English: American Language (ENG)

This course is designed to prepare students for writing at the college level in ENG 151, Academic Writing. Students will write essays and learn about the conventions expected of college-level writing. Students will be required to attend Writing Center help sessions. This course is required of students identified through placement procedures of the University or the English Department.

This course is designed to introduce students to the art and crafting of creative writing. Students will be asked to analyze and compose their own prose and poetry. Though this is not a workshop, students will have the opportunity to share and receive feedback on their work.

This course will enable students to determine a writing purpose, generate ideas to support a topic, determine an audience, develop a focus, and organize a written text. At least two papers will involve a research component through which students begin to learn the conventions of citation and documentation. Furthermore, the class will enable students to learn how purpose and audience affect the content, language, and form of a written text. The English program reserves the right to remove students from the course who do not meet the prerequisites.

This course is open to students who work on the student newspaper and/or the student literary magazine.

This course is an introductory level course for students interested in journalism. The course introduces students to markets, styles, and audiences for non-fiction writing, focusing on writing of articles for all print journalism. The course may be repeated once for credit.

This course is designed for students interested in writing poetry and fiction. Assumes the student has had an introductory course in creative writing.

This course builds upon skills developed in ENG 151 - including research, critical writing, information literacy, and argument/persuasion - while introducing students to the genres of writing most applicable to their desired majors and professional careers. Students are advised to take this course during their sophomore year. Prerequisite: Grade of C or better in ENG 151. The English program reserves the right to remove students from the course who do not meet the prerequisites.

These courses are studies in writing topics of special interest. Consult the semester schedule of classes for the selected topic for a given term.

Techniques in Craft is a specialized workshop offered on particular topics of writing. Generally offered in the two-hour format, the content varies depending on semester and professor. Example topics: graphic novels, dialog, and science fiction. Class may include some work-shopping of student work. Open to non-majors.

This course is designed to introduce students interested in majoring in Professional Writing and Communication to this field of study. Topics covered in the course include: defining professional writing and its career paths, exploring trends and scholarship in professional writing, creating and keeping a professional writing portfolio, and planning a career path in professional writing. This course is open to any students who have an interest in professional writing and is a required course for all Professional Writing and Communication majors.

This course is for students interested in writing poetry. Students written work is the subject for the course. The course may be repeated up to a maximum of 8 credits.

This course is open to students interested in writing fiction. Students written work is the subject for the course. The course may be repeated up to a maximum of 8 credits.

This course is for students interested in writing screenplays. Students written work is the subject of the course. The course may be repeated up to a maximum of 6 credits.

This course involves advanced work, primarily tutorial, and an individual writing project of some complexity.

This course is for all students who are interested in writing literary non-fiction. Assigned readings and students written work will form the basis of this writing workshop. The course may be repeated up to a maximum of 8 credits.

In this four-credit English / Communication Studies elective course, students will practice writing for performance, public speaking and delivery skills, editing both scripts and film, and collaboration with others ¿ including interdepartmentally. Students will also analyze exemplars / classics of the sketch show genre, delivering their findings in essay / public speech form. This capstone project is a collectively-produced half-hour sketch show to be aired on campus near the end of the semester, with students graded not only on the quality of their content, but on their ability to work with others and deliver on a deadline.

This course covers the business side of creative writing from the perspectives of the writer, editor, agent, and publisher, including topics such as independent presses, freelancing, contracts, copyrights, marketing, self-publishing, creating a journal, literary awards in various genres, networking, and more, as well as in-depth study of the professional roles of editors, agents, and publishers. The course will include an experiential component.

The analysis, interpretation, presentation, and effective writing of letters, memos, reports, and other types of business documents.

This online course builds upon skills developed in ENG 151 - including research, critical writing, information literacy, and argument/persuasion - while introducing students to the genres of writing applicable to writing in medical and health professions such as nursing, physical therapy, and related fields. Students are advised to take this course during their sophomore or junior year. Some experience with medical terminology is recommended but not required for this course. Students with majors related to health or medicine are invited to take this course as an alternative to English 251. Prerequisite: Grade of C or better in ENG 151. The English program reserves the right to remove students from the course who do not meet the prerequisites.

This course introduces students to the field of technical communication and some of its underlying principles (audience analysis, ethics, and document design.) Students will produce and workshop a variety of practical documents, including a resume and cover letter, a summary of a scholarly article, a set of instructions, a Web site, a proposal, and a report.

This course builds upon skills developed in the first-year and sophomore LEP writing sequence courses. The focus in this course is on advanced argumentation and persuasion for an arguments intended audience and purpose. Students will engage in critical reading and evaluation activities in addition to research and writing. In addition to being required of certain majors, this course is useful for students planning to go to graduate school or law school and is open to students of any major.

Required of all Literature majors and open to non-majors, this course reviews the history and structure of the English language and studies the process by which English and other languages change. Emphasis will be on the history, structure, and semantics of English with a review of sounds, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary.

This course, required of all Communication Arts and Literature/Secondary Education majors, but open to all English majors and minors and non-majors, introduces students to the study of linguistics and focuses on the analysis of grammar and syntax. Students will learn and apply different theories of grammar and will explore language change and choices.

This course is for students who seek experience in writing poetry beyond the introductory level. The course may be repeated up to a maximum of 8 credits.

This course is for students who wish to continue writing and studying fiction beyond the introductory level. The course may be repeated up to a maximum of 8 credits.

This course is for students who have taken Introduction to Journalism and wish to research and write articles beyond the introductory level for traditional print and online newspapers as well as print and online magazines. Course will include story development, in-depth news and feature writing, crime reporting, journalism ethics and libel law, and portfolio preparation.

This course provides students with an introduction to and practice in professional editing. The course will expose students to topics including, but not limited to, editing symbols and techniques, editing for layout and design, and editing for publication.

This course explores how artificial intelligence is transforming communication in professional settings. It emphasizes digital literacy, critical thinking and ethical responsibility as students learn to use AI tools to support and enhance professional communication. The ability to use technological tool effectively has become an important component of professional literacy in the age of artificial intelligence. Writers today must learn how to craft audience centered messages and engage intelligently with digital platforms that facilitate the generation, organization and refinement of information. This course encourages students to see AI as a collaborative tool that supports creativity and precision rather than a substitute for human thought or authorship. Students will experiment with a range of AI tools to better understand their capabilities and limitations while learning to maintain accuracy, credibility and authenticity in their work.

This class introduces students to the theory and practice of new media and asks how such technologies have changed the realities of writing creatively, academically, and professionally. We will explore questions like the history, definition, and characteristics of new media; the nature of hypertext and its implications for the writing process; the integration of text with sound and graphics; and the implications of digital media for civil society and civic engagement.

In this class students will be introduced to basic composition, conferencing, and tutoring theory and methods. Students will learn writing process theory, identification and prioritization of writing concerns, how to adapt to different writers needs, and basic conferencing communication skills. Students in this class will tutor in the Writing Center as part of their course requirements.

These courses are advanced studies in writing topics of special interest. Consult the semester schedule of classes for the selected topic for a given term.

Techniques in Craft is a specialized workshop offered on particular topics of writing. Generally offered in the two-hour format, the content varies depending on semester and professor. Example topics: graphic novels, dialog, and science fiction. Class may include some work-shopping of student work. Open to non-majors. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credits, but only a total of 4 credits can count in the English or Professional Writing majors.

The primary purpose of this course is to provide students with theoretical knowledge about how to teach writing. Students will read a variety of materials regarding composition theory and pedagogy, with the goal of developing their own philosophy about the teaching of writing. As a means of helping them to develop this philosophy, and in order for them to develop greater awareness and understanding of the writing process, students in this course will also be required to tutor in the Writing Center for course credit. This course is the capstone course for Communication Arts and Literature/Secondary Education majors.

In this course students will develop and revise a portfolio of professional works. Students will learn about the history and dynamic nature of the professional writing field by exploring its ethical and social dimensions as well as synthesizing what has been learned in past classes about written, oral, and visual communication elements. This course is the capstone course for Professional Writing and Communication majors.

Independent work is available only to students with special needs or exceptional ability.

This course is the required capstone all English majors in the concentrations of Literature and Creative Writing. On the Lit side, it requires an independent study based on the students chosen area of Lit (a major figure or particular period, for instance). On the CW side, it requires assembling and revising a substantial and representative portfolio of the students best work in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting, and/or essays, along with an introductory critical essay about the students study of writing. As part of the creative writing capstone, this class culminates in a required public reading from the students portfolio.

The internship is designed for students who wish to do internships in writing-related fields such as publishing, journalism, professional writing, or other areas as approved by the department.

This is an advanced study in topics of interest. Consult the semester schedule of classes for the selected topic for a given term. Up to 4 credits of any Special Topics may be applied to a graduate degree with permission of the English Department and the Graduate Dean.

Special topics courses in English allow students to pursue interests in various fields, including composition and rhetoric, literature, and literacy when dedicated graduate courses are not offered by the Department.

This five-week course offers one graduate credit in English, and requires at least one full day of attendance at the annual Minnesota Writing and English conference. Students will choose a concept presented at the conference as a research focus for the course, and then produce an annotated bibliography of fifteen peer-reviewed journal articles and a formal research paper at least fifteen pages in length. This course may be repeated two times, so long as the concept(s) explored differ significantly enough to require completely new research each time the course is repeated.

A graduate course in which students will learn some of the key issues related to digital writing; understanding effective digital writing environments and assignments for students; evaluate digital writing tools for particular pedagogical and writing goals; and develop pedagogically-sound assessment procedures for digital writing assignments.

This course provides graduate students with an introduction to concepts integral to the discipline of rhetoric and composition. By exploring the terms rhetoric, literacy, and composition, students will be exposed to the fairly recent development of the study of written discourse as a key area within the broader field of English studies. Students will also have the opportunity to apply these concepts to the history and practice of teaching and assessing writing.

This is a graduate writing course that introduces students to the research method of autoethnography. Students will have the opportunity to learn how the self-reflexive practice of autoethnography can be used as valid means for studying the efficacy of the self in a professional context such as a classroom. Students will be required to apply this learning by authoring an autoethnographic study related to some aspect of their work as English teachers, tutors, students or scholars.

This is an advanced study in topics of interest. Consult the semester schedule of classes for the selected topic for a given term. Up to 4 credits of any Special Topics may be applied to a graduate degree with permission of the English Department and the Graduate Dean.