Mission
The Bachelor of Arts in English provides students with a rich understanding of literary tradition and with language skills that prepare them for a variety of careers. English majors learn to think, read, and write clearly. They learn to analyze literature through close examination of specific passages and to identify the major periods of literature in Western culture and the major trends in Western thought.
An English major at Reinhardt is prepared to enter a field such as education, publishing, or journalism, or to pursue further education in graduate or professional studies. Indeed, most businesses in today’s marketplace are eager to find graduates with the strong writing abilities and analytical skills possessed by English majors. The English program at Reinhardt offers an optional internship, in which students are placed in workplaces such as newspapers, publishing firms, and law offices in order to gain valuable experience that will enhance their ability to find jobs after graduation. The English program encourages students with an interest in writing to combine their major in English with a minor in Media Writing, housed in the Communication and Media Studies program.
Student Learning Outcomes for English
Students who complete the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) of English will be able to:
- Demonstrate sound skills in expository writing.
- Demonstrate sound skills in critical analysis.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the historical and/or cultural context of literature.
- Demonstrate the ability to research information from reliable sources and document these sources correctly.
Student Learning Outcomes for the Bachelor of Science in English/Language Arts Education
Teacher candidates who complete the Bachelor of Science (B.S) in English/Language Arts Education program will:
- Use knowledge of curriculum, learner differences, and ongoing assessment data to plan for student access to same essential content.
- Utilize a variety of strategies to differentiate instruction and provide an academically challenging environment for all students.
- Use systematic formal and informal assessment as an ongoing diagnostic activity to measure student growth and to guide, differentiate, and adjust instruction.
- Display a professional commitment to the teaching philosophy of differentiated instruction to support students’ diverse learning needs and to maximize learning.
Special Features and Activities
English students are offered the opportunity to do the following:
- Join the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta.
- Assist with tutoring in the Center for Student Success.
- Contribute articles and selections to the Reinhardt publication, Sanctuary.
- Hear and discuss issues with respected and well-known local and national authors and academics.
- Present their creative writing and research at the Robert L. Driscoll Convocation of Artists and Scholars.
Credits
3
This course will examine the literature of science fiction in a chronological survey, from the early 1900s with H. G. Wells (1903) up to the beginning of the 2000s with Ken Liu (2004) and beyond as time allows, with the focus being a survey of major science fiction literature, its authors, genres, and themes. It is designed first as a survey course of science fiction literature: chronological as well as thematic. Some major areas to be examined may include time travel, space travel, stories of Mars, aliens, interstellar war, conceptions of gender, cyberpunk, artificial intelligence, robots, cyborgs, dystopia, and apocalypse. The course is designed to develop students’ reading, writing and research skills using literary works elected from the SF novel and short story – through which students will gain a broad understanding of SF. We will begin the course with a discussion into defining what SF is, and we will return to this at the end of the course, not only accurately defining it, but describing how it has changed over more than one hundred years and likely will continue to change—and how SF is such a particular useful form for examining the human condition.
Credits
3
Students learn the elements of scriptwriting with a focus on writing for stage and screen. Through writing practices, students develop their skills in creating plot structure, conflict, character development, dialogue, setting, point of view, and motivation. In addition, students learn script formats, the revision process, the art of adaptation, and the various writers’ resources.
Credits
3
Students will learn the elements of television writing (concepts, processes, pitching, formats, roles, and industry expectations) by reviewing different approaches to structure, discussion of current TV series, reading TV scripts, analyziing TV pilots and an ongoing workshop of student writing. Students will work to master the following skills: dramatic structure, conflict, character, dialogue, style and voice. In addition, students will learn the revision process, the art of adaptation, and the various writers' resources.
Credits
3
Literary Editing and Publishing (Advanced) Students gain practical experience in literary editing and publishing through producing Sanctuary, the University literary magazine. This is also a leadership position, as the advanced student will take the helm as a senior editor, often guiding ENG 383 students in the editorial process. Organizational and management skills will be heightened in this process. The student enrolled in the advanced class may request an editing position on the graduate literary journal, the James Dickey Review, which maintains a national and international reputation with authors of the highest level, including Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, and others of notable acclaim. Areas of study include copy editing, publication software, layout, and the literary marketplace. Students collect and choose works for inclusion in Sanctuary and create their own works for publication. Prerequisite: ENG 383
Credits
3
Students will learn the elements of television writing (concepts, processes, pitching, formats, roles, and industry expectations) by reviewing different approaches to structure, discussion of current TV series, reading TV scripts, analyzing TV pilots and an ongoing workshop of student writing. Students will continue working toward mastering the following skills: dramatic structure, conflict, character, dialogue, style, and voice. In addition, students will learn the revision process, the art of adaptation, and the various writers' resources. This class is designed for the student pursuing additional instruction in this discipline at an advanced level, oftern building on past projects. Prerequisite: ENG 390
Credits
1
Readings, Seminars, One-to-One Consultations.There will be a reading and/or seminar offered by a visiting writer every evening of the Residency, and students are required to attend each night except on the evenings they have a scheduled one-on-one meeting with their Workshop instructor or their mentor for the upcoming semester. At the one-on-one meetings with the mentor, the mentor will make a semester plan with the student, specifying assignments, due dates, and logistical processes for sending writing and comments back and forth. Additionally, experiential learning will take place in formal and informal meetings between visiting writers, instructors, and students.
Credits
3
In this individual study, the student will work one-on-one with a mentor to develop elements of writing craft, including image, structure, syntax, diction, voice, tone, style, figurative language, point of view, characterization and plot. The student will submit monthly portfolios of work to the mentor for comments and will revise in response to the mentor’s suggestions. The student and the mentor will draft a timetable of due dates and logistical processes at the beginning of each semester. Additionally, the instructor will familiarize the student with resources for calls for submissions and require the student to compose a query letter and submit at least one piece of work for publication. In addition to monthly portfolio comments, the mentor will write an end-of-semester evaluation detailing the students’ strengths, weaknesses, and progress in the program.
Credits
3
In this individual study, the student will work one-on-one with a mentor to continue to develop elements of writing craft. The student will be expected to demonstrate substantial progress in his or her mastery of structure, form, image, style, diction, tone, voice, character and plot. The student will submit monthly portfolios of work to the mentor for comments and will revise in response to the mentor’s suggestions. The student and the mentor will draft a timetable of due dates and logistical processes at the beginning of each semester. Additionally, the instructor will introduce the student to resources for calls for submissions and require the student to compose a query letter and submit at least one piece of work for publication. In addition to monthly portfolio comments, the mentor will write an end-of-semester evaluation detailing the students’ strengths, weaknesses, and progress in the program.
Credits
3
In this individual study, the student will work one-on-one with a mentor to continue to develop elements of writing craft. The student will be expected to demonstrate mastery of structure, form, image, style, diction, tone, voice, character and plot. The student will submit monthly portfolios of work to the mentor for comments and will revise in response to the mentor’s suggestions. The student and the mentor will draft a timetable of due dates and logistical processes at the beginning of each semester. Additionally, the instructor will familiarize the student with resources for calls for submissions and require the student to compose a query letter and submit at least one piece of work for publication. In addition to monthly portfolio comments, the mentor will write an end-of-semester evaluation detailing the students’ strengths, weaknesses, and progress in the program.
Credits
6
In this class, students work on-on-one with a mentor in writing a 40-page critical essay on a craft element in the work of a selected writer in their genre. The student will produce a research-based paper in which he or she crafts an original argument about the writer’s use of a certain craft element and supports his or her argument with quotations from scholarly secondary sources. Students are expected to write using the conventions of formal academic prose, including correct use of quotations and citations. Students will combine a close reading of the primary texts by their chosen writer with relevant points made by other critics. The critical essay will be graded on the originality and complexity of the student’s analysis; the quality of the student’s research; the use of the conventions of academic writing, including organization, structure, quotations and citations; and the quality of the student’s prose, including elements such as syntax, diction and style. The student will submit monthly portfolios of work to the mentor for comments and will revise in response to the mentor’s suggestions. The student and the mentor will draft a timetable of due dates and logistical processes at the beginning of each semester. In addition to monthly portfolio comments, the mentor will write an end-of-semester evaluation detailing the students’ strengths, weaknesses, and progress in the program.
Credits
9
The student will work one-on-one with the mentor to produce a book-length manuscript in their genre, with a minimum of fifty pages. The manuscript should be a collection of poems, a collection of short stories, a collection of creative nonfiction essays, a novella, a large portion of a novel, or a complete screenplay. The work should be of publishable quality in its use of all of the craft elements the student has learned throughout the program: structure, form, image, style, diction, tone, voice, character and plot. It should demonstrate a mastery of each of these elements according to the conventions of the student’s chosen genre. The manuscript must demonstrate not only attention to the quality of the individual pieces or sections, but also awareness of the larger structure of the book. The student will submit monthly portfolios of work to the mentor for comments and will revise in response to the mentor’s suggestions. The student and the mentor will draft a timetable of due dates and logistical processes at the beginning of each semester. In addition to monthly portfolio comments, the mentor will write an end-of-semester evaluation detailing the students’ strengths, weaknesses, and progress in the program.