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PSU Bulletin - ENG Courses PSU Bulletin - WR Courses Office of the Registrar Course Schedule Academic Calendar The English Department offers a wide variety of English literature ("ENG") and writing ("WR") courses each term. Listed below are extended course descriptions for the Department's course offerings for the upcoming terms. You can review extended course descriptions for past terms at our course descriptions archive (https://www.pdx.edu/english/course-descriptions-archive) , and can find official English (http://pdx.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2017-18/Bulletin/Courses/Eng-English) and Writing (http://pdx.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2017-2018/Bulletin/Courses/Wr-Writing) course descriptions in the PSU Bulletin.
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Before you register, review the Department's course registration policies (https://www.pdx.edu/english/course-registration-policies) . You may also wish to review the Department's Statement on Academic Integrity (https://www.pdx.edu/english/sites/www.pdx.edu.english/files/AcademicIntegrity.pdf) . You can find more complete information about course schedules, meeting times, locations, and registration at the Registrar's Course Selection page (https://www.pdx.edu/registration/course-selection) . NOTE: The course descriptions below will be updated periodically with more-specific descriptions supplied by instructors, so check back from time to time for more information.
Spring 2018 Course Descriptions Undergraduate English Courses (#Undergraduate English) Graduate English Courses (#Graduate English) Undergraduate Writing Courses (#Undergraduate Writing) Graduate Writing Courses (#Graduate Writing)
Undergraduate English Courses ENG 205-001 SURVEY ENGLISH LIT II Katherine McAlvage This is the first course in a sequence of two (ENG 204 and ENG 205) and covers the Enlightenment through the Victorian period. ENG 260-001 INTRO TO WOMEN'S LIT Sara Appel Introduction to the texts and contexts of women's literature. This is the same course as WS 260 and may be taken only once for credit. ENG 300-003 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS Anoop Mirpuri Emphasizes skills in close reading, formal analysis, the specialized study of literary genres, argumentation, and the process of drafting, revising, and editing academic essays. Required for, but not restricted to, English majors. ENG 300-001 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS William Knight Emphasizes skills in close reading, formal analysis, the specialized study of literary genres, argumentation, and the process of drafting, revising, and editing academic essays. Required for, but not restricted to, English majors. ENG 300-002 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS Thomas Fisher Emphasizes skills in close reading, formal analysis, the specialized study of literary genres, argumentation, and the process of drafting, revising, and editing academic essays. Required for, but not restricted to, English majors. ENG 301U-001 TOP: ECOCRITICAL SHAKESPEARE Jessie Herrada Nance Fulfills Group C ( Pre-1800) or E (old major) / Historical Literacy (new major) Study of Shakespeare's works focusing on topics such as genre (tragedy, comedy, etc.), period (Elizabethan/Jacobean) or cultural context. Some familiarity with Shakespeare and/or the Renaissance is expected. Course may be repeated for credit with different topics. ENG 306U-001 TOP: THE SIXTIES: CULTURE VS. COUNTERCULTURE William Bohnaker The 1960s is without doubt a watershed decade in American life in the twentieth century, not only dividing eras but pitting Americans against each other. Historical revisionism likes to recast the 60s as a time of ludicrous, even dangerous, infantilism. In fact, it engendered a revolution in spirit and imagination that changed culture, politics, aesthetics, minds and hearts, and the vision of the possible. Join us in our own magical mystery tour to discover what really happened in the last American revolution. ENG 306U-002 TOP: VICTORIAN DETECTIVE FICTN Paul Collins Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) This seminar covers classics of detective fiction by Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Baroness Orczy and other popular Victorian writers. These will be discussed with a focus on the historical context of crime reporting and advances in criminology, as well as adaptations in movies and popular culture. ENG 309U-001 AMERICAN INDIAN LIT Maria Depriest Fulfills Group B or E (old major) / Electives (new major) An introductory survey of traditional and recent literature by American Indian people. Poetry, legends, myths, oratory, short stories, and novels, as well as background (historical and political) materials. ENG 312-001 COMEDY & SATIRE Katya Amato Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) We'll trace the history of comedy and satire from Aristophanes to Beckett, focusing on Old and New Comedy, comic archetypes, the language of the body, fabliaux, Carnival, the grotesque, the absurd, and named forms of comedy and satire, among them Rabelaisian, Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean. Don't let the unfamiliar names intimidate you; the ancients were wilder than Wilder. Medieval body parts can be lopped off or multiplied to everyone's hilarity, twins come sweetly from the sea and after much confusion pair off with the elite of Illyria, and-yes--Don Quixote really does fight windmills and free galley slaves. In addition, instead of writing a long essay, those who want to can perform a comic scene at the end of the class, including one with Oscar's famous cucumber sandwiches. (The class gets to eat the sandwiches.) Listed below are the books ordered, all available at the PSU Bookstore. Four Plays by Aristophanes, tr. William Arrowsmith et al. (Lysistrata and Frogs only) Menander, The Plays and Fragments, tr. by Maurice Balme (Dyskolos and The Girl from Samos only) Five Comedies by Plautus and Terence, tr. Deena Berg and Douglass Parker (The Wild, Wild Women and The Brothers only) Shakespeare, Twelfth Night Cervantes, Don Quixote, tr. Edith Grossman (considered the best new translation) Voltaire, Candide and Related Texts, tr. David Wootton (excellent edition for context) Molière, Tartuffe, tr. Richard Wilbur (still the best translation) Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest Beckett, Waiting for Godot Requirements: Regular attendance with midterm and final exams. A comic performance usually is, to everyone's great delight, substituted for the long essay of the final exam. ENG 317U-001 GREEK MYTHOLOGY Katya Amato Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) ...the helmet screams against the light; Scratches the eye; so violent it can be seen Across three thousand years. --Christopher Logue, War Music (1981) Luminous and terrifying, alien yet familiar, the mythic figures of the classical world haunt the Western imagination. In this course, we read original sources in their cultural context; we also explore transformations of mythic figures and narratives in post-classical literature. Texts: Richmond Lattimore's translation of The Iliad Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey Richmond Lattimore's translation of Hesiod (Theogony and Works and Days in one volume) Jules Cashford's translation of The Homeric Hymns Rolfe Humphries' translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses Requirements: Epic reading assignments, midterm and final exams, and regular attendance. Note: Lattimore's translations are required. All texts are available at the PSU Bookstore. ENG 320U-001 ENGLISH NOVEL John Smyth Fulfills Group C ( Pre-1800) or E (old major) / Historical Literacy (new major) This class will focus on the eighteenth century novel via Fielding's Shamela, Austen's Emma, and Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. We will also read two novels directly influenced by Sterne, Jacques the Fatalist, and The Third Policeman. Primary requirements: two in-class presentations and two essays. The English novel, from its beginnings to the present. This is the first course in a sequence of two (ENG 320 and ENG 321) and covers texts from early fictional forms through the 18th century. ENG 326-001 LIT, COMMUNITY, AND DIFFERENCE Marie Lo Fulfills Group B (old major)/ Culture, Difference and Representation (new major) Examines the relationship between cultural production and the formation, practice, and representation of social identities. ENG 334U-001 TOP: SCIENCE FICTION IN FILM Wendy Collins Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) Study of major aesthetic, cultural, and social movements in film. This is the same course as NAS 334U and may be repeated with different topics. ENG 353U-001 AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE Anoop Mirpuri Fulfills Group B or E (old major) / Electives (new major) This is the final part in a three-course sequence in African American literature—though you are not required to have taken the first two courses to register for this one. This course covers 1965 – present. We will examine African American literature in two senses: 1) as a collection of texts written by black people in the U.S.; and 2) as a category of study institutionalized in university curricula following the legislative victories of the civil rights era in the 1960s. Following the first definition, we will explore how the radical black critique of Western civilization has animated recent and contemporary writing by black authors. Following the second definition, we will discuss how the institutionalization of African American literature as a field of study in universities has shaped the politics of race and identity. Along the way, we will ask: What is “African American literature”? What do we expect African American literature to do? How do our responses to this question shape how we read literary works by black authors? How have black authors challenged readers’ expectations of what black writing should do? Can an author still write African American literature in the post-civil rights era? Finally, what is the value of studying this field in a society that prides itself on being racially diverse, even as it produces and tolerates extraordinary forms of inequality, poverty, and exploitation? A study of African American literature from its oral and folk beginnings to the present. This is the third course in a sequence of three: Eng 351U, Eng 352U, and Eng 353U. ENG 368U-001 LITERATURE AND ECOLOGY David Wolf Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) How does ecocritical analysis of literature—and other aesthetic media—reveal our relation to the environment? What are the ecological consequences of literary anthropocentricism? To what extent does a given literary work foster ecological empathy? Political activism? Is it too sweeping to declare “nature” a cultural construction and, if so, through what means do we construe it as, to quote Greg Garaard, “the object and, albeit distantly, the origin of our discourse”? How might the study of literary representations of nature inspire cultural reform with positive consequences for our nonhuman world? We will take up these and other questions, focusing on some of environmental criticism’s key tropes (e.g. wilderness, the pastoral, pollution, apocalypse), and considering the impact of theoretical frames (e.g. feminism, environmental justice, posthumanism) on the development of ecocritical theory and practice. Our texts will include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and criticism by authors such as Paula Gunn Allen, Lawrence Buell, Rachel Carson, Charles Darwin, Annie Dillard, Robert Frost, Greg Garaard, Donna Haraway, Ursula LeGuin, Aldo Leopold, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gary Snyder, and Henry David Thoreau. ENG 372U-001 TOP: GENDER, LIT, FILM, ART Lorraine Mercer Fulfills Group B or E (old major) / Electives (new major) Study of representations of gender and sexuality in literature and related cultural forms. May be repeated for credit with different topics. This is the same course as WS 372U and may be taken only once for credit. ENG 413-001 TEACHING & TUTORING WR Daniel DeWeese Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) Examines current practices of tutoring and teaching writing in all subject areas. Focuses on the process theory of writing to foster thinking and learning in subject areas and the problems and issues surrounding individual composing. ENG 428-001 CANONS AND CANONICITY Elisabeth Ceppi Fulfills Group A (old major)/ Culture, Difference and Representation (new major) This course examines the historical, institutional, and ideological contexts in which traditions of “great works” have been established, contested, and creatively appropriated. It focuses on questions of literary value and its relation to national identity, cultural encounter, and power. It also investigates how categories of social difference such as gender, race, and class have shaped the criteria by which works and authors have been included and excluded from dominant traditions. We will explore these issues by taking Nathaniel Hawthorne’s *The Scarlet Letter* as a case study of “classic” American literature, tracing its critical and cultural history. We will read it alongside Harriet Jacobs’ *Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,* a work published a decade after Hawthorne’s novel with a very different publication and reception history. We will also follow the novel's afterlives in contemporary adaptations in drama, novels, and film. This course fills the Culture, Difference, and Representation requirement for the BA/BS in English. ENG 441-001 ADV TOP: RENAISSANCE DRAMA Jonathan Walker Fulfills Group C ( Pre-1800) or E (old major) / Historical Literacy (new major) Advanced topics in early modern (1500-1700) cultural studies, focusing on issues of religion, social class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality and studying both literary and non-literary texts. Course may be repeated for credit with different topics. In this advanced course, we will read a selection of Renaissance plays that represent some of the most controversial social issues during the English Renaissance: religion, politics, nationality, community, family, sex, gender, and desire. Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, for instance, examines questions of religion, theology, and free will in both a comic and terrifying way. The identity, difference, and fractures within and between communities are preoccupations in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy as well as in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday, though both explore these questions from different generic perspectives. Although all of these plays engage with questions of sex, gender, and desire, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton’s The Roaring Girl and John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore foreground these considerations while also exploring how families form and reform themselves through courtship, seduction, marriage, and sex. With supplemental readings, including both primary documents and modern scholarship, we will explore how these five Renaissance plays conceive of and formulate the social issues that most exercised the theologians, politicians, authority figures, as well as underprivileged figures during late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. This work will require us not only to recognize the differences between how these issues might be defined within our own historical moment as opposed to within early modern England’s, but also to understand that these are contested issues and therefore the very definitions we or they might offer are culturally determined, unstable, and revisable. This course will be driven by our discussion of these questions as they are formulated in both the dramatic and critical texts we will read. There will be very few lectures. You will therefore be expected to participate actively in class discussions and to contribute to the knowledge that we will create together out of our conversations about the texts. ENG 447-001 ADV TOP: SCIENCE FICTION William Knight Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) A study of literary forms, theories, and movements: i.e., The Comic Novel, Literature and Theology, Southern American Women Writers. ENG 447-002 MJR FORCES: LIT & PHILOSOPHY John Smyth Fulfills Group A or E (old major) / Electives (new major) This class begins with the rivalry between poetry and philosophy in classical Greece, specifically with the dialogue between philosopher Plato and comedian Aristophanes as we may deduce it from the former’s Symposium and Republic, and the latter’s Clouds, Frogs, and Assembly of Women. At the same time, via Jacques Derrida’s and Leo Strauss’ commentaries on Plato and Aristophanes, we will explore the problem as it has been reinterpreted by two philosophers in the twentieth century. In the second half of term, we will turn to René Girard’s theoretical reading of Shakespeare in A Theater of Envy, particularly A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Troilus and Cressida. Finally, we will read two of Franz Kafka’s last stories, Investigations of a Dog and Josephine the Singer, which treat the relation between knowledge and art in modernity. Main requirements: weekly short contributions to online discussion of the texts and issues, plus two essays. ENG 448-001 MAJOR FIGURES: DANTE Anthony Wolk Fulfills Group E (old major) / Electives (new major) Reading and discussion of Dante's Commedia (The Divine Comedy): Inferno and Purgatorio certainly, and the gods willing Paradiso. Texts will be available at the PSU bookstore. The editions of Inferno & Purgatorio will be the Oxford editions, ed./trans. Robert M. Durling (ISBN 0-19-508744-5 & 0195087453-Note, these numbers are for the paperback editions; they are also available as hardbacks). There will also be a packet of materials available. The approach will be "traditional." Commentaries to Dante's poem commenced while he was still living, and we will carry forward that tradition. Our own writing will explore individual lines as well as the broad shape of the poem. We may also write variations on the poem in the spirit of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and others (even Dante). Our writing will be weekly. ENG 460-001 ADV TOP AM LIT TO 1800: Captive Women in Early America Elisabeth Ceppi Fulfills Group C ( Pre-1800) or E (old major) / Historical Literacy (new major) Some of the most compelling cultural figures of early America are women who were both in bondage and out of bounds: women held captive during Anglo-Native wars; servant girls possessed by the Devil and imprisoned for infanticide; enslaved women taking up their pens to denounce the hypocrisies of their masters; women ensnared by marriage and seduction plots. In this class, we will read non-fiction narrative, fiction, and poetry produced by and about such women from the late 17th century through the mid-nineteenth. We will read these texts alongside exemplary scholarship about them to consider questions about the gendering and racialization of publicity and privacy, virtue and deviance, authority and resistance, consent and freedom. This course fills the Historical Literacies requirement for the BA/BS in English. Advanced historical study of major figures and movements in American literature to 1865. Course may be repeated for credit with different topics. ENG 478-001 AMERICAN POETRY Joel Bettridge Fulfills Group C or E (old major)/ Electives (new major) This course will focus on American Poetry from the second decade of the twentieth century through the 1980s. We will begin with Modernist writers like Wallace Stevens, Sterling Brown, Marianne Moore, T.S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein. We will then turn to the diverse group of poets who follow Modernism, from writers like Louis Zukofsky and Elizabeth Bishop, to the New American Poets (such as Allen Ginsberg and Frank O’Hara). Next, we will examine the various writers who take part in the narrative, free verse poetry that dominates American letters in the postwar period, and we will pay particular attention to the “confessional” and political writing of poets such as Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich. We will take time as well to explore the poetry of the Black Arts movement and end by reading several of the poets now associated loosely with Language poetry, like Lyn Hejinian, Charles Bernstein, and Rae Armantrout, who celebrate textual disruption, difficulty and readers’ participation in the making of a poem’s meaning.
Graduate English Classes ENG 507-001 SEM: THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC Maude Hines The landscapes of Southern Gothic fiction are populated by misfits, steeped in decay, and haunted by cultural mythologies, grand nostalgia, and chattel slavery. Its authors skillfully weave narrative with metaphor, rendering spiritual flaws as physical deformity and compelling us to see impossible cultural myths through violence and perversion. In works by authors like Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Charles Chesnutt, Carson McCullers, and Edgar Allen Poe, this course explores the crumbling mansions and aesthetics of decay and resistance in one of the most fascinating literary genres in the United States. ENG 518-001 COLLEGE COMP TEACHING Hildy Miller Introduces and develops the theoretical and practical expertise of the graduate teaching assistant in the area of college composition teaching. May be taken up to three times for credit. This course is restricted to current English Department graduate assistants. ENG 519-001 ADV COLLEGE COMP TEACHING Hildy Miller Continues the development of the theoretical and practical expertise of the graduate teaching assistant in advanced areas of college composition teaching. May be repeated up to three times for credit. Required prerequisite: appointment to 2nd year teaching assistantship in English Department. ENG 547-001 ADV TOP: SCIENCE FICTION William Knight A study of literary forms, theories, and movements: i.e., The Comic Novel, Literature and Theology, Southern American Women Writers. Expected preparation: 8 additional upper division Literature credits. ENG 548-001 MJR FIGURES: DANTE Tony Wolk Reading and discussion of Dante's Commedia (The Divine Comedy): Inferno and Purgatorio certainly, and the gods willing Paradiso. Texts will be available at the PSU bookstore. The editions of Inferno & Purgatorio will be the Oxford editions, ed./trans. Robert M. Durling (ISBN 0-19-508744-5 & 0195087453-Note, these numbers are for the paperback editions; they are also available as hardbacks). There will also be a packet of materials available. The approach will be "traditional." Commentaries to Dante's poem commenced while he was still living, and we will carry forward that tradition. Our own writing will explore individual lines as well as the broad shape of the poem. We may also write variations on the poem in the spirit of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and others (even Dante). Our writing will be weekly.
Undergraduate Writing Classes WR 115-001 INTRO TO COLLEGE WRITING A writing course for first-year students to help prepare them for Freshman Inquiry or Wr 121. Introduces college-level writing and reading, along with general study skills. Provides practice at formal and informal writing, responding to a variety of readings, learning textual conventions, and building confidence. WR 121-001 COLLEGE WRITING A writing course for lower-division students, in which they develop critical thinking abilities by reading and writing, increase their rhetorical strategies, practice writing processes, and learn textual conventions. Includes formal and informal writing, responding to a variety of readings, sharing writing with other students, and revising individual pieces for a final portfolio of work. WR 121 COLLEGE WRITING Henry Covey Why take WR 121? If college writing were an animal, it would be a fire-breathing, multiheaded dragon of academic expectations. This course will show you how to slay this beast. Armed with the sword and shield of critical thinking and analysis, we’ll slice through the most common, stubborn issues you’ll face on your journey toward that degree. We’ll consult the wisdom of the scribes, both past and living. We’ll practice the ancient, magical arts of composition and rhetoric. Said another way, in this class, we’ll define what college writing is and isn’t. We’ll find out what it’ll mean for you. We’ll develop reading and writing techniques designed to further your critical thinking abilities in the 21st century. We’ll cover both new and old strategies and practices that will hone your compositional acumen and increase your rhetorical leverage. We’ll read and discuss the formal and informal textual conventions to follow, and those to break with. Then we’ll work a final portfolio of work that you’ll be able to take with you and use after this 10-week class (quest) is complete. WR 199-001 SPST: WRITING FOR COLLEGE Daniel DeWeese WR 200-001 WRITING ABOUT LIT Loretta Rosenberg Introduction to various approaches for writing about literature. Focuses on ways of responding to literature, ways of explicating literature, ways of analyzing literature through writing, and ways of integrating formal research into a written analysis of literature. Special attention will be paid to the writing process, including multiple drafting and revision. WR 212-001 INTRO FICTION WRITING Cassandra Duncanson Introduces the beginning fiction writer to basic techniques of developing character, point of view, plot, and story idea in fiction. Includes discussion of student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry. WR 212-002 INTRO FICTION WRITING Emily Flouton Introduces the beginning fiction writer to basic techniques of developing character, point of view, plot, and story idea in fiction. Includes discussion of student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry. WR 213-001 INTRO POETRY WRITING Tessa Livingstone Introduces the beginning writer of poetry to basic techniques for developing a sense of language, meter, sound, imagery, and structure. Includes discussion of professional examples and student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry. WR 213-002 INTRO POETRY WRITING Jac Nelson Introduces the beginning writer of poetry to basic techniques for developing a sense of language, meter, sound, imagery, and structure. Includes discussion of professional examples and student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry. WR 214-001 INTRO NONFICTION WRITING Catherine Johnson An introduction to writing with the major forms and techniques of literary nonfiction. Beginning with exercises in foundational skills such as description, reportage and the crafting of personal narrative, students will write and respond to short works of creative nonfiction. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry or equivalent. WR 222 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS Karleigh Frisbie Writing 222 emphasizes the critical reading, thinking, and writing skills typically required in university research papers. Topics covered will include research and note taking methods, thesis development, source evaluation, synthesis of research with your own ideas, revision techniques, and more. Other topics we emphasize will depend upon your needs and our progress as a class. WR 227-001 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG Practical experience in forms of technical communication, emphasizing basic organization and presentation of technical information. Focuses on strategies for analyzing the audience and its information needs. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. WR 227 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG Garret Romaine WR227 introduces you to the world of technical communication, which is a different style and voice from other writing. You will progress through a wide variety of typical technical writing projects, such as formal and informal reports, memos, letters, proposals, and procedures. The goal is to keep building up to a formal report that you can include in your portfolio. By the end of the term, you will develop the ability to summarize key points and provide the reader with important information up front. You will learn some tips and tricks built into your word processor to make technical information easier to understand, and you will gain insight into the organization of information. You should come out of this class with some good samples and templates that you can use later in your career. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. WR 227 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG Mary Sylwester This class introduces technical and professional communication. Students compose, design, revise, edit, and analyze correspondence, reports, summaries, instructions, proposals, and employment documents. The course emphasizes precise use of language and graphics to communicate complex technical and procedural information safely, legally and ethically. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. WR 228-001 MEDIA WRITING Maureen O'Hagan An introductory course in media reporting and writing. Focus on identifying newsworthiness, writing leads, constructing news stories, interviewing, and attributing quotes. Students learn to gather local news, writing some stories in a computer lab on deadline. Expected preparation: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. May be repeated once for a total of 8 credits. WR 301-001 CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH Kathryn Comer This writing-intensive course extends the skills developed in Eng 300 by studying some selected theoretical and disciplinary approaches to literary and other texts (including literary and rhetorical theory), and by introducing students to research methods as a way of entering scholarly conversations. WR 301-002 CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH Jessie Herrada Nance This writing-intensive course extends the skills developed in Eng 300 by studying some selected theoretical and disciplinary approaches to literary and other texts (including literary and rhetorical theory), and by introducing students to research methods as a way of entering scholarly conversations. WR 301-003 CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH Lorraine Mercer This writing-intensive course extends the skills developed in Eng 300 by studying some selected theoretical and disciplinary approaches to literary and other texts (including literary and rhetorical theory), and by introducing students to research methods as a way of entering scholarly conversations. WR 312-001 INTERMED FICTION WR Leanna Moxley Builds on fictional techniques introduced in Wr 212, including variations on the classic plot, complex points of view, and conventions of genre. Emphasizes discussion of student work. May be repeated once for credit. WR 312-002 INTERMED FICTION WR Gabriel Urza Builds on fictional techniques introduced in Wr 212, including variations on the classic plot, complex points of view, and conventions of genre. Emphasizes discussion of student work. May be repeated once for credit. WR 313-001 INTERMEDIATE POETRY WRITING James Gendron Continues the study of poetry writing techniques introduced in Wr 213. Includes additional instruction in poetic forms, variations on traditional forms, and experimental forms. Emphasizes discussion of student work. May be repeated once for credit. WR 323 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY Rayna Jensen Science, technology, and our impact on the environment are rapidly changing the way we envision the future and our place in it: We have taught computers to see, hear, and learn, and they can already do so better than us. Increased construction has created more jobs and housing for our population, but has made sand an endangered resource, putting 75-90% of the world’s beaches in danger of eventually disappearing. Medical scientists are learning how to grow human organs in the bodies of farm animals, though the combining of human and animal DNA comes with extreme ethical concerns. Film and literature that is set in the future seems to pose the same question: are we ensuring a viable future for our world, or are we preventing it? The goal of this class us to use writing as a way to interrogate these issues, and to examine ethical component of advancement and progress. We will consider our current social and political climate, art and entertainment, history, and science as we define our conception of the future, and how we will fit into it. WR 323 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY Kallista Kidd This course will help you to hone your existing writing skills while allowing you to pursue your own topics of interests. The theme of Prof. Kidd's section of WR 323 – utopia, dystopia, and apocalypse – is designed to provide stimulating topics for discussion and inspire meaningful research questions without placing tight restrictions on your topics of inquiry. We will engage with several texts and films in the utopian, dystopian, and apocalyptic genres through writing and in-class discussion. Texts in these genres are particularly ripe for analysis, as they often perform complex and interesting social critiques, allowing us to both observe and practice critical thinking/writing. You will have the opportunity to explore a variety of topics, do meaningful research on one or two areas of interest, share your ideas and your writing with others in a hospitable and supportive environment, benefit from instructor and peer feedback, and exercise new writing and revision techniques. WR 323 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY''' Victoria Raible WR 323 is designed to further upper division students’ critical thinking and writing skills. You will read and write challenging material, refine your rhetorical strategies, and practice writing processes with special attention to revision and style. The course will include both formal and informal writing, and will culminate in a portfolio of polished written work. Victoria Raible’s section is themed “critiquing and performing gender through language.” This class asks students to analyze ways authors reveal and challenge prevailing gender norms, in turn using their own writing to confront these structures. In addition to looking at pop-culture materials, we will read a variety of texts, including a postmodern novel, personal essays, short fiction, and critical theory. Though we will use gender as a lens, students will be free to explore topics of their own interest. The goal of this class is to open up many modes of inquiry while improving students’ writing on a technical level. WR 327-001 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING Julie Kares Sharing your ideas can be challenging! When those ideas convey complex, technical information, it can seem overwhelming! Building skills that allow you to speak to varied audiences on any number of technical topics will ensure that you successfully express your great concepts! In WR 327, we’ll explore technical writing across career fields, exploring the “how” of technical writing versus the “what.” While we will focus on particular kinds of reports to familiarize you with the possibilities, the emphasis will be on the process. Using the core skills you learn in this class, you will be able to recognize and apply the effective components of report writing to create strong documents in diverse situations. WR 331-001 BOOK PUBLISHING FOR WRITERS Rachel Noorda Provides an overview of the book publishing process, organized around the division of labor typically found in publishing houses. Through readings, discussion, and participation in mock publishing companies, students learn about editorial, design, production, marketing, distribution, and sales. WR 333-001 ADVANCED COMPOSITION Amy Harper The student will use prior Knowledge in order to Comprehend and Interpret Narrative Literature and the “Art of the Essay.” The student will take acquired knowledge and interpret the arc of a personal story, or the structure of a classic essay. In addition, the student will be able to Analyze the distinctions between and the hybridization of memoir and essay. Furthermore, the student will be able to Apply this knowledge by Synthesizing and composing original writing of their own in these genres. Ultimately, the student will be able to assess their writing, as well as the writing of others by collaborative Evaluation. WR 404 INTERNSHIP Susan Reese Students who have arranged an internship may register for this course, which includes periodic group meetings and career development activities, by contacting Prof. Reese with the details of their position. Prof. Reese will then grant permission to register, and students can add the course through Banweb. This course is offered for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. Students may also register for internship credits under the ENG 404 or 504 course numbers by submitting a By-Arrangement Request form. Students electing this option for internship credits can register for 1-12 credits of coursework, and may work with any faculty member who agrees to supervise their internship work. If you have questions about internship registration options, contact the English Department. WR 407-001 RESEARCH FOR WRITERS Paul Collins This seminar covers research techniques for creative and academic writing, including the use of archives, field reporting, databases and investigative work. The course focuses on the exploratory side of the writing process; rather than the creation of a finished work, it develops a research portfolio that can serve as a starting point for your artistic and scholarly projects. Texts Dave Eggers: What Is the What (9780307385901) Philip Gerard: The Art of Creative Research (9780226179803) Maggie Nelson: The Red Parts (9781555977368) Mary Roach: Packing for Mars (9780393339918) WR 410-001 TOP: RESEARCH METHODS FOR TECHNICAL WRITERS Sarah Read This course will introduce students to the research methods commonly practiced by professional technical writers. These methods include interviewing subject-matter experts, researching genre conventions, user research, content analysis of existing websites and usability testing. Students will practice methods via client-projects with local community partners. Students can expect to develop at least one portfolio piece during this course. WR 410-002 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES: DITA/XML Bryan Schnabel In Technical Communications, Information Technology, Content Management Systems, and Technical Publication, XML is the de facto underlying structure. A technical communicator wishing to enter the field will do well to understand mainstream XML formats like DITA, Docbook, HTML, SVG, and XLIFF. Among these XML formats DITA distinguishes itself as a structure that enables information to be created, managed, compiled, single-sourced, reused and published to enable all aspects of professional industry throughput. No prerequisite programming skills are required for this class. WR 410-003 TOP: EBOOK PRODUCTION Pariah Burke Ebook Production teaches the hands-on skills of digital publishing. The course will build on an established understanding of basic text-based languages like HTML, CSS, and XML. Students will be introduced to new tools like iBooks Author, oXygen, and Sigil. It is highly recommended (though not required) that you first take WR 4/510: Digital Skills before taking this course or have intermediate coding knowledge. WR 410-004 TOP: ADVANCED BOOK DESIGN Kelley Dodd This course is exactly what it sounds like: an advanced course in book design. Prerequisite: WR 4/571: Typography, Layout, and Production. WR 410-005 TOP: FILM SCREENWRITING Jonathan Raymond WR 412-001 ADV FICTION WRITING Madeline McDonnell Students can expect to write longer and more ambitious works of fiction, while exploring a variety of technical problems and other questions emerging from class discussion. Course may be repeated once for credit. WR 413-001 ADVANCED POETRY WRITING Emily Kendal Frey Students can expect to explore a variety of demanding technical problems and to experiment with poetic voices. Course may be repeated once for credit. WR 427-001 TECHNICAL EDITING Garret Romaine Advanced Technical Editing is a web-based and community-based approach to providing students with real-world opportunities to improve their editing skills. Students will undertake a client-project with a local business, non-profit, or other organization. By the end of the term, students will be comfortable with various style guides, mark-up symbols, and online editing tools. WR 459-001 MEMOIR WRITING Justin Hocking As practitioners of memoir and other contemporary nonfiction forms, how do we go about writing our most private experiences without overwhelming the reader? And what, if any, responsibility do we have for addressing the major political and cultural issues of our times? To engage these questions, this dynamic, genre-fluid workshop will look for inspiration in architecture, visual art and other disciplines, while also reserving ample time for peer-critique sessions. Architects employ the term "fenestration" to designate any openings in the walls or enclosures of a building: windows, skylights, ventilation, doorways. We will thus experiment with "fenestrating" our personal writing with glimpses into history, science, politics, cultural issues, literary criticism, etc. A modest reading list may include writers such as A.M. O'Malley, Maggie Nelson, and John Edgar Wideman. WR 461-001 BOOK EDITING Rachel Noorda Provides a comprehensive course in professional book editing, including editorial management, acquisitions editing, substantive/developmental editing, and copyediting. Issues specific to both fiction and nonfiction books will be covered. WR 462-001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE Kelley Dodd Provides a strong foundation in design software used in the book publishing industry, focusing on Adobe InDesign. Also explores Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, as well as XHTML and e-book design. The class considers audience expectations through a range of hands-on design projects. WR 463-001 BOOK MARKETING Rachel Noorda Comprehensive course in professional book marketing. Issues specific to the marketing of fiction/ nonfiction books in variety of genres and markets will be covered. Students will do market research, produce marketing plans, write press releases, write advertising copy, and develop related marketing materials. WR 464-001 BUSINESS OF BOOK PUBLISHING Kent Watson Comprehensive course in the business of book publishing. Topics covered include publications management, accounting, book production, distribution, and bookselling. Students learn how a variety of agents, including publishers, publishing services companies, distributors, wholesalers, bookstores, etc., are organized and function in the marketplace. WR 472-001 COPYEDITING Jessicah Carver Learn how to improve the clarity, coherency, consistency, and correctness of other people’s writing through application of grammatical and stylistic guidelines. Study grammar, usage, punctuation, and style. Narrow focus on editing at the line and substantive level, with little to no attention given to broad development of a manuscript. Prerequisite: WR 4/561: Book Editing. WR 474-001 PUBLISHING STUDIO Abbey Gaterud Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. May be taken multiple times for credit. WR 475-001 PUBLISHING LAB Abbey Gaterud Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. May be taken multiple times for credit. WR 476-001 PUBLISHING FOR YOUNG ADULTS Rosanne Parry Study the techniques commonly used by writers and publishers of young adult literature.
Graduate Writing Courses WR 504 INTERNSHIP Susan Reese Students who have arranged an internship may register for this course, which includes periodic group meetings and career development activities, by contacting Prof. Reese with the details of their position. Prof. Reese will then grant permission to register, and students can add the course through Banweb. This course is offered for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. Students may also register for internship credits under the ENG 404 or 504 course numbers by submitting a By-Arrangement Request form. Students electing this option for internship credits can register for 1-12 credits of coursework, and may work with any faculty member who agrees to supervise their internship work. If you have questions about internship registration options, contact the English Department. WR 507-001 SEM: TIN HOUSE Gabriel Urza Each spring, the Tin House Seminar at PSU studies the oeuvre of a major contemporary writer. This year, the seminar will celebrate the work and life of Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin. Le Guin was perhaps best known as a writer of classic science fiction and fantasy for novels such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven, but also published poetry and creative nonfiction throughout her career. This seminar will read and discuss Le Guin’s work as a means of examining how fiction can engage us in conversations about disparate topics such as gender and sexuality, the environment, and politics, and will also consider Le Guin’s legacy as an author, activist, and literary citizen. Class activities will include visits by several prominent authors and scholars to discuss Le Guin’s influence, as well as writing prompts designed to generate new and surprising work by employing techniques and themes apparent in Le Guin’s work. WR 507-002 SEM: POETRY—Poetry Seminar: Description Michele Glazer We will explore the act, and art, and implications of description. What is an image? What are its qualities and values? What is an "exactly perceived" detail? In what ways can a phrase carry sense information? What authority do writers draw from accurate descriptive language? What are the limits of description? And why, and how might those limits be enacted? By reading, imitating, and inhabiting the sensory visions of various poets and prose writers, we will dig into the expressive possibilities in description, as well as questions around the attempt at acts of description. In addition to the small focused writing exercises, students will keep a description "jotting" journal as you move about in the world; co-facilitate a class presentation on one of the texts; and give a brief presentation on an area outside of literature (biology, theatre, basketball. . . ) that extends and illuminates your own thinking about description. Texts: The Art of Description, Mark Doty The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa, ed. Robert Hass Short works and brief excerpts may include: Lia Purpura (from Autopsy Report), Emily Wilson (from Micrographia), Proust (from Swann's Way), Rilke (from Letters on Cézanne), Gertrude Stein (from Tender Buttons), Elizabeth Bishop, James Wright, Jorie Graham, Jim Crace (from Being Dead), Charles Bowden, Flaubert, John Berger, and Elaine Scarry (from Dreaming by the Book). "Taking a break from picture-making based on direct observation of the world beyond my studio, I am spending some time observing only the marks I make with my hand. These drawings are made with one tool (a ball-point pen), one shape (a square, more or less) and one color (black). They are part of an attempt to discover how much of the visible world I can represent, or suggest, without drawing any of the objects in it." -artist Barry Pelzner "...we all live our lives in the light of primary acts of imagination, images or sets of images that get us up in the morning and move us about our days. I do not think anybody can live without one, for very long, without suffering intensely from deadness and futility. And I think that, for most of us, those images are not only essential but dangerous because no one of them feels like the whole truth and they do not last. Either they die of themselves, dry up, are shed; or, if we are lucky, they are invisibly transformed into the next needful thing; or we act on them in a way that exposes both them and us." -Robert Hass, "Images" "Here, as elsewhere in life, attentiveness only deepens what it regards." -Jane Hirshfield WR 507-003 SEM: MEMOIR Justin Hocking "I dwell in Possibility/A fairer House than Prose/More numerous of Windows/Superior—for Doors" —Emily Dickinson As practitioners of memoir and other contemporary nonfiction forms, what, if any, responsibility do we have for engaging the pressing political and cultural issues of our times? What possibilities exist for raising the sashes between our small selves and the larger world? To engage these perennial questions, this dynamic, genre-fluid workshop will look for inspiration in architecture, visual art and other disciplines, while also reserving ample time for peer-critique sessions. Architects employ the term "fenestration" to designate any openings in the walls or enclosures of a building: windows, skylights, ventilation, doorways. We will thus experiment with "fenestrating" our personal writing with glimpses into history, science, politics, cultural issues, literary criticism, etc. A modest reading list may include writers such as Janice Lee, John Edgar Wideman, Maggie Nelson and others. WR 510-001 RESEARCH METHODS FOR TECHNICAL WRITERS Sarah Read This course will introduce students to the research methods commonly practiced by professional technical writers. These methods include interviewing subject-matter experts, researching genre conventions, user research, content analysis of existing websites and usability testing. Students will practice methods via client-projects with local community partners. Students can expect to develop at least one portfolio piece during this course. This course can be counted as a core course in lieu of MGMT 512 or WR 560 or taken as an elective. WR 510-002 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES: DITA/XML Bryan Schnabel In Technical Communications, Information Technology, Content Management Systems, and Technical Publication, XML is the de facto underlying structure. A technical communicator wishing to enter the field will do well to understand mainstream XML formats like DITA, Docbook, HTML, SVG, and XLIFF. Among these XML formats DITA distinguishes itself as a structure that enables information to be created, managed, compiled, single-sourced, reused and published to enable all aspects of professional industry throughput. No prerequisite programming skills are required for this class. WR 510-003 TOP: EBOOK PRODUCTION Pariah Burke Ebook Production teaches the hands-on skills of digital publishing. The course will build on an established understanding of basic text-based languages like HTML, CSS, and XML. Students will be introduced to new tools like iBooks Author, oXygen, and Sigil. It is highly recommended (though not required) that you first take WR 4/510: Digital Skills before taking this course or have intermediate coding knowledge. WR 510-004 TOP: ADVANCED BOOK DESIGN Kelley Dodd This course is exactly what it sounds like: an advanced course in book design. Prerequisite: WR 4/571: Typography, Layout, and Production. WR 510-006 TOP: PORTLAND REVIEW Thea Prieto This series of courses is intended to provide graduate students with the editorial, publishing, and marketing skills necessary to run an international literary journal. By participating in Portland Review’s publication process and understanding the practices of a journal over sixty years old, students will gain practical experience in the field of literary publishing. This course is the third of three Portland Review classes, which combined with the editorial (fall) and publishing (winter) courses will collectively satisfy four units of graduate elective credit. WR 521-001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP FICTION Janice Lee “Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.” — John Updike “We were revisionists; what we revised was ourselves.” — Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale In this workshop we will examine the importance of both the writing and rewriting process, and use revision as a way to rewrite, rebuild, and “re-see” a work of fiction. We will read various essays about the revision process, as well as a few works of published fiction. Students will apply a variety of revision procedures to their work and work on re-envisioning the structural frameworks that shape not only their individual stories and chapters, but also their collections or novels as a whole, and engage in critical analyses of their peers’ work. Restricted to students admitted to the MFA program’s fiction strand. WR 523-001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP NONFICTION: "in these words": Oral History as Literary Form Faculty: Tin House Writer-in-Residence Audrey Petty In this workshop, we'll explore oral history as a contemporary literary genre. Reading a range of texts, we'll study a variety of approaches to the preservation of memory. Keeping in mind the multifaceted history of oral history, assigned texts will be contextualized as artifacts, works of arts, social studies. Throughout the term, students will experiment with oral history forms, conducting a small set of interviews within a particular community/collective, and workshopping and refining a focused project. Students will take the Workshop in their strand no fewer than four times and no more than six times, to earn a minimum of 16 credits. First-year students are required to take core workshops in their first two terms. WR 527-001 TECHNICAL EDITING Garret Romaine Advanced Technical Editing is a web-based and community-based approach to providing students with real-world opportunities to improve their editing skills. Students will undertake a client-project with a local business, non-profit, or other organization. By the end of the term, students will be comfortable with various style guides, mark-up symbols, and online editing tools. This is a core course for the MA in Technical and Professional Writing. WR 561-001 BOOK EDITING Rachel Noorda Provides a comprehensive course in professional book editing, including editorial management, acquisitions editing, substantive/developmental editing, and copyediting. Issues specific to both fiction and nonfiction books will be covered. WR 562-001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE Kelley Dodd Provides a strong foundation in design software used in the book publishing industry, focusing on Adobe InDesign. Also explores Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, as well as XHTML and e-book design. The class considers audience expectations through a range of hands-on design projects. WR 563-001 BOOK MARKETING Rachel Noorda Comprehensive course in professional book marketing. Issues specific to marketing of fiction and nonfiction books in variety of genres and markets will be covered. Students will do market research, produce marketing plans, write press releases, write advertising copy, and develop related marketing materials. WR 564-001 BUSINESS OF BOOK PUBLISHING Kent Watson Comprehensive course in the business of book publishing. Topics covered include publications management, accounting, book production, distribution, and bookselling. Students learn how a variety of agents, including publishers, publishing services companies, distributors, wholesalers, bookstores, etc., are organized and function in the marketplace. WR 572-001 COPYEDITING Jessicah Carver Learn how to improve the clarity, coherency, consistency, and correctness of other people’s writing through application of grammatical and stylistic guidelines. Study grammar, usage, punctuation, and style. Narrow focus on editing at the line and substantive level, with little to no attention given to broad development of a manuscript. Prerequisite: WR 4/561: Book Editing. WR 574-001 PUBLISHING STUDIO Abbey Gaterud Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. May be taken multiple times for credit. WR 575-001 PUBLISHING LAB Abbey Gaterud Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. May be taken multiple times for credit. WR 576-001 PUBLISHING FOR YOUNG ADULTS Rosanne Parry Study the techniques commonly used by writers and publishers of young adult literature.
Jonathan Walker, English faculty, authored "thou vnnecessarie letter: 'The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore,'" published in The Hare, Vol. 1, No. 3.1. » Tony Wolk, English faculty, and Shelley Reece, English emeritus faculty, authored "Kindred Spirits: Stafford, Bouwsma &Wittgenstein," published in Friends of William Stafford: A Journal & Newsletter for Poets and Poetry, Vol. 22.1, Fall-Winter, 2017-2018. » Leni Zumas, English faculty, has written a new novel, Red Clocks,
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