Gannon University

MICHAEL TKACH, Chairperson

FACULTY: Professors: Philip H. Kelly, Sally LeVan. Associate Professors: Berwyn Moore, Patrick O'Connell, John Young. Assistant Professors: Douglas King, Catherine Marsters, Laura Rutland, Penelope Smith, Michael Tkach. Instructor: Frank Garland, Carol Hayes. Lecturers: Dennis Fletcher, Emmett Lombard, Sr. James Francis Mulligan, S.S.J., Mary Wagner. Retired Professors: Edward B. Babowicz, Paul J. DeSante, Walter Minot, John S. Rouch, Dolores Sarafinski, Robert L. Vales.

Mission Statement:
The Gannon University English Department inspires students to be informed readers and seasoned writers. Guided by the belief that the study of language and literature enriches the imagination, promotes lifelong learning, and enhances appreciation of diversity, it engages students in ongoing critical and cultural debates whose implications extend beyond the classroom.

Program Description:
The Department offers four different emphases for its majors: literature, writing, applied communications, and English secondary education. All emphases cultivate the student’s ability to write in a variety of genres for different audiences and purposes. The Department also offers students a variety of internships, and a 3-3 program in legal studies with Duquesne University, and features student-run publications such as the Gannon Knight (the university newspaper) and Totem (a literary magazine). Whether they seek careers in education, publishing, journalism, media, public relations, government, business, industry or law, Gannon English Majors acquire the scholarly focus, broad preparation and intellectual awareness that form the basis of an intensive liberal arts education.

A major in this program requires 16 upper level courses including the Senior Research Project and Oral Exam (ENGL 400); this totals 48 credits.

The English Department also offers the Journalism Communications major, an interdisciplinary program in print and electronic journalism. (See Journalism Communications section of the catalog.)

LENG 111 and LENG 112, are normally prerequisites for upper level literature courses; for advanced writing courses, only LENG 111 and LENG 112 are prerequisites.

*These courses meet Department diversity outcomes.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:

LLENG 111, 112, 241, 243, 245, 247, 249, LFIN 252 and 254 are courses taught by the English Department. See the section on Core of Discovery for course descriptions of these courses.

ENGL 206: Pursuits of English
Pursuits of English introduces students to the dynamic, evolving field of English and prepares them for advanced course work. Students will explore ways to approach and understand literature, linguistics, composition, and career and graduate studies opportunities for English majors. LENG 112 should be taken either before of concurrently with Pursuits of English.
Prerequisite: LENG 111
3 credits

ENGL 210: Creative Writing
An introductory course providing instruction and practice in the techniques and principles of writing poetry and short fiction.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 211: Advanced Composition
A rhetorical approach to problems of written communication. Although primary stress will be on developing the student’s writing ability, knowledge of rhetorical theory and of critical norms for prose will be required.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 212: Business and Professional Communications
A detailed study of the various methods of communication used in the professions, business, and industry, for audiences both within and outside the organization. Numerous written exercises. (This course is also listed as BCOR 231).
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 213: Technical Writing
The communication of technical information in business, the sciences, and the social sciences to specialist or non-specialist audiences. Emphasizes basic principles and most commonly used report formats.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 214: Writing for Print Media
This workshop course introduces new students to the basics of journalistic reporting and writing. Students receive practice in how to identify, gather, and write news; and make ethical judgements about news. The course should help students who want to work for newspapers and magazines as well as for broadcast and online media. This course is a prerequisite for ENGL 216 and ENGL 252.
Prerequisite: LENG 111, 112
4 credits

ENGL 215: Editing/Production of Print Media
The course introduces students to the production of printed material, whether for newspaper, magazines, advertising, in-house publications, brochures, books, or anything else on paper.
Prerequisites: ENGL 214, LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 216: Advanced and Specialized Reporting
This workshop course focuses on specialized news beats including police, courts, government, education and the environment and introduce students to computer-assisted reporting and research techniques
Prerequisites: ENGL 214
3 credits

ENGL 217: Introduction to Linguistics*
An introduction to the basic concepts of linguistics with an emphasis on both theory and application of linguistic principles. Topics include origin, structure, morphology, syntax, dialects, oral, and written language.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 218: Feature Writing
This workshop course introduces students to various genres of feature writing for newspapers, magazines and on-line publications, including profile, entertainment pieces and trend stories.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 225: Special Topics
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
1 credit

ENGL 250: Introduction to Photography and Photojournalism
Taking effective and well-composed photographs; using the 35mm camera, its lenses, filters, and flash; developing black and white film; printing artistic enlargements.
Corequisite: ENGL 251
3 credits

ENGL 251: Photography Lab
Corequisite: ENGL 250
0 credit

ENGL 252: Photojournalism
This course introduces students to the principles of photojournalism.  Students study and practice photojournalism techniques, with consideration of the ethical issues involved with creating and using visual images.
Corequisite: ENGL 214
3 credits

ENGL 301: Workshop: Special Topics in Writing
Specialized forms of writing in a workshop format for advanced writing.
Prerequisite: ENGL 210 or 211
3 credits

ENGL 311: Advanced Prose Style
An advanced writing course with emphasis on style: sentences, words, metaphors, and other fine points.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112 and ENGL 210, 211, 212, 213, 214 or 216
3 credits

ENGL 312: Poetry Writing Workshop
An advanced seminar and workshop focusing on student’s original poetic composition.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112, ENGL 210 or permission of instructor.
3 credits

ENGL 313: Fiction Writing Workshop
An advanced seminar and workshop focusing on student’s original composition of short fiction.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112, ENGL 210 or permission of instructor.
3 credits

ENGL 321: Literature For Young Adults
A study of distinguished literature for young adults and of the historical development and current trends in adolescent literature.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 322- 326: Author Seminars
These seminars are opportunities for students to study and enjoy the work of a particular author, whose work is not usually studied in depth in toher departmental courses. 
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
1 credits

ENGL 331: American Literature to 1865
American prose and poetry to 1865. Major figures include Taylor, Edwards, Franklin, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, and Thoreau.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 332: American Literature, 1865 to 1914
American prose and poetry from the Civil War to World War I. Major figures include Whitman, Twain, James, Dickinson, Crane, Dreiser.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 333: American Literature, 1915 to 1945*
American prose, poetry and drama between the World Wars. Major figures include Frost, Hemingway, O’Neill, Faulkner.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 334: American Literature after 1945*
American prose and poetry from WW II to the present. Major figures include Arthur Miller, Ralph Ellison, Sylvia Plath, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, and Thomas Pynchon.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 341: British Literature: Medieval and Renaissance
The dramatic and non-dramatic literature of the Medieval Period and non-dramatic literature of the Renaissance, with emphasis on the works of Chaucer, More, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Donne, and Jonson.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 342: British Literature: Classic and Romantic*
The major writers involved in the shift from classicism to romanticism, with emphasis on Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Swift, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 343: British Literature: Victorian and Modern*
Major writers of the Victorian and Modern periods, with emphasis on Dickens, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Joyce, Woolf, and Rhys.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 350: Drama of Shakespeare*
An historical-critical approach to selected plays in terms of the intellectual assumptions, native traditions, and theatrical conventions of the Elizabethan-Jacobean periods.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 352: Modern/Contemporary Drama*
A critical approach to significant drama from Ibsen to the present and to the intellectual forces and assumptions that contribute to their development. 
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 354: African American Literature*
This course examines literature written by African-Americans. Emphasis is on literary and cultural analyses, including issues of race, ethnicity, gender and social class.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 362: History of the English Language*
Phonological and morphological development of Modern English from the Indo-European period. Methodology of historical linguistics.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 363: The Structure of English
Rationale and application of transformational grammar to linguistic and stylistic analysis.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 371: Mass Media and Popular Culture
This course covers the history, organization and management of mass media. It also covers the concepts and theories of popular culture and mass media, including advertising and public relations as well as news organizations. It examines critical approaches to newspapers, magazines and broadcast and online media as sources of information and entertainment. Among its focuses are the ethical and legal issues faced by news organizations.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 372: Public Relations
Strategies and communication tools of public relations as a link between an institution and its external and internal public. Cross-listed with ADVC 372.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 375: English Practicum
A semester-long internship providing field experience in areas related to the student’s concentration. Students may use no more than 6 practicum credits toward graduation requirement.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
1-6 credits

ENGL 381: Literary Criticism*
Historical and analytical study of critical theory isolating the central critical problems and evaluating some answers that theorists and critics have provided.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 386: Modern Poetry
An aesthetic and historical survey of poetry from Whitman to the present, including multicultural selections.
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

ENGL 389: Methods of Teaching English
Cross listed as EDCR 325, methods of teaching literature, writing, critical reading, and grammar in the classroom. Replaces EDCR 324 for English secondary education students only.
Prerequisites: EDCR 101, 103, 330, LENG 111, 112
3 credits

ENGL 390-394: Special Topics
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
1-3 credits

ENGL 395-398: Independent Study
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
1-3 credits

ENGL 400: Senior Research Project and Oral Exam
Prerequisites: LENG 111, LENG 112
3 credits

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English Curriculum
(Numerals in front of courses indicate credits)

*At least 9 hours of English credits must have been approved by the department as meeting the diversity requirement.

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  ENGLISH CURRICULUM WITH SECONDARY EDUCATION
Students majoring in English qualify for Teacher Certification in English/Secondary Education.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the program are: (1) to give the students an opportunity to become broadly educated in the areas of language, literature and writing, and (2) to provide a program of teacher education which promotes growth, development, professionalism and expertise for successful teaching.

Students who wish to prepare themselves as secondary English teachers must make formal application to the teacher education program through the School of Education. For a detailed explanation of all requirements refer to the catalog portion under Education.

(Numerals in front of courses indicate credits)

*At least 9 hours of English credits must have been approved by the department as meeting the diversity requirement.

  ENGLISH MINOR
A minor in English will consist of 18 hours beyond the Core of Discovery required courses. At least 3 of the credits will be in literature, 3 credits in linguistics and 3 credits in writing. The remaining hours will be in any ENGL designated credits.

  JOURNALISM MINOR
A minor in Journalism will consist of 16 credits.

Required:
    ENGL 214 Writing for Print Media
    ENGL 215 Editing/Production of  Print Media
    ENGL 371 Mass Media and Popular Culture
    ENGL 216 Advanced/Specialized Reporting of ENGL 218 Feature Writing

Plus six credits of electives with advisor’s approval.

The Gannon University – Duquesne School of Law, 3+3 Early Admissions Program has been designed for qualified students to earn an undergraduate and a law degree in six years rather than seven. Under the early admissions program students may receive a Bachelors Degree in English after three years of undergraduate work and the successful completion of the first year of full time study at the Duquesne School of Law. The student would then receive their Law Degree after successful completion of the second year at Duquesne School of Law. Qualified students may wish to pursue this option.

THE NEXT STEP

Baccalaureate Degree Program for Graduates of Two Year Colleges

Prerequisite: Six credits of composition equivalent to LENG 111 and LENG 112

English
(Numerals in front of courses indicate credits)

Students will be permitted to take other courses in substitution for any of the courses listed above which they have satisfactorily completed prior to admission to this program. Students will be required to complete 18 credits in the Core of Discovery Program at Gannon.

All students graduating from the College of Humanities must have completed six credits of a Modern Foreign Language.

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