Courses
ENGL-204 P1 Nature Writing (3)
What does it mean to be green from a literary point of view? How has nature writing shaped the landscape of culture and behaviors? In this course we will begin to answer those questions by reading and writing about the environment. Through the study of fiction, memoir, and scientific writing, students will explore their place in relation to the natural world while simultaneously cultivating literacy skills.
Attributes: AMHU ENLT P1 YLIBENGL-253 P1 Intro Creative Writing (3)
Does writing poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction light your fire? Would you like to spend a whole semester kindling your imagination and igniting your creative writing skills? Creative writing will help you to discover and nurture your writer’s voice and share it with the world in both traditional and hybrid forms. Students will practice writing creatively and sharing their work in small groups in traditional and hybrid forms.
Attributes: ENWR P1 PCRW YLIB
Typically offered:
VariableENGL-356 Editing and Publishing (3)
The world of editing and publishing is filled with exciting challenges that demand specific skills: guiding a writer to complete an article or book for publication; collaborating with a team of editors, graphic designers and marketers to get a book to readers; or putting out an online publication, such as a monthly newsletter or journal, for a trade publisher or a not-for-profit. This course introduces many of the essential skills needed for editing and publishing at the professional level. Writing, editing, and in-class critiques will be a regular feature of a course that teaches grammatical and rhetorical competency. Readings, activities, and projects involve analysis of diverse genres and contexts for editing, including a focus on how evolving technologies affect publication. Practice in editing sample texts will be supplemented by projects, including revision and editing a text of one’s own for a specific purpose, audience, and publication; and collaboration with a community partner on a text bound for publication.
Attributes: ENWP ENWR VDAP YLIB ZCIV
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: FreshmanENGL-361 Writing with New Media (3)
What does it mean to be a writer and reader in the 21st century? How have developments in digital media required writers to consider the visual in addition to the verbal as well as interactivity? How do conflicting interpretations of copyright law impact creativity? This course focuses on the emerging area of digital writing studies, and we will discuss texts and new media works both scholarly and popular addressing such issues as the impact of information technology on research and teaching/learning, the social and cultural dimensions of technology, and models of writing associated with digital media.
Attributes: ENWP ENWR VDAP YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: FreshmanENGL-371 Creative Writing:Fiction (3)
In this course, students will give and receive detailed critical evaluation of short stories and chapters of novels. Students will leave the course with several works of short or longer fiction, according to their own preference.
Attributes: ENWP ENWR PCRW YLIB
Pre-requisites: -ENGL-372 Creative Writing:Poetry (3)
In this course, students will give and receive detailed critical evaluation of poetry. Students will leave the course with a collection of poems.
Attributes: ENWP ENWR PCRW YLIB
Pre-requisites: -ENGL-376 Creative Writ: NonFiction (3)
In this course, students will give and receive detailed critical evaluation of different types of creative nonfiction. Structure, voice, character and scene will all receive emphasis in the course. Students will determine their own semester projects.
Attributes: ENWP ENWR PCRW YLIB
Pre-requisites: -ENGL-378 Topics in Advanced Writing (3)
This course explores a specific type of writing, according to the interest of the instructor. Past topics have included Young Adult Fiction, Detective Fiction, Humor Writing, and Sports Literature. In this course, students will give and receive detailed critical evaluation of different types of creative nonfiction. Students will determine their own semester projects.
Spring 2020 Topic:
ENGL 378 Section 01 Topic: Audio & Visual Storytelling
Attributes: ENWP ENWR PCRW YLIB
Pre-requisites: -ENGL-2237 Storytelling in Brief (3)
In this course, students will explore the process of creative writing in flash fiction. Through reading, discussing, and generating fictional stories in the briefest of forms, students will learn about the characteristics unique to this subgenre of fiction writing as well as to investigate what properties all forms of creative writing share. Above all, a successful writer has learned to do one thing extremely well: they keep at it. This course will take that as its motto, and will require students to bring commitment and focus to every step of the creative writing process from finding inspiration to producing finished works.
In addition, this course will introduce students to contemporary literary publishing and literary magazine culture. Through readings and assignments, students will explore a range of current literary magazines and begin to understand the variety of aesthetics they promote, the audiences they reach, and the communities they help form.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CIA YLIB
Fall, Spring & Summer
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21; Excluding: -Class: SeniorENGL-2255 Creative Writing Now! (3)
In this course, students explore the process of creative writing in three genres: creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Throughout the semester, students read, discuss, and generate creative writing to learn about the characteristics unique to each genre as well as to investigate what properties all creative writing shares. Above all, successful writers learn to do one thing extremely well: they keep at it. This course takes that as its motto, and requires students to bring commitment and focus to every step of the creative writing process from finding inspiration to producing finished works. In addition, this course introduces students to contemporary literary publishing and literary magazine culture. Through readings and assignments, students explore a wide range of current literary magazines and begin to understand the variety of aesthetics they promote – including Fisher’s own literary magazine, ANGLES.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CIA PCRW YLIB
Fall & Spring
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21; Excluding: -Class: SeniorENGL-2256 Story Craft (3)
Stories help us define what we believe about ourselves and the world, give shape to what and how we remember, and allow us to build connections with one another. In other words, they are a measure of what it means to be human. Students in this course will explore the power of story (and humanness!) by reading examples of contemporary fiction and nonfiction, practicing techniques that develop complicated, unforgettable characters and worlds in traditional and multimedia forms, and engaging in real-world activities and events that communicate stories to diverse audiences.
Attributes: CIA YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: SeniorENGL-2257 Poetry Machines (3)
The poet W.C. Williams said that “poetry is a machine out of words,” and Audre Lorde said that poetry is illumination. This course emerges from the nexus of these ideas. In this course, students will learn the tools of poetry as they emerge from a historical tradition, and how they manifest in both contemporary poetry and music. They will write their own poems, perform their poetry, attend live poetry events, and review peer work, in their quest to expand their imaginations and develop an answer for what poetry means to them.
Attributes: CIA YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: SeniorENGL-2263 The Image and the Word (3)
What exactly do we mean by reading? To take in, to grasp? What does it mean to see? To recognize, to understand? What is the relationship between the written and the visual? These are the fundamental questions of the course that we return to over and over again, albeit with difference and nuance at each step. Through a consideration of photography, film, literature, and other media, we explore three central questions:what is the relationship between what we see and what we understand, or between what we see and what we believe, or even between what we see and what we know? The course includes multiple structured units of inquiry that culminate in two exams and two essays, through which students can demonstrate their skill of analysis using the ideas of that unit.
Attributes: AMHU CIA ENLT YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Senior
COMM-231 Video Storytelling (3)
Students will learn the basics of video production, shot composition, and editing, skills that have grown increasingly popular across many disciplines and industries. They will learn how to craft narratives (short-form and long-form) with video and edit their media with Adobe Premiere Pro.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CJVP PROD YLIB
Fall & SpringCOMM-323 Screenwriting (3)
This course examines the film screenplay through an emphasis on storytelling. Students learn how to write for the screen by understanding script format, structure, plot, character, setting, and other foundational elements. In addition to analyzing classic films, students will develop original stories, write scenes, and complete scripts by the end of the semester.
Attributes: ARTS YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman