of Songs, the Psalms, the Gospel according to Matthew, and Revelations- and consider their use in contemporary texts. Students will acquire the mastery of the Modern Language Association (MLA) system of parenthetical citation and will work at incorporating quotations and paraphrases into their analysis of literary texts. Students will be required to complete a research paper using refereed literary sources. A consistent and correct use of university-level English is required to pass this class.
ENG 221	INTRODUCTION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission This course will introduce students to the culturally diverse body of children's literature as a field of literary study. After a brief historical introduction in which the development of writing for children is presented within a socio-cultural context, students will read and respond, orally and in writing, to outstanding selections reflecting the multicultural heritage of this literature. Through lectures, class discussion, and supplemental textbook and journal article readings, students will be exposed to folklore, fairy tales, fantasy, poetry, and realistic fiction. As a final project, students will conduct an in-depth genre, author, or cultural study by using print and on-line resources. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate literature written for readers from pre-school through young adult.
ENG 222	LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission Co-requisite: Appropriate knowledge of or a course in Spanish. This course will introduce students to Latin American literature in translation, covering fiction, poetry, and the novel from the perspective of multiculturalism and pluralism. Using literary and cultural analysis, students will examine texts for social, racial, and gender issues and explore problems in translation through discussion and papers. Students will also complete one research project using print and on-line resources. Upon completion of this course, students will not only have sharpened their textual analysis skills, but will also have gained a better understanding of Latin American literature and culture, and translation.
ENG 223	WOMEN IN LITERATURE	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission In thiscourse, students will examine representations of women in literature from several historical periods and cultures, reading works by well-known and little-known women writers. Analyzing literature from the perspective of feminist studies, students will consider why women writers have been excluded from the canon, how patriarchal culture and gender stereotyping have influenced women's lives, and women's imaginative writing. This course requires students to complete a research paper using conventions for citation and both print and on-line sources. By the end of the semester, students will be able to identify important differences and similarities in the work of diverse women writers and understand of obstacles faced and contributions that women writers have made over time.
ENG 224	LITERATURE AND PSYCHOLOGY	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111, PSY 1032 or Department permission In this course, students will analyze works of literature by using psychological concepts to illuminate symbol, motivation, themes, and narrative strategy. Assigned literary texts will focus students' attention on subjects such as psychoanalytic theory, adolescent development, group processes, scapegoating, madness, and moral decision-making. Students will demonstrate their grasp of course materials by writing interdisciplinary essays, including one researched essay in which they use conventions for citation and both print and on-line sources. At the end of the course, students will have acquired an ability to interpret literary works through the various psychological perspectives studied in class.
ENG 225	LITERATURE OF THE BLACK AMERICAN	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission Students will study autobiography, fiction, poetry, and drama of African Americans by examining the works of writers such as Douglass, Jacobs, Wright, Baldwin, Hurston, and Hansberry. In this course, students will demonstrate their understanding of the development of African American literature by completing several short essays and one research paper using print and on-line sources. By the semester's end, students will be able to analyze and compare different works with special attention to the dynamics of history, culture, and the production of literary texts in the African American community of writers.
ENG 226	LITERATURE OF SCIENCE FICTION	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission This course will introduce students to alternate visions of society. It will move from Plato's Republic to works by Shelley, Bellamy, Clarke, Atwood, Huxley, and Bradbury. Students will explore the role of science, the technological explosion, world famine, gender roles, human relationships, and the location of power sites in visions of possible futures. Where available, films will be shown. There will be four to six short papers and a research paper using print and on-line resources. Upon completion of this course, students will have gained a sharper insight into the relationship between time present and time future and the role of literature in imaginatively examining philosophical, scientific, and cultural issues.
ENG 227	LITERATURE AND AGING	3 credits, 3 hours
Pre-requisites: ENG 111 or Department permission. This course will introduce students to issues affecting senior citizens: the loss and reconstruction of identity, interpersonal relationships, illness, and death. Readings will include poetry, fiction, and drama from authors such as Welty, Walker, Saul Bellow, Vonnegut, Olsen, and Albee. Four to six short papers and/or exams will be required, together with a research project using print and on-line resources. Upon completion of this course, students will have acquired an in-depth perspective on the aging process as depicted in literature, which they may apply in their personal as well as professional lives.

ENG 228	LITERATURE AND ILLNESS	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission The term pathologies is here used to cover the whole range of physical, mental, psychic and spiritual conditions that are regarded as afflictions or differ markedly from "the norm," whether the "norm" is defined in terms of individual, social, cultural or religious values. The course will focus upon selected literary works in English from different periods and cultures in which various pathologies are presented. These texts will be analyzed through group discussion and short and long writing assignments in order to understand how images and themes of dis-ease are presented in literature, and what social, political, cultural, moral and religious uses they serve. Attention will be paid to cultural assumptions about health and healing, the inter-relatedness of medical and narrative discourse, and to viewing literature itself as a healing art. No specialized medical or psychological knowledge will be required, but students will be encouraged to familiarize themselves with the conditions described in the texts chosen for study. For this purpose the use of Internet resources as well as conventional print and film media will be encouraged.
ENG 230	LANGUAGE, CULTURE & SOCIETY	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission This course will introduce students to some of the major issues that arise from the cultural, anthropological, and political aspects of language. Through assigned readings such as autobiographical excerpts, newspaper articles, and scholarly sociolinguistic texts, students will examine why they speak the way they do, what effect this has on other people, and what factors make their language what it is. The class will define and discuss such concepts as dialects, bidialectalism, bilingualism, bilingual education, and official English. Students will be asked to make connections to language issues in their native countries or geographical regions. Students will write short papers and complete at least one research project using print and on-line sources. Upon completion of this course, students will have gained an understanding of how language and dialects influence the ways in which people are perceived and treated by different sectors of society.
ENG 242	WRITING ABOUT MUSIC	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 or Department permission This course focuses on ways to think and write about music. The course is generally divided into reading and listening assignments in preparation for writing assignments. Assignments will include descriptive and narrative writings, and expository and analytical assignments about music and its relationship to culture. In addition, students will explore various themes and topics, such as the connection between music, narrative, and cultural memory, and music as an expression of romantic and national feeling. Students will develop the ability to think and write about the means of goals of musical expression as well as the components of musical forms in their most inclusive sense. Additionally, the course will develop the students' writing through musical perceptivity and sharpen the students' awareness of the relation between writing and musical thought, expression and performance.
ENG 250	SPECIAL TOPICS - GENRE	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 111 This class will familiarize students with the major elements of a particular genre - defined by Merriam-Webster as a category of literary composition characterized by a particular form, style or content - through the study of representative works according to a variety of topics and themes. Students will consider works both in terms of their individual merits and their contributions to the genre. In addition, students will consider the relationship between form and theme, and the influences of culture and history on the development of the genre. The class will enhance students' critical understanding of the elements of a particular genre (for example, formal rules of composition, stock characters, and typical settings), and how these contribute to the formulation of its predominant themes.
WGS 100	INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN'S STUDIES	3 credits, 3 hours
Prerequisite: ENG 110 An interdisciplinary course that draws on literature, history, psychology, science, economic and feminist theory. Introduction to Women's Studies examines cultural assumptions about gender (e.g., femininity, masculinity, sexual preference), promoting new ways for students to look at the construction of knowledge from woman-centered and feminist perspectives. Readings and written assignments emphasize women's diverse experiences (across races, religions, cultures and economic class), masculinity studies and gay studies. Topics include: woman's nature in myth and symbol; historical and cultural sources of gender oppression; the family circle; women and work; new visions for the future. At the end of the course, students will be able to discuss from both a theoretical and personal standpoint how and why one's gender shapes nearly all aspects of one's life; additionally, students will gain understanding of women's studies: its evolution, current debates within the field, and its application to other fields of study.