| ENG 100. | College Rhetoric I | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 credits | ||
| Development of writing as a process of thinking and communication that involves stages of generating, drafting and revising. Emphasis on writing in several forms for a variety of purposes and audiences. Review of basic paragraph, sentence and spelling skills. Regular conferences to discuss writing. | ||
| ENG 101. | College Rhetoric II | |
 |
4 credits | |
| ENG 100 | ||
| Developing critical thinking and reading skills with emphasis on analytical, persuasive and research writing. Development of style and voice. Evaluation of writing from various disciplines and contemporary issues. | ||
| ENG 110. | Studies in Literature | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Thematic approach to understanding, analyzing and appreciating literature. Courses may focus on particular genres, like poetry or the short story, or focus on themes like gothic writers, environmental literature, or the Holocaust. This course is designed to be introductory and is open to students with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences with literary studies. Course does not count toward the English major. | ||
| ENG 120. | Literary Analysis | |
|
4 credits | |
| Preparation for advanced study of literature and language, including vocabulary, critical approaches, and writing strategies employed in literary analysis. This course is required for a major or minor in English, but open to all students with a solid foundation in reading and writing. | ||
| ENG 180-*380. | Studies in Literature and Language | |
| 1-4 credits | ||
| The study of various topics such as Holocaust literature, the dramas of AIDS, contemporary Scottish literature and travel literature. Students may register for more than one course under this number. Prerequisite for 380: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 181-*381. | Diversity Studies in Literature | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Studies of literature beyond the American and British canon: Asian American literature, Black women writers, Eastern European and non-Western world literature, and postcolonial writers. Students may register for more than one course under this number. Prerequisite for 381: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 182-*382. | Off-Campus Studies in the American Experience: Literary and Cultural Voices | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Special emphasis on travel to develop historical and cultural awareness as it adds to the richness of the American literary experience such as writers of the Southwest in Taos, New Mexico, New England writers in Martha's Vineyard and Key West writers in Florida. Genres, periods and authors vary. Prerequisite for 382: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 183-*383. | Off-Campus Studies in British Literature and Culture | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Special emphasis on travel to develop historical and cultural awareness as it adds to the richness of the British literary experience such as Shakespeare and Company in London and Medieval Literature in England. Genres, periods and authors vary. Prerequisite for 383: two courses in literature. | ||
| ENG 190. | Introduction to Creative Writing | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Writing in different genres, including poetry, short fiction, drama and creative nonfiction. Critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *201. | Advanced Rhetoric | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 101 or Proficiency | ||
| Exploring the principles of invention, arrangement and style beyond the level of English 101. Emphasis on connections between what writers say and how they say it. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *202. | Digital Rhetoric | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 101 or equivalent and a 200-level writing course | ||
| Exploration of the rhetorical conventions and contexts of writing in digital contexts, as well as the intersections between textual and visual choices. Students explore writing in a variety of digital contexts and will read and discuss scholarly methods for thinking critically about the place of writing in new media. | ||
| ENG 210. | Teaching Writing | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Development of written fluency and critical evaluation skills; introduction to central theories of reading and writing instruction. Designed for future teachers in any discipline, writing center advisors, or those going into any field that requires evaluation of writing such as editing and publishing. | ||
| ENG *220. | Reading, Writing, Research | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 120 | ||
| Writing workshop for those pursuing a major or minor in English studies. This course focuses on exploring the different creative and critical modes of writing used in the major and beyond. Students are also introduced to advanced research methods and advanced issues in researched writing. | ||
| ENG *225. | General Linguistics | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Understanding the function and structure of language through analysis of its subdivisions: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, language usage, dialect and historical development. | ||
| ENG 230. | Shakespeare on Film | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Study of Shakespeare's plays from the perspective of text and film. Emphasis on understanding selected plays, comparing different interpretations, and comprehending different cinematic styles. | ||
| ENG *240. | Survey of Continental European Literature I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Study of representative literary works produced in continental Europe from classical Greece through the Renaissance. | ||
| ENG *241. | Survey of Continental European Literature II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Study of representative literary works produced in continental Europe from the 17th century to the present. | ||
| ENG *250. | Survey of British Literature I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Exploring British literature from its beginning to the end of the 18th century, from Medieval period through the Neo-Classical period. | ||
| ENG *251. | Survey of British Literature II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Exploring British literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, from the Romantic era to the present. | ||
| ENG *260. | Survey of American Literature I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Analyzing American literature from its beginnings to the Civil War, including the Puritan and Romantic periods. | ||
| ENG *261. | Survey of American Literature II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 100 or Proficiency | ||
| Examining American literature from the Civil War and the Realistic movement to the present. | ||
| ENG *270. | Journalistic Writing | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 101 or Proficiency | ||
| Techniques of gathering and presenting information for the print media. Extended practice in reporting and news writing; writing complex news stories and in-depth reports, feature and editorial writing. | ||
| ENG *290. | Poetry Workshop I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190 and Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing poems and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *291. | Fiction Workshop I | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190 and Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing short fiction and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *292. | Playwriting Workshop | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing short plays and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. (Also listed as THD 292.) | ||
| ENG *293. | Creative Nonfiction Workshop | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190 and Permission | ||
| Exploring the craft of writing creative nonfiction and practicing the habit of art. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. | ||
| ENG *299. | Independent Study | |
| 2-4 credits | ||
| Permission | ||
| ENG *301. | Professional Rhetoric | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 101 or equivalent and a 200-level writing course | ||
| Advanced study of style and rhetoric in a variety of professional writing contexts, including creative, educational, and corporate environments. | ||
| ENG *320. | Critical Theory | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 220 and one upper-level literature course | ||
| Surveys modern literary and critical discourse with emphasis on understanding and applying different theoretical approaches to literature. | ||
| ENG *340. | Women's Literature | |
|
4 credits | |
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies in the literature of women from its beginnings in Julian of Norwich through Bradstreet and Woolf to the present. Includes historically and internationally diverse authors in a variety of genres. | ||
| ENG *351. | Chaucer | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of Chaucer's major works, including the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, and/or selected works of Chaucer's contemporaries. | ||
| ENG *353. | The English Renaissance | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Selected study of English Renaissance texts ranging from More's Utopia to Milton's Paradise Lost. Includes works by authors such as Marlowe, Spenser, Donne, Herbert, Jonson and Marvell. | ||
| ENG *354. | Shakespeare | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of Shakespeare's plays offering a representative survey of the major histories, comedies and tragedies. | ||
| ENG *355. | British Romantics and Victorians | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of the major 19th-century British writers from Blake to Hopkins. Includes such authors as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats and the Brownings, and such essayists as Wollstonecraft, Hazlitt, Carlyle and Pater. | ||
| ENG *356. | Modern British and Irish Literature | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of major British and Irish authors since 1900, including Yeats, Joyce, Eliot, Woolf and Beckett. | ||
| ENG *360. | Transatlantic Eighteenth Century | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of the literature of "the long Eighteenth Century" from a transatlantic perspective. This course examines the emergence of the novel, as well as the impact of the slave trade and of the Enlightenment on the literature of Britain, the Americas and the Caribbean. Authors include Equiano, Wheatley, Behn, Swift, Defoe, Burney, Godwin, Brown and Foster. | ||
| ENG *361. | Major American Writers to 1865 | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Examines in depth selected writers from the Revolution to the Civil War, with a special focus on the struggle to define an "American" literature. Includes such authors as Brown, Irving, Poe, Douglass, Jacobs, Dickinson, Melville, Hawthorne, Whitman and Stowe. | ||
| ENG *364. | Studies in Drama | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies of issues and developments in English language drama from the Restoration to the present. Individual sections might be organized by themes, by period (i.e., Restoration or 20th-century drama), or by focusing on multiple works by playwrights such as Dryden, Behn, Farquhar, Shaw, O'Neill, Williams, Albee, Churchill, or Fugard. | ||
| ENG *365. | Studies in the Novel | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies of issues and developments in the English-language novel. Individual sections might be organized by themes, by periods (Victorian or modern novels), or by focusing on multiple works by authors as diverse as Defoe and DeLillo, Richardson and Rushdie, or Melville and Morrison. | ||
| ENG *366. | Modern American Literature | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Studies in American literature from post WWII to the present. Includes authors such as Stein, Hemingway, Cather, Hurston, W.C. Williams, Faulkner, Cummings, Wright, Steinbeck, Plath, Morrison and Walker. | ||
| ENG *367. | African American Literature | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of African American literature as a distinct tradition beginning with the experience of enslavement and influenced by African and African American oral cultural heritage. Examines the emergence of a Black Aesthetic across many genres, including poetry, fiction, autobiography, sermons, speeches and criticism. | ||
| ENG *368. | American Indian Literatures | |
| 4 credits | ||
| Two courses in literature | ||
| Study of the rich and varied literary tradition's roots in oral culture and its modern and contemporary expressions. Explores authors of diverse tribal affiliations and genres who address significant themes such as mixed-blood identity, reservation and urban life, the impact of near genocide, cultural preservation and resistance, and survival humor, among other topics. | ||
| ENG *370. | Journalistic Studies and Projects | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 270 or Permission | ||
| Variable topics: magazine article writing and marketing, extended literary journalism, history of journalism, print promotion and group publicity. | ||
| ENG *385-*386. | Practicum | |
| 2-6 credits | ||
| Permission | ||
| Application of concepts in language and writing through participation in journalistic, public relations and other work settings. Supervision by faculty and sponsoring organization. Includes interpretive journal and summarizing paper. | ||
| ENG *390. | Poetry Workshop II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190, 290 and Permission | ||
| Advanced workshop in the art and craft of writing poems. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. Creating a chapbook of poems and giving a public reading. | ||
| ENG *391. | Fiction Workshop II | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 190, 291 and Permission | ||
| Advanced workshop in the art and craft of writing fiction. In-depth critiquing of student and professional writing. Creating a chapbook of fiction and giving a public reading. | ||
| ENG *399. | Independent Study | |
| 2-4 credits | ||
| 24 credits completed in the Department with "B" average and Permission | ||
| ENG *420. | Senior Seminar | |
|
4 credits | |
| ENG 320, three upper level literature courses, and Senior Standing | ||
| A sustained investigation in the study of language and literature that draws upon the expertise developed in previous English courses. Topics will vary each term. Students will complete a seminar project and submit a portfolio of their writing in the major. | ||
| ENG *490. | Independent Study in Creative Writing | |
| 4 credits | ||
| ENG 390 or 391, and Permission | ||
| ENG *499. | Independent Study | |
| 2-4 credits | ||
| 30 credits completed in the Department with "B" average and Permission | ||
| ENG *500. | Senior Thesis | |
|
1-4 credits | |
| Permission | ||
Courses
Students conducting research side-by-side with faculty has been an Alma legacy for generations. Alma students team up with faculty on scholarly research or to collaborate on creative or performing arts projects. An annual Honors Day features student presentations, performances and exhibits. Many students present such work at regional, national and international meetings.
Faculty Profile
Mary Wendt
Departments: English
Mary Wendt earned her undergraduate degree in English at Alma College, and now as a visiting instructor she teaches some of the same classes she took as a student.
She earned her master’s degree in composition and communication from Central Michigan University and is currently a doctoral student at Michigan State University.