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Upper Division Courses - Spring 2010
Welcome
Please note: the following list is subject to change and may not be comprehensive. Please check the online course listing for the full roster along with information on class days/times and room numbers. The course location is at UHD Main Campus unless otherwise noted.
Course Titles
ENG 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing (Schmadeka)
ENG 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing (Ogle)
ENG 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing (Duncan)
ENG 3305 - Essay Writing (Howard)
ENG 3305 - Essay Writing (Ellwanger)
ENG 3311 - Studies in Poetry (Kimberly)
ENG 3311 - Studies in Poetry (Howard)
ENG 3312 - Studies in Fiction: The Short Story (Choudhuri)
ENG 3313 - Studies in Drama (Proudfit)
ENG 3318 - Studies in English Grammar (Duncan)
ENG 3318 - Studies in English Grammar (Williams)
ENG 3326 - Proposal Writing (Ogle)
ENG 3333 - Writing for the Media (Chiaviello)
ENG 3334 - Writing for Presentation (Stokes)
ENG 3340 / HUM 3310 - Cultural Criticism: Cultures of Capitalism (Murray)
ENG 3363 - Studies in 19th Century United States Literature and Culture (Dressman)
ENG 3377 - Twentieth Century British Literature and Culture: London (LaRose)
ENG 4306 - Science Writing (Ogle)
ENG 4309 - Advanced Creative Writing (Davidson)
ENG 4311 - Contemporary Literature: Postmodernism (Kintzele)
ENG 4313 / HUM 4313 - Psychology through Literature (Harned)
ENG 4314 - Major Authors: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (Aimone)
ENG 4322 - Editing, Rewriting, and Copyreading (Duncan)
ENG 4341 - Advanced Postcolonial Studies (Lund)
ENG 5340 - Project Management (Schmadeka)
English 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing
Wayne Schmadeka
Two sections:
Hybrid
M 8:30 - 9:45 a.m., room A409 (CRN 21376)
Hybrid
T 10:00 - 11:15 a.m. room A406 (CRN 21408)
Prerequisite
Three credit hours of English literature.
Description
Students will study and practice writing the types of documents frequently used in the workplace, including cover letters and resumes, proposals, progress reports, formal reports, and PowerPoint presentations.
Learning Outcomes
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Research, design, create and prepare informal and formal documents suitable for the workplace
-
Balance visual and verbal elements of communication in documents and oral presentations
-
Use current technology to search for and report information
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Edit documents for correctness
-
Respond usefully to others' writing
Major assignments include writing
-
Cover letters and resumes in response to job announcements
-
A proposal for a recommendation/feasibility report
-
A progress report
-
A recommendation/feasibility report
Recent examples of reports include
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Recommending implementation of JROTC programs at HISD junior high schools
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Evaluating whether it is better for a student to remodel her existing home or build a new home
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Recommending enhancements to security for UHD students, staff, and faculty
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Recommending expansion of recycling in Houston
Textbook
Jones, D., and Lane, K. Technical Communication. 7th ed. New York : Pearson Education, 2002. ISBN: 0205325211.
Recommended Resources
Much of the work for these hybrid courses will be done online. It will be helpful to have Internet access from wherever you plan to complete most of your coursework.
English 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing
Richard Ogle
Two sections:
MW 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. (CRN 21797)
MW 2:30 - 3:45 p.m. (CRN 21798)
Prerequisite
Three credit hours of English literature
Description
Study and practice of formal and informal presentation of technical information, with emphasis on report writing. Students will practice writing the types of documents used in the workplace, including resumes, letters, proposals, formal reports and PowerPoint presentations.
Learning Outcomes
- Research, design, create and prepare informal and formal documents suitable for the workplace
- Balance visual and verbal elements of communication in documents and oral presentations
- Use current technology to search for and report information
- Edit documents for correctness
- Respond usefully to others' writing
Major assignments include writing
- Resumes and transmittal letters in response to job advertisements
- A proposal
- A progress report
- A feasibility study report
- Instructions or procedures
Textbook
Markel, Mike, Technical Communication, 8th ed., Boston, Bedford/St. Martin's (2007). ISBN: 978-0-312-44197-5.
English 3302 – Business and Technical Report Writing
Mike Duncan
Two sections:
TR 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 pm. (CRN 21409)
TR 1:00 - 2:15 p.m. (CRN 21411)
Technical communication can be described as the process of creating, shaping, and communicating technical information so that people can use it safely, effectively, and efficiently. In this class, we’ll consider principles of composition, document design, research, critical thinking, ethics, and rhetoric when applied to some basic technical/business communication genres, such as proposals, reports, memos, letters, e-mails, definitions, instructions, manuals, and job-application materials. You will write examples of these genres as well as engage in collaborative writing.
Required Books:
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard. Technical Communication Today, 3rd edition. Longman, 2010.
Catherine Howard
Th 3:00 - 5:45 p.m.
CRN: 21859
Lone Star College-Cy Fair
This course is designed for students in all departments who would like further training in expository writing. It is not an "extension" of freshman English, but a course on style. In addition to writing and revising seven to eight papers, we will be doing substantial reading and rhetorical analysis of expository prose, as well as written exercises on style and rhetoric. The course will culminate in an extended "Survey Analysis of Professional Journals" in each student's academic field. Because this is a workshop-style course and because we only meet once a week, class attendance is expected.
We will read nonfiction essays by authors such as E.B. White, William Golding, Joan Didion, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, J.S. Mill, James Baldwin, Jessica Mitford, Vladimir Nabokov, Lewis Thomas, John Locke, Susanne K. Langer, Paul Fussell, Kathleen Norris, Jonathan Swift, Annie Dillard, Maya Angelou, John Donne, Plato, Eudora Welty, Martin Luther King, and Michel de Montaigne.
Books:
- Richard Marius, A Writer's Companion, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN: 0-07-304015-0
- Robert Miles / Marc Bertonasco / William Karns, Prose Style: A Contemporary Guide, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. ISBN: 0-13-713181-X
- Linda H. Peterson / John C. Brereton, eds., The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction, 12th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-393-92948-5
Course Prerequisite: three hours of literature (one ENG sophomore literature survey)
Adam Ellwanger
TR 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
The purpose of English 3305 is to refine and expand your understanding of how to write a successful essay. The course presumes that you have a basic understanding of the form of the essay and the rhetorical assumptions that guide the composition of the typical essay. Toward the end of enhancing your abilities as a writer, we will conduct frequent writing experiments in class that will ask you to develop specific strategies related to invention, arrangement, style, and argumentation. You will also be required to complete regular writing assignments outside of class.
Because being a good writer demands strong reading skills, we will also work to improve your abilities as a reader. Many of the assigned readings will be longer, somewhat difficult essays. However, through prolonged and sustained engagements with these texts, students will have numerous opportunities to find interesting ways to respond to each text. The major writing assignments in the course will ask students to synthesize much of their writing on a particular text, a synthesis that will ultimately form the basis of a meaningful, informed, written response to our readings.
In addition to completing all reading and writing in a timely fashion, students will be asked to maintain a willingness to return to texts, to read and re-read, and to dedicate significant energy to revision. Frequent participation in class discussions will be expected from everyone, and regular quizzes will give students opportunities to demonstrate their growing understanding of each essay.
English 3310 - Studies in Non-Fiction Writing: Islam and Christianity: Inter-Religious Dialogue
Paul Fortunato
Thursday 4:00 - 6:45 p.m.
CRN: 11376
We will be reading memoirs, essays, and exchanges dealing with the following themes:
- How does traditional religion fit in the modern world, in the democratic public sphere?
- What is the future place of religious discourse in Europe and North America, given a situation that Jurgen Habermas has called “Post-Secular”?
- How can Christians and Muslims work together in order to promote peaceful solutions to world problems?
Some of the texts:
Ghosh, A. In an Antique Land.
Ramadan, T. Western Muslims and the Future of Islam.
Habermas and Ratzinger. The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion.
Percy, W. Lost in the Cosmos.
Blankenhorn, D. Ed. The Islam / West Debate.
Selected essays by: Slavoj Zizek, T.S. Eliot, and Stanley Fish, as well as exchanges in the on-going Catholic-Muslim Forum.
Service-Learning Opportunity: This means you will participate in public symposia, discussions, and film screenings as part of the course.
English 3311 - Studies in Poetry
Dr. Caroline Kimberly
TR 8:30 - 9:45 p.m.
CRN: 21809
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way? –Emily Dickinson
What makes poetry “poetry”? How has poetry changed over the years? Does it speak to the heart or to the head? Can it address both, and if so, what tools can we use to understand it more easily? This class will serve as an overview of the poetic form as a literary genre, giving students both the tools and the historical context necessary to better understand poetry on a variety of levels. Most importantly, this course hopes to make poetry more accessible and interesting to the student, both through an analysis of content and study of the poets themselves. From the beginnings of poetry written in the English language and continuing through the twenty-first century, we will cover both British and American canonical poetry and noncanonical authors of increasing importance. Course requirements will include class discussion and in-class work, in-class presentations, essays, and a midterm and final exam.
English 3311 - Studies in Poetry
Catherine Howard
MW 1:00 - 2:15 pm
CRN: 21657
The goal of this course is to learn to read poetry so that it makes better sense. In order to do this, we will analyze lyric, narrative, and dramatic poetry, paying attention not only to rhyme and meter but also to tone, diction, irony, figures of speech, sound effects (alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and so on), imagery, symbols, and archetypes. In addition, we will study particular forms (such as sonnet, ottava rima, and haiku), historical contexts, and literary techniques.
We will read a range of British, American, and world authors, including comparing various translations of works not written in English. Coursework will include papers, tests, research, and presentations. One objective will be to articulate why a poem says what it does in the way that it does—why it’s not the same as it would be if it were written as an essay or a prose paragraph or a story—or, as John Ciardi says, “how a poem means.”
Book:
Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. ISBN: 0-20-568612-5.
Course Prerequisite:
Three hours of literature (one ENG sophomore literature survey)
English 3312 - Studies in Fiction: The Short Story
Sucheta Choudhuri
TR 7:00 - 8:15 p.m.
This course is an introduction to the elements of fiction through the study of the short story. Along with a brief historical overview of the short story from the 19th century to the present, the students will learn to critically analyze the formal aspects of the short story: plot, character, setting, point of view, style, theme etc. Coursework will also involve the use of a range of theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the short story. In this course, students will become familiar with a variety of genres of stories from different geographical locations. Readings may include stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Nadine Gordimer and Junot Diaz.
English 3313 - Studies in Drama: Drama, Theatre, and Other Worlds
Dr. Scott Proudfit
MW 10:00 - 11:15 a.m.
In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, gloomy Jaques draws a famous comparison: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” However, Jaques (and therefore Shakespeare) cannot claim to have discovered this metaphor. Indeed, since the first actor stepped onto the stage, it seems that playwrights and audiences have compared their world to a stage and their stage to the world. In this class, we will examine how theatre has helped us (and continues to help us) define and challenge the horizons of our “worlds” and our positions within what we may consider our worlds. Prior to the nineteenth century, the relationship between the world and the theatre stage was typically assumed to be one to one: one unified world captured by one unified stage. In this class, we will concentrate on the shift of this world motif after the eighteenth century from the presentation of a single world onstage to the examination of multiple worlds.
English 3316 - The History of Rhetoric
Adam Ellwanger
MW 10:00 - 11:15 a.m.
The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that the skilled use of rhetoric meant that a speaker could see the available means of persuasion in any given situation. While many contemporary rhetoricians agree with Aristotle, there has been an on-going historical debate over the definition of rhetoric, the role of rhetoric in social life, and proper uses of rhetoric in democracy. Over the course of the semester we will read a wide variety of rhetorical texts from the ancient period to our era. As we read, we will discuss how the theory and practice of rhetoric have changed over the past 2,500 years, and how those changes have helped to shape many of our ideas about the world in which we live today. At the conclusion of the course, students will have mastered a basic rhetorical vocabulary. They will also understand the major positions in the most enduring debates on rhetoric. Finally, they will have a general knowledge of the major historical developments in rhetoric.
English 3316 will be of practical use to students of all disciplines. Want to learn to persuade your mother to stop calling you every day? Our discussions of rhetoric will help. How can you persuade your boyfriend to put the toilet seat down? Studying rhetoric can help you there too. This course assumes that students have not done any intensive study of rhetoric in the past. There will be substantive reading assignments for each class. Frequent participation in class discussions is expected. Students will often be asked to compose short written responses to the readings. The work of the semester will culminate in a longer researched essay.
English 3318 - Studies in English Grammar
Mike Duncan
MW 10:00 - 11:15 a.m
CRN: 21816
This course is designed to develop your understanding and familiarity with the structure and peculiarities of English grammar. I presuppose that you, as a student, are interested and invested in how English works, but you are not necessarily aiming to become a linguist; the course content reflects this assumption by mixing traditional descriptive grammar with contemporary grammar and paying special attention to the extent of your own unconscious grammatical expertise. By the time the course is over, you should be able to diagram simple and complex English sentences through a reliable command of English syntax, understand the grammatical relationships between words and describe their functions using flexible terminology, and be able to measure the rhetorical effects of grammatical choices on readers. You should also leave ENG 3318 with a conscious appreciation of how English is made of moveable parts (words, morphemes, etc) that have certain rules for arrangement, but also with an awareness of the creativity, artistry, and considerable leeway involved in English usage.
Required Books:
Kolln, Martha and Robert Funk. Understanding English Grammar, 8th Edition. Longman, 2009.
English 3318 - Studies in English Grammar
Malcolm Williams
Two sections:
Sunday 2:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Cy Fair College
CRN: 21856
T 5:30 - 8:15 p.m.
Kingwood College
CRN: 21857
Course Description and Objectives
This 3-credit-hour course is an intensive survey of the principles and problems of English Grammar. We will begin by developing fluency in the vocabulary that is specific to a discussion of grammar and syntax. In addition, we will focus on how to apply these principles to teaching and to studies in bilingualism. Error analysis will be addressed from a structural point of view. Upon completion of this course, students should demonstrate
- ability to articulate the goals of prescriptive as well descriptive grammar,
- knowledge of the terminology of grammar and writing,
- fluency in this terminology,
- ability to find, correct, and explain common errors in language use,
- application of basic language analysis skills to words and sentences,
- ability to generate sentence trees using basic principles of phrase structure theories,
- proficiency in exploiting corpus-external and corpus-internal evidence to explain how meaning emerges from structure.
Learning grammar is not about learning to understand what sentences mean. Rather, grammar study is about learning how meaning is conveyed through a range of sentence structures and patterns. Our bodies obey the laws of physics and chemistry without our conscious knowledge. Likewise, our minds understand the rules of syntax perfectly! If grammar seems difficult to you, it is because you are applying new terminology to concepts you learned so long ago that you no longer remember the steps in the acquisition process. It is to be hoped that this course will help you regain access to those processes.
English 3326 - Proposal Writing
Richard Ogle
Thursday 5:30 - 8:15 p.m.
CRN: 21719
Prerequisite
English 3302
Description
Practice in writing and editing a series of proposals of varying scope and complexity. During the Spring 2010 semester the course will concentrate on writing grant proposals for not-for-profit organizations.
Learning Outcomes
- Learn to identify appropriate funding sources for the organization seeking support.
- Research, design, create, edit, and prepare proposals suitable for submission to funding sources.
- Learn the characteristics of proposals submitted to funding sources.
- Review material from funding organizations to improve the quality of the proposal document.
Major assignments include writing:
- Needs statement
- Funding source evaluation
- Letter proposal
- Major proposal
- Proposal evaluation
Textbook
Mikelonis, Victoria, Signe Betsiner and Constance Kampf, Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age, Pearson Longman, 2004. ISBN 0-321-16007-X.
English 3333 - Writing for the Media
Anthony Chiaviello
TR 4:00 - 5:15 p.m.
This is the introductory course you need to acquire the foundational skills for writing any kind of story for any form of media. We begin with reviewing the basics of clear writing, and then introduce media style (using the AP style guide) and the media writing environment. We apply our skills first to newswriting, the basis for all writing applications, then introduce the various applications: newspapers, magazines, the Web, advertising and public relations, and broadcast media. Students have the opportunity try their hand at each type of writing over the course of the term, while learning what the public function of the media is in a democratic society (“The 4th Estate”). Finally, legal and ethical issues involved in media writing are addressed to emphasize the responsibility media writers have to their readers, to the community, and to the wider society. Class activity consists of regular writing assignments in the various media, with opportunities to revise and edit.
English 3334 - Writing for Presentation
Dr. Karina Stokes
MW 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
In this course, you’ll learn how to write informative, professional-level presentations for various audiences and purposes. You’ll develop visuals and other supporting materials for presentations. The class will also involve the use of current technology to search for and report information (including the Internet, databases, PowerPoint, and PhotoStory 3). On one project, students will work collaboratively on various aspects of writing production, technology use, and the review process (from generating ideas and providing critical feedback to acknowledging multiple viewpoints). Approximately 5 assignments will be completed, from writing a brief speech to introduce someone to creating professional presentations for lectures and stand-alone presentations with sound and voice-over. Tutorials will be provided for all software used. The emphasis is on creating a useful and cogent message; no public speaking is involved.
English 3340 / Humanities 3310 - Cultural Criticism: Cultures of Capitalism
Dr. Cara Murray
MW 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Recent events in the financial sector—from the collapse of the housing market to the unprecedented government bailout of Wall Street—have put the “C” word on everybody’s lips: Capitalism. What is it? How does it work? How does it make us work? How does it shape our culture? In this class, we will read classic works of cultural critics who have attempted to understand these questions: Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, David Harvey, Fredric Jameson, and Naomi Klein. Some of the subjects that we will learn about are gentrification, time/space compression, urbanization, immigration, outsourcing, imperialism, and catastrophe. Note: this course is cross-listed as HUM 3310.
English 3363 - Studies in 19th Century United States Literature and Culture
Michael Dressman
MW 8:30 - 9:45 a.m.
This course examines the works of nine nineteenth-century American authors and places them within the context of the literary and intellectual trends of the times. Poets are Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. Novelists and short story writers are Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Charles Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, and Henry James. We will also review contrastive works by other authors. There will be two papers (5 pages and 10 pages) and three exams, including the final. There will be reading and the necessity of coming prepared for discussion.
English 3377 - Twentieth Century British Literature and Culture: London
Dr. Nicole LaRose
TR 8:30 - 9:45 a.m.
How beautiful a London street is then, with its islands of light, and its long groves of darkness ...
—Virginia Woolf, “Street Haunting”
In her autobiographical essay, Virginia Woolf looks for any excuse to walk through London, and we will follow in her footsteps as we walk through British literature. As Virginia Woolf highlights, a walk through London reveals its illuminations and its dangers. Thus, this course will teach students how to better understand London’s contradictions by focusing on the literature of the twentieth century, the tumultuous and dramatic historical developments of the time, and an introduction to spatial theory. Some observers, such as London biographer Peter Ackroyd and filmmaker Patrick Keiller, use the principles of psychogeography, which explains that mapping the ever-changing spaces and cultures of the city requires discovering the historical and cultural specificity of each locale instead of obsessing over an idea of the whole. We will look at specific historic events, like the Jack-the-Ripper murders and the Blitz. We will see that the specific characters who occupy London are strange, diverse, and unusual. The historical layers, convoluted pathways, and back alleys will not overwhelm us but instead will ask us to be open to unexpected experiences. As readers are always tourists in another world, we will embrace that role and thus see how writers of twentieth-century London relate experience to place.
Texts will be selected from the following list:
Peter Ackroyd, London: A Biography
Patrick Keiller, London (1994 documentary)
Passport to Pimlico (film)
Maureen Duffy, Capital
Martin Amis, London Fields
Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (film),
The Long Good Friday (film)
Zadie Smith, White Teeth
Allen Moore & Eddie Campbell, From Hell (graphic novel)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Elizabeth Bowen, Heat of the Day
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
John Lancaster, Mr. Phillips
Students will complete bi-weekly responses, one short close reading paper, one longer research essay, and a final exam.
English 3387 - Studies in World Literature and Culture: Transatlantic Approaches to Modernity and the Avant-Garde
Dr. Antonio Garcia
TR 5:30 - 6:45 p.m.
This course will be a comparative study of a number of avant-garde movements in different cultures, including Surrealism, Dadaism, Futurism, and Vorticism. We will explore how these movements have sought to comment on the nature of modernity in public declarations (manifestos) and in fiction on the basis of experimentation in literary form. We will develop our understanding of aesthetics (i.e. the theory and philosophy of art) and of historical parameters. Supplemental readings will focus on some of the major debates surrounding the concept of the avant-garde. These debates can be divided into two categories: members of the Frankfurt School debate the realism/modernism dialectic, and major contemporary theorists reflect on how the term ‘avant-garde’ has been appropriated and misapplied by various sectors of the culture industry since the 1960s.
Texts:
Charles Baudelaire, "The Painter of Modern Life," Spleen de Paris
Andre Breton , Nadja
Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch
Octavio Paz , Poems
Haroldo de Campos, Poems
Breton, Surrealist Manifesto
Wyndam Lewis, Blast
Supplementary readings in excerpts:
Politics and Aesthetics: Debates Between Bloch, Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin, Adorno,
Martei Calinescu, Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism
Course Requirements:
Reading: Approximately 150 to 200 pages of reading per week.
Two papers: 50%
Oral Presentation(s): 30%
Participation: 20%
English 4306 - Science Writing
Richard Ogle
Online Course
CRN: 21645
Prerequisite
3 hours of literature
Description
The study and practice of documenting, reporting and presenting science in articles, audiovisual scripts, specifications, reports and proposals.
Learning Outcomes
- Learn to prepare the range of documents for scientific research projects from the initial literature review, through funding proposal and prepare a final scientific report.
- Learn to write science information in a style suitable for the general public.
- Learn appropriate uses of various types of science terminology.
- Learn how to present different types of scientific data in text, charts and tables.
- Integrate information gleaned from written sources and fieldwork.
Major assignments include writing:
- Literature review
- Research design
- Proposal
- Tables and Charts
- Scientific report
- Popular article
Textbook
Mogull, Scott A., Modern Scientific Communication, 2nd ed., Tificom, 2006. ISBN 0-9773197-1-7
English 4309 - Advanced Creative Writing
Robin Davidson
TR 1:00 - 2:15 p.m.
CRN: 21659
This course is the second in a two-course sequence of creative writing classes at the University of Houston-Downtown. In English 3309 (Creative Writing), you may have explored literary craft spanning a range of techniques, conventions, texts, centuries, and cultures. You may have tried your hand at writing poems, short fiction, an essay, or a play. The intent of English 4309 is to extend your engagement with the possibilities of language for creative and literary expression. Rather than experiment in a range of genres, this course will ask that you work with seriousness in the development of a writing project in your preferred genre—poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or drama. (This does not mean the death of experimentation, of course.) You will be asked to select books by two authors working in your field whose work you admire, and offer a discussion of your engagement with those texts. We will, as a class, explore issues of artistic inspiration, the Daimon, as well as the habits of mind which support a writer’s sustained work. And we will discuss the process of revision, editing, and publication with the goal of developing a trustworthy community of readers for your writing project.
Textbooks:
Addonizio, Kim. Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within. New York: Norton, 2009.
Boswell, Robert. The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2008.
Selected readings from:
Hirsch, Edward. The Demon and The Angel: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration. New York: Harcourt, 2002.
Lopate, Phillip. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. New York: First Anchor Books (Random House), 1995.
Requirements: A journal (writer’s notebook), your faithful presence in workshops, and a final portfolio consisting of a revised manuscript in your preferred genre.
English 4311 - Contemporary Literature: Postmodernism
Paul Kintzele
TR 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
UHS at Cinco Ranch
CRN: 21827
You should do one thing to prepare yourself for this class: if you have not seen it, go rent The Matrix. This course will explore the very latest chapter in Western (now global) culture, a chapter that is still being written as we speak. Postmodernism, in the most general sense of the term, designates certain movements in art and architecture that emerged in the wake of World War II. For some, postmodernism is a sign of cultural decay, a loss of grand, animating narratives and a slide into relativism; for others, postmodernism represents the loss of “art” itself, as cultural production becomes absorbed—seemingly without remainder—into the economic sphere. For still others, however, postmodernism is simply the only way forward, an anti-art that still retains the performative power of art and its possibility for individual and social transformation. Whether symptom or program, postmodernism is what we see when we look in the mirror today. We will thus ask the questions, “What is it, why is it there, and where can it go from here?” Our primary focus will be on the Anglo-American literary scene, as we read Fowles’s short story “The Enigma,” Ballard’s Crash, Amis’s Time’s Arrow, DeLillo’s White Noise, as well as works by Carter, Calvino, and Murakami. We will look at some representative art and architecture and read extensive theoretical selections from Jameson, Bell, Venturi, Debord, Eco, and others. Requirements: three medium-length essays, weekly quizzes.
English 4313 and Humanities 4313 - Psychology through Literature
Jon Harned
TR 10:00 - 11:15 a.m.
From this class students in literature as well as the social sciences and the other humanities will become capable practitioners of psychoanalytic criticism. We will read substantial excerpts from the most enduring writings of Sigmund Freud, those that most convincingly demonstrate the workings of an unconscious mind and disrupt complacent distinctions between the primitive and the civilized, the infantile and the adult, the normal and the neurotic, the licit and the illicit, the familiar and the alien. We will also study several pieces of psychoanalytic criticism as models for student projects. You should be prepared for an excursion into the forbidden, the deviant, the creepy, and everything we’d like to forget about ourselves but can’t—what Joseph Conrad calls “the fascination of the abomination.” You will write three relatively short analytic essays, deliver an oral report, and take two tests. Many of the readings for the course will come from articles placed on Blackboard Vista, but you should buy The Freud Reader (Norton, ISBN: 0393314030), and Moore and Fine’s Psychoanalytic Terms & Concepts (American Psychoanalytic Association, ISBN: 0300047010).
English 4314 - Major Authors: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Joseph Aimone
M 7:00 - 9:45 p.m.
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes are widely held to be among the outstanding poets of their generation among American and British poets, as well as two of the most flamboyant characters in the history of English language poetry. And while each is a major author who could well be studied under this rubric (“Major Authors”) alone in a separate single author course, few other pairings of writers could as well justify a joint consideration of their work. One is American and the other British, both have been highly influential on subsequent poets, and they both acknowledged a deep debt to each other in regard to their individual poetics and artistic achievements. They are unique for study, in that not only were they married, but their juxtaposition highlights issues about literary collaboration, biographical study of literary writers, editorial contributions to literary reception and reputation, and the poetic style associated with various terms such as "confessional," "deep image" and "American surrealism."
Tentative Calendar
Unit 1 Comparing Juvenilia (Weeks: 1, 2)
Read all juvenilia of both authors.
Unit 2 First Books (Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6)
Read each author’s first book of poems: The Colossus and Hawk in the Rain.
Unit 3 The Problem of Ariel (Weeks 7, 8)
Read both versions of Ariel, the first published version, edited by Hughes, and the reconstructed version based on the manuscript.
Unit 4 The Crow Poems, Myth and Mourning (Weeks 9, 10, 11)
The Crow poems begin appearing early, well before books (or even poems) with Crow in the title. We will study the Crow-titled books as well as early and late appearances of Crow outside those books.
Unit 5 Prometheus and Crow (Week 12, 13)
Prometheus on His Crag appears to the superficial reader to be a departure from Crow. We will consider whether such is in fact the case and the implications of that question for reading post-Crow poems.
Unit 6 Birthday Letters and the Revision of Plath (Week 14, 15)
In BL Hughes reprises the publicly understood elements of the story of his relationship with Plath.
English 4314 - Major Authors: Realism and Naturalism in America - Edith Wharton, Jack London, and Others
Dr. John H. Hudson
TR 1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
CRN: 21642
In this course, we will explore realism and naturalism in American literature. Our focus will be on two authors: Edith Wharton and Jack London. As a writer, Edith Wharton wears many hats: social novelist, novelist of manners, feminist writer, realist. She examines in her fiction the impact of environment on characters and women’s place in society, with her best work set where she grew up: Wharton’s Old New York. Jack London, best known for his tales of the Yukon and Alaska, also examines in his fiction the impact of environment on characters, but always from the perspective of a naturalist. We will be reading several novels by each author—Wharton’s The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, and Summer; London’s Call of the Wild and The Sea-Wolf—along with a selection of their short stories. We will also be reading short stories by other American realists and naturalists, including William Dean Howells, Henry James, Willa Cather, Frank Norris, Kate Chopin, Hamlin Garland, and others. Throughout the course, we will be considering a number of questions, including the following which we will turn to again and again: Through their pens, how does the fiction of Wharton and London become powerful social critique? Is naturalism simply an offshoot of realism, or does it represent a movement distinct from realism?
Students will be required to write a number of short (1-2 pg.) reaction papers, three medium-length (4-6 pgs.) essays, and a major paper (6-10 pgs.) on a research topic to be negotiated between instructor and student.
English 4322 - Editing, Rewriting, and Copyreading
Mike Duncan
TR 5:30 - 6:45 p.m
CRN: 21672
Editing can be divided into copyediting, a very detail-oriented task, and comprehensive editing, which requires a more holistic view of a document or project. We’ll focus mostly on the practical aspects of copyediting, by using copyediting/proofreading marks on print copy, as well as editing online documents. However, we’ll also discuss strategies for comprehensive editing and project management. In your final assignment, you’ll work with a real-world client on an editing task.
Course Objectives:
- Edit, copyedit, and proofread print and online documents, using standard editing marks
- Revise for clarity, concision, accuracy, as well as grammar and style conventions
- Learn essential editorial terms
- Gain familiarity with the editing profession
- Learn project management and collaboration techniques for comprehensive editing
ENG 4322 is a core requirement for the Professional Writing major and has a heavy emphasis on grammar. Accordingly, ENG 3318 – Studies in English Grammar is a recommended prequisite, along with ENG 3302 – Business and Technical Report Writing.
Required Books:
Rude, Carolyn D. Technical Editing, 4th edition. Longman, 2006.
Smith, Peggy. Mark My Words, 3rd edition. EEI Press, 1997.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, University of Chicago, 2003.
English 4341 - Advanced Postcolonial Studies
Giuliana Lund
TR 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
From the dawn of the modern era, European nations took to the seas to explore, to trade, to conquer, and to colonize. The encounters between Europeans and other peoples around the world, sometimes friendly, often hostile, eventually led to the creation of new, hybrid cultures. Postcolonial studies is an academic field that investigates the mixed cultural heritage of previously colonized nations, examining the ways in which the legacy of European domination and the struggle to achieve equality and prosperity continue to shape contemporary societies. The focus of the seminar this semester is on the history and culture of Southern Africa, and will include literature and film exploring conquest and genocide; industrialization, urbanization, and impoverishment; racism, minority rule, and apartheid; revolution, reconciliation, and transition to democracy; and the AIDS epidemic. Authors will include J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and others.
Southern African literature is not taught frequently at UHD, so students who are interested should not miss this rare opportunity to study one of the great literatures of the world. Students with an interest in World Literature, Modern History, African American Studies, or Comparative Politics should find this class particularly valuable. No previous work in postcolonial studies or African literature is expected. This is an interdisciplinary course and majors in the humanities and social sciences, as well as English, are welcome.
English 5340 - Project Management
Wayne Schmadeka
T 5:30 - 8:15 p.m., room S1099
CRN: 21438
Prerequisite
Graduate standing or permission of the Department.
Description
English 5340 (3 credit hours) involves the study and understanding of project management, with primary emphasis on understanding the fundamental principles that apply to any project. Secondary emphasis is on understanding the principals and practices that are unique to managing documentation projects.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the principles of project management
- Understand how the principles of project management apply to documentation projects
- Understand some of the skills and practices documentation managers use to manage their projects, including
- Resource management skills
- Leadership skills and practices
Major Assignments
Students select a project leader and work as a team to
- Consider ethical issues of project management
- Identify and explain key points of various readings
- Develop a project proposal
- Develop a work breakdown structure
- Develop a project schedule and plan
- Complete and present the class project
- Consider the lessons learned
Textbooks
Belker, L. and Topchick, G. First-Time Manager. 5th ed. New York: American Management Association, 2005. ISBN 0814408214 (recommended, but not required)
Dicks, S., Management Principles and Practices for Technical Communicators. New York: Pearson Education, 2004. ISBN 0321165233.
Jackall, R. Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0195060806.
Lewis, J., Fundamentals of Project Management. 3rd ed. New York: American Management Association, 2007. ISBN 0814408797.
Last updated or reviewed on 1/15/10
