The following courses are offered by the English Department:
English
- This is a lower-level remedial writing course in which students are introduced to the fundamentals of writing, including punctuation, spelling, grammar, word choice, sentence structure, and paragraphing. Students are given frequent in-class writing exercises that focus on narration and description as modes of developing ideas. Conferences with instructors are frequent. This course is for students who score below 43 on the CATW, and it prepares them for English 095.
Course Syllabus - This is an upper-level intensive developmental writing course for students scoring between 43 and 55 on the CATW. Students are instructed in basic components of effective writing, including word selection, punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure and paragraph development. Students are given frequent in-class writing exercises that focus on argumentation, narrative, and description as modes of developing ideas. Individual conferences with instructors are frequent.
Course Syllabus - Students placed in ENG 100.5 are offered extra support, afforded through additional instructional time. Students completing ENG 100.5 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word thesis-driven essay in conversation with two texts. Successful completion of this course is equivalent to passing ENG 101.
Prerequisite: English Proficiency Index of 55-64 or a score of 43-5 on the CAT-W and exemption from ACR 95 or successful completion of ACR 95. This course is not open to ESL students.
Course Syllabus - English Composition is the standard freshman writing course. The course introduces students to academic writing. By its conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum. Students completing ENG 101 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word, thesis-driven essay in conversation with two designated texts.
Prerequisite: Pass the CAT-R and CAT-W or Accuplacer tests
Course Syllabus - Through a combination of reading and writing, this course exposes students to the basics of fiction, poetry, and playwriting from the perspective of the practitioner, rather than the perspective of the critic. The class will read literature in three genres, focusing on the craft of how the pieces are structured, and how they achieve their impact on the reader. No prior knowledge of these genres is required. Through a combination of reflection, imitation, writing exercises, and writing assignments, students will produce craft analyses, their own creative works, and reflections on their own creative process.
- This course combines English 101 and 201 into a one-semester course. It is designed for students with a high level of reading and writing proficiency. Departmental permission is required.
Prerequisite: Pass the CATW and CATR tests
Course Syllabus - This is a course that builds upon skills introduced in English 101. In this course, literature is the field for the development of critical reading, critical thinking, independent research, and writing skills. Students are introduced to literary criticisms and acquire basic knowledge necessary for the analysis of texts (including literary terms and some literary theory); they gain proficiency in library and internet research; and they hone their skills as readers and writers. Assignments move from close readings of literary texts in a variety of genres to analyses that introduce literary terms and broader contexts, culminating in an independent, documented, thesis-driven research paper. By the conclusion of English 201, students will be prepared for the analytical and research-based writing required in upper-level courses across the curriculum; they will also be prepared for advanced courses in literature.
Prerequisite: ENG 101
Course Syllabus - Introduction to Literary Studies is an inquiry into what it means to study literature, involving close reading, critical and creative analysis of a wide variety of prose fiction, drama, and poetry, and informed by an introduction to some of theoretical issues currently invigorating literary studies. In addition to works of literature, students will read critical and theoretical works. This course combines a study of literature with continued training in clear and effective expression. It is designed for prospective Writing and Literature majors and other interested students.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 or 121
Corequisite: ENG 201
Course Syllabus - Fundamentals of Journalism offers an introduction to the practice, purpose, and history of journalism as projections about its future. The course addresses journalism in all its forms and media, e.g. film, print, radio, television, and Internet-based platforms, including Web sites, blogs, Twitter. It provides a foundation in journalisma??s professional code of ethics and the work of a free press to safeguard social liberty. Skills cultivated will include information gathering establishing credibility, writing, editing and dissemination.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 and ENG 201
Course Syllabus - This course covers the basic principles and practices of news reporting and writing. Students are taught to write single-incident news stories, conduct balanced interviews and edit their own copy, employing standard copy editing symbols and format. Emphasis is also given to the theoretical side of journalism with an overview of its history, present legal controls, ethical issues and rapidly expanding technology.
Pre-Requisite: ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This course provides further opportunities for students to explore journalism. Students conduct interviews, cover stories around the city and write journalistic articles. Opportunities are provided for specialized coverage in areas such as politics, consumerism, science, education, finance, the arts, social change and family life. Topics include layout, headline composition and basics of journalism law.
Course Syllabus - The objective of this course is to sharpen students' creative writing skills in the genres of the short story, poetry and drama, depending on students' interests and ability.
Pre-Requisite: ENG121 or ENG201
Course Syllabus - This course teaches the writing of formal and informal essays, articles, and reviews in a personal voice. Through the reading of modern and contemporary essayists students learn to identify the unique qualities of writers in order to develop an individual style applicable to the various disciplines of public and personal writing.
Course Syllabus - The objective of ENG 315? Playwriting is to sharpen students' creative writing skills and to teach them the elements of playwriting and character development. Through the reading of one-act plays and practice writing exercises each week, students will learn the craft of playwriting. They will write scenes and create their own one act plays.
Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - In this course examines the unique syntax, grammar and conventions of this literary art form. It traces graphic narrativea??s history from the 19th Century, as a working-class commodity in print newspapers, to the mid-20th Century, when it reconfigured itself as a medium of rebellion and mode of autobiography, up to today. Through regular writing assignments, students will critically engage with the art form and recent scholarship, developing their own arguments about how certain comics
communicate specific subjectivities.
Prerequisite: ENG 201
Course Syllabus - Building on the skills developed in a multi-genre workshop (ENG 116 or ENG 311), this course focuses on poetry from the perspective of a poet writing in a community of poets. Students are taught to give and receive substantive and constructive feedback on poetry in workshops. Through the study of published poems and work by peers, students develop an understanding of prosody, poetic craft, and poetic structure. An emphasis on reflection, analysis, and revision gives students the tools necessary to produce a portfolio of poems while seeing themselves as entering a community of poets with an awareness of poetry’s complex and diverse histories.
Prerequisites: ENG 201 and [ENG 116 or ENG 311] - This course introduces students to fiction from the perspective of the writer. Students learn to give and receive substantive and constructive feedback in workshops. Through the study of published stories and work by peers, students develop an understanding of the basic elements of short stories such as narrative structure, characterization, point of view, scene structure, and setting. An emphasis on reflection, analysis, and revision gives students the tools necessary to produce short stories while seeing themselves as entering a writing community. Additional genres of fiction, such as micro-fiction, flash-fiction, novellas, and novel chapters, may also be included.
Prerequisites: ENG 201 and [ENG 116 or ENG 311] - This is a class that will focus on a variety of timely and historical environmental and social justice issues related to sustainability at the local, national, and global level. We will read essays, fiction and poetry that establish the field of ecocriticism, then draw on readings and films that have expanded ecocriticism to include environmental justice, urban nature and we shall view films on themes related to the readings.
Prerequisite: ENG 201
Course Syllabus - This is a film history and appreciation course, with special emphasis on style, techniques, genres and themes. During one double period in which a full-length film is shown, students are encouraged to take notes. In the next class the film is discussed and analyzed. Students will read about the development of the cinema and write essays about well-known films.
Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - In this course film adaptations of 19th and 20th #century fiction are compared to their original versions to determine differences and similarities between literary and cinematic technique. Films based on novels include such award-winning movies as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Clockwork Orange, and To Kill A Mockingbird. Also included are film adaptations of stories by writers such as Richard Wright, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ambrose Bierce and Ernest Gaines. Students will learn terms to describe cinematic effects and techniques.
Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This course examines the wide range of published works by Native/Indigenous peoples from the mainland United States and the Pacific. Course topics may include decolonization, environmental rights, language revitalization efforts, the experiences of urban Natives, and more. Students will examine the United States’ history of settler colonialism while engaging each writer and work in their geographical, cultural, and historical context. Authors may include Red Jacket, E. Pauline Johnson, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, and Craig Santos Perez.
Prerequisites: [ENG 101 and ENG 201] or ENG 121 - This course explores the genre of the detective story: its principal themes, plots, characters, and settings; the dramatic changes the genre has undergone (particularly in the twentieth century); its relationship to other literature and new directions of the genre today. In addition, the phenomenal popularity of the detective story will be considered: who is the audience and why has the detective story attracted such a large audience?
Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - This course acquaints students with the wide range and varied forms of the short story as it developed in America, Europe, and other continents. Readings will include works by male and female authors of different periods and nationalities, and some attention may be paid to the historical development of the short story as a genre, as well as the cultural contexts in which the assigned stories were written.
Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This course studies and analyzes outstanding classical, contemporary and multicultural literature for children and adolescents, arranged by genre. Students are given an overview of the evolution of the literature from its cultural roots in myth and legend to its present role as a reflector of modern society.
Pre-Requisite: ENG 101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This course will introduce the student to autobiography in the context of literary debate: why do we read autobiography? How do we classify autobiography, as non-fiction or fiction? Works by both men and women of many cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds will be included. Students will examine the various styles, elements, as well as the recurring themes in autobiography, while working on their own "reflection of the self.
Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This course will study and analyze selected novels, short stories, poems and plays of postcolonial writers from Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the English speaking Caribbean, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. The course will examine the ways in which postcolonial writers transcend a British imperial legacy of colonialism to redefine their own distinctive social and cultural worlds. Note: This course is crosslisted as: AFL 336.
Course Syllabus - This course examines how science fiction literature envisions the impact of machine technology on the individual and society. The human/machine interaction will be traced from early myths to contemporary science fiction, including works by Asimov, Clarke, Delaney, Gibson, Lem, Orwell, Vonnegut and Zelazny.
Course Syllabus - In this course, works reflecting the experiences of U.S. Latino/a writers in English are analyzed. Students will read, discuss, and write about fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama by writers such as Julia Alvarez, Rudolfo Anaya, Gloria Anzaldua, Roberto Fernandez, Tato Laviera, Achy Obejas, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., and Piri Thomas. Note: Crosslisted with LAT 338
Course Syllabus - Representative works reflective of the collective experiences of Asian American writers are analyzed. American writers are analyzed. Fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction written from Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Japanese, Korean and South-East Asian cultural perspectives are discussed
Course Syllabus - This course surveys fiction, poetry, and drama from writers throughout the Middle East, beginning in the late 19th century and concluding in the present time. English translations of well-known literature from the Middle East, a region defined as the countries of southwest Asia and northeast Africa, are considered in the context of such recurring themes as cultural/national identity, colonialism religion (e.g. Islam, Judaism, Christianity), gender relations and class conflict. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - The goals of this course are to stimulate an appreciation for, and an enjoyment of, poetic masterworks mainly of the 20th century. This course includes critical reading and writing; its approach is an in-depth study of poetry which has universal significance. Writers studied include T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, e.e. cummings, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes, Theodore Roethke, Gwendolyn Brooks and Sylvia Plath.
Course Syllabus - This course focuses on 20th and 21st century texts within the area of Queer literature and by Queer literary artists. It covers a variety of literary and critical texts in order to introduce students to classics of Queer Literature as well as lesser-known masterpieces. The aim of this class is to expand students??A?A? conceptions about literature, sexuality, and gender and lead them to critically investigate socially-constructed ideas about gender and sexuality. Students will examine and analyze the manner in which the authors and texts subvert and challenge sexual and cultural norms.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 and ENG 201 or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - This course will focus on a specific theme, concept, cultural milieu, or major author to be announced in advance. Topics for the following semester will be made available by the English Department during registration. Each section of the course will cover in-depth a single special topic, such as one of the following: the Harlem Renaissance, Literature and the Environment, Utopian and Dystopian Literature, Literature and Medicine, The Beat Generation, Literature of the Working Class, Satire in the 18th Century, Censorship and Literature, Literature of Immigration, War in Literature, Madness and Inspiration in Literature, Gay and Lesbian Literature, and Women in Shakespeare. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - This course focuses on the contributions of women literary artists from a variety of cultures and ethnic groups. It examines how some writers have both reflected the prevailing female stereotypes of their age and background, and also imagined the "New Woman." Enrollment is open to both women and men.
Course Syllabus - This course focuses on the literature of urban America since 1950 and in particular on how contemporary writers use the images and themes of the city.
Course Syllabus Italian American literature surveys fiction, poetry, and drama throughout the history of Italian Americans in the United States beginning in the first half of the twentieth century and continuing into contemporary America. This literature will be considered in the context of recurring themes in the artistically framed experiences of Italian Americans beginning in the first half of the twentieth century and continuing into contemporary America: cultural-national identity conflict, anti-colonization by church and state, religion, gender relations, generational differences and relations, class conflict, for example working class vs.the bourgeois, or working class immigrant and sons and daughters vs. the dominant American culture, the problem of education in early Italian American history, the dilemma of cultural and linguistic loss, intercultural conflict, intracultural conflict, family values, oppression, social dysfunction, and assimilation.
Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus- This course surveys works of English literature from its origins in pre-Norman England to the eighteenth century. The objectives are three-fold: (1) to develop the student's appreciation for literature and an acquaintance with literary masterpieces written in English during the years of this survey; (2) to introduce the student to the major political and cultural events and ideals that shaped England during these years; (3) to illustrate how cultural and political ideals shape men's thinking and have their reflections in and are reflected by literature. Selections may include Beowulf, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's plays and Swift's writings.
Course Syllabus - This survey course is independent of English 371, which is not a prerequisite. It covers the principal figures, styles, themes and philosophies represented during three literary periods: the Romantic Era, the Victorian Age and the Twentieth Century. It exposes students to major works of literature including poetry, plays, short stories, novels and essays. It enables students to appreciate the thoughts and contributions of outstanding writers such as Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats and Eliot, as well as Dickens, Joyce and Lawrence.
Course Syllabus - This course provides careful, in-depth readings from Shakespeare's tragedies, histories and comedies. The course examines some of the main characteristics of his work, including his major themes, the development of character and plot, and the special worlds that he creates through his poetic language.
Course Syllabus - This course surveys American literature from its colonial beginnings to the American Renaissance of the nineteenth century-from Ann Bradstreet and Cotton Mather to Walt Whitman and Herman Melville. Students learn about the cultural milieu that influenced writers, read major and representative works and sharpen their critical abilities.
Course Syllabus - Though English 381 is not a prerequisite, this course begins where 381 leaves off and covers select fiction and poetry from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century to the present. Students study major writers and literary movements; and an effort is made to place literature in its cultural context. Works by such writers as Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, Richard Wright, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison may be included.
Course Syllabus - This course focuses on the gradual emergence of the American novel both as a literary form and as a reflection and reinforcement of patterns in the fabric of American life. Representative authors may include Hawthorne, Melville and Stowe from the 19th century; Lewis, Cather, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck from the 1920's to the 1950's; and Wright and Mailer of the 1960's and 1970's.
Course Syllabus - The development of the American theatre since the rise of realism is traced through 1920's dramas by O'Neill, Howard, and Rice; comedies of manners by Barry and Behrman; socially conscious plays of the 1930's by Odets, Sherwood, and Hellman; and post-war dramas by Williams and Miller.
Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing prose, poetry and drama representative of different world cultures and historical periods, from antiquity to the early modern era. Students engage in close readings of individual texts and contextual/comparative analyses. Written and spoken activities are designed to enhance students? appreciation of literature and their awareness of the ways it arises from, shapes and reflects the world?s cultures.
Course Syllabus - This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing prose, poetry and drama representative of different cultures and historical periods, from the 17th century to the present. Students engage in close readings of individual texts and contextual/comparative analyses. Written and spoken activities are designed to enhance students? appreciation of literature and their awareness of the ways it arises from, shapes, and reflects the world?s cultures.
Course Syllabus - This course aims to acquaint students with representative Judaic works translated from Hebrew or written in English and ranging from Biblical times to the present. The selections concentrate on those writings which have been most influential in the development of Western literature and which best convey Jewish thought, feeling, and experiences, especially in their universal application. The
readings will be supplemented by exposure to Judaic music and art, including visits to museums and galleries, individual student projects, and guest lectures. No prior knowledge of the Hebrew language or Jewish culture or literature is required.
Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - European social and political ideas as they are reflected in the works of such novelists as Gide, Silone, Koestler, Camus, Sartre, Mann, and Kafka are examined and analyzed. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Course Syllabus - English III consists of the English electives which appear in the catalog as courses numbered English 301 or higher. The literature courses consider, in depth, major writers, literary periods, or genres. The writing courses are workshops where students can develop their writing talents in specialized fields. The English III courses are similar in structure, organization and content to courses at four-year colleges. Students who plan to transfer to four-year colleges are urged to contact those colleges to find out which English electives should be taken at BMCC to fulfill their admission requirements. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
