Below are descriptions of the courses at Penn State Altoona for the coming semester that can count to satisfy the requirements of the English major and minor as well as the Writing and Digital Media minor. Many of them also fulfill the requirements of the Secondary Education/English major and the Multidisciplinary Studies major. Some fulfill requirements for the Women’s Studies minor and/or general education and B.A. Humanities or Arts requirements. Or you might find them interesting enough to take as electives.
NOTE: These are not the standard course descriptions you'll find on the Penn State website. The following descriptions were written by the faculty members themselves and will give you a much better idea of what to expect in each course.
Fall 2024 Courses
ENGL 50: Introduction to Creative Writing (Wesley)
This is a class where learning is fun, where you will work on your own writing in a circle of student writers, where the major text is your own work. The course will focus on two genres of the creative process: poetry and fiction writing. It is a student-centered workshop or seminar course that will both inspire you and help shape you into a better writer. The course should test your ability to make words do what no words have ever done before. You will be required to come up with your own original poetry and one short story while at the same time critiquing fellow students’ poetry. There will be immediate feedback, mentoring, and tutoring. You will have a new opportunity to see writing as craft and as art by carving up your own images, using all of the tools you need to write with the passion that makes good literature enjoyable. (A Gen Ed—Arts course.)
ENGL/AFAM 141N: African American Read-in Engaged Learning Experience—Theme: Young Readers (Freie)
Two credits, plus one in spring 2025. The spring course is only five weeks.
This class will immerse students in the study of diverse texts for young readers by Black writers. We will explore a range of works from picture books to young adult literature, reading and analyzing a variety of works, including picture books, folklore, historical fiction, biography, fantasy fiction, graphic novels, science fiction, and more. We will study Black activism as it works to promote Black authors and their books. The class will also explore the importance of Black children’s literature in K-12 curricula as well as acknowledge those who work to resist censorship and marginalization of Black voices in children’s literature. Students will explore a variety of strategies for interpreting literature. They will become familiar with different genres and understand social, cultural, and historical influences on writing and reading literature, as well as explore how texts are used in a variety of social and school-based contexts. Students will develop original scholarly and/or creative projects based on these materials for presentation at the February 2025 African American Read-In events on campus. Students will complete all 3 credits by also enrolling in the 1-credit 5-week Spring course. As shapers of the program, class members will have a voice in designing and delivering the program as well as a stake in its overall success. Learn more on the African American-Read-in site.
ENGL 191: Science Fiction (Simpson)
Time travel, space travel, alternate universes, alien life forms, androids, cyborgs, virtual reality, the distant future, impossible technology ... this is the stuff of science fiction, right? (Or is it?) In this class, we’ll visit marvelous and terrifying “other” worlds as imagined by some of the finest contemporary authors of science fiction, including Robert Heinlein, Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, William Gibson, and others. Students will learn about the history and scope of the SF genre—its themes and forms—while developing their critical reading, thinking, and writing skills as they explore the significant intellectual, philosophical, and artistic dimensions of this literary tradition. (A Gen Ed—Humanities course.)
ENGL 200: Introduction to Critical Reading (Stoyanoff)
This course is designed as an introduction, or “gateway,” to advanced literary studies at the beginning of the English major. You will learn about critical approaches that can be applied to any work of literature, including historicism, formalism, gender studies, queer theory, critical race theory, and Marxism, among others. We will practice applying several approaches to each work of literature on the syllabus and keep track of the interesting issues that emerge from these discussions. You will choose one of these issues to pursue further in a substantial research paper, and as you work on this project, we will cover the strategies and skills needed for research in English in class. We will then move into the conventions of writing essays and planning oral presentations that engage and contribute to the critical discourse surrounding a text or texts. You will also develop an oral presentation on your work and give it to the class in November. Through this class, you will gain tools to analyze literary texts more deeply and make informed, original arguments about them. We will apply various literary theories to poetry, prose, and drama. (NOTE: This is a required course for the English major and is typically offered only in the fall semester.)
ENGL 209: Journal or Magazine Practicum—Hard Freight (Murphy)
Have you always wanted to gain editing experience, organize an open mic, and see your name on a masthead? Then join the staff of Hard Freight! This 1-credit experiential course offers students hands-on experience in the development and production of the online campus literary arts magazine. Students will participate on editorial boards, in the advertising and marketing of the magazine, and in open mic events created to celebrate the artistic efforts of students on campus. (This is a hybrid course that meets sometimes in person, sometimes remotely. Students may take this course up to eight times in their career. Counts toward Writing and Digital Media minor, English minor, Technical Writing concentration, and English major electives.)
ENGL 212: Introduction to Fiction Writing (Sherrill)
In this course, we will identify and explore the fundamentals of Fiction Writing from the ground up: fear, hope, rage, lust, love, want, need, honesty, and dishonesty. Along the way, we’ll develop skills in narration, plot development, characterization, etc. Telling stories is one of the ways we carry our humanity from generation to generation. Creating compelling and entertaining stories is the artist’s challenge. This class is about Art; the art of looking at the world around us and rendering that vision, with bravery and honesty, in words. (A Gen Ed – Arts course for non-English majors. Counts toward Professional Writing minor. Students interested in eventually taking a 400-level creative writing class must take one 200-level creative writing class first. Meets concurrently with ENGL 412.)
ENGL 234: Sports, Ethics, Literature (King)
What do your favorite athletes and competitions reveal about your worldview? How have sports shaped you into the person you are today? Is sport a mirror that reflects society? Can we use sport to imagine the world differently? This course asks these questions and enlists you to answer them by reading novels, poetry, and journalism and watching television, films, and documentaries about the importance of sports for individuals and communities in the U.S. and around the world—from immigrant communities playing weekend cricket in New York City to Friday night and Saturday afternoon football cultures in (fictional) Dillon, Texas, and (real) Penn State University. Throughout the semester, you will respond to those visions about what sports means to others, but you will also have opportunities to speak and write about your own relationship to sports, as well. We will focus on how sport allows us to build and refine an ethical imagination, especially as depicted in literary texts across a variety of media and genres. This course will cover a wide range of athletic events, from football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and mixed martial arts to tennis, cricket, poker, dog sledding, and professional wrestling. (A Gen Ed – Humanities course)
ENGL 412: Advanced Fiction Writing (Sherrill)
This advanced fiction writing course will meet concurrently with ENGL 212. (Counts toward the English major 20th Century requirement and toward the Professional Writing minor. Students may take this course twice in their career. Prerequisite: at least one 200-level creative writing class. Instructor’s signature required for enrollment.)
ENGL 418: Advanced Technical Writing (Latterell)
This course serves students working toward careers as professional or technical writers or as specialists in your chosen field but with an emphasis on communication skills. This is a project-based writing course that focuses on how content and document design matter if we are producing documents that help readers carry out tasks, answer their questions, and/or motivate them to take action. Students will produce a range of documents that incorporate multimedia and digital elements. We will also study the impact of generative AI on students’ chosen careers, as well as work with AI while producing content on some assignments. Writing is not disappearing in the workplace, but students need to prepare for how writing is changing with the presence of AI. (NOTES: this course counts toward the English major, the Writing & Digital Media minor, and is required for the concentration in technical writing. It is infrequently offered; interested students should take it now. It will be offered as a remote synchronous course through the Digital Learning Cooperative and will be open to students at multiple Penn State campuses.)
ENGL 424: Creative Writing and the Natural World (Davis)
If you like to hike in the woods, learning the names of plants and animals, then this is a class for you. We’ll be reading the work of such important figures in contemporary nature writing as Mary Oliver, Galway Kinnell, and Rick Bass. Then we’ll be writing our own poems and stories about our experiences in the natural world. Be prepared to get your feet muddy and to fill your journal with all you’ve seen! (Cross-listed with ENVST 424)
ENGL 434: Topics in American Literature/“Trickster Literature” (Simpson)
In this course we’ll track the figure of the trickster from several of his (and her) origins in folklore from around the world to some of Trickster’s most remarkable appearances in contemporary American literature. What Anansi and Eshu of Africa, Monkey of China, Crow and Coyote of Native North America, and B’rer Rabbit of African American culture have in common is a propensity for shapeshifting, an affinity for crossroads, borders, and in-between spaces, a tendency to wander, a serious sense of play, and a love of ambiguity. At once fool and hero, Trickster functions in traditional and modern cultures as mediator between worlds, transgressing and disrupting boundaries, rules, and limits, and thus facilitating needed social change. Examining traditional trickster tales alongside contemporary American works by Toni Morrison, Gerald Vizenor, Maxine Hong Kingston, and others, we’ll ask what brings Trickster and their bag of tricks to the pages of postmodern multicultural texts, and what that, in turn, can help us understand about the significance of the trickster in oral and written literatures throughout literary periods and traditions. Students will make connections between the assigned texts in this course and other literary works they have studied throughout their college coursework in English and create an original analytical research project that both reveals Trickster and explores thier function across literary traditions. In addition to engaging in intensive reading and writing activities throughout the semester, students in the course will share responsibility for course discussions by leading and participating actively in them. (NOTE: This course meets concurrently with ENGL 487W. Students planning to graduate in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 should take the ENGL 487W version.)
ENGL 487W: Senior Seminar in English/“Trickster Literature” (Simpson)
In this course we’ll track the figure of the trickster from several of his (and her) origins in folklore from around the world to some of Trickster’s most remarkable appearances in contemporary American literature. What Anansi and Eshu of Africa, Monkey of China, Crow and Coyote of Native North America, and B’rer Rabbit of African American culture have in common is a propensity for shapeshifting, an affinity for crossroads, borders, and in-between spaces, a tendency to wander, a serious sense of play, and a love of ambiguity. At once fool and hero, Trickster functions in traditional and modern cultures as mediator between worlds, transgressing and disrupting boundaries, rules, and limits, and thus facilitating needed social change. Examining traditional trickster tales alongside contemporary American works by Toni Morrison, Gerald Vizenor, Maxine Hong Kingston, and others, we’ll ask what brings Trickster and their bag of tricks to the pages of postmodern multicultural texts, and what that, in turn, can help us understand about the significance of the trickster in oral and written literatures throughout literary periods and traditions. Students will make connections between the assigned texts in this course and other literary works they have studied throughout their college coursework in English and create an original analytical research project that both reveals Trickster and explores their function across literary traditions. In addition to engaging in intensive reading and writing activities throughout the semester, students in the course will share responsibility for course discussions by leading and participating actively in them. (NOTE: This course meets concurrently with ENGL 434. Students planning to graduate in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 should take the ENGL 487W version.)
Also of interest to English majors:
AMST 100: Introduction to American Studies (Petrulionis)
This course will be an interdisciplinary introduction to American literature, history, and political culture centered on the theme of “Slavery, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era in American Literature and Film.” We will examine the institution of American slavery, the Civil War that resulted from it, and the post-war Reconstruction years through various perspectives, including defenses by politicians, ministers, economists, and scientists (such as Thomas Jefferson, Senator John C. Calhoun, Univ. of Penn professor Samuel Morton). We will read about rebellions carried out by enslaved men and women (The Confessions of Nat Turner), firsthand accounts of daring escapes (William and Ellen Craft’s Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative), antislavery speeches and stories that span several decades, including works by well-known authors Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau, Harpers Ferry raider John Brown, and others. Throughout the semester, we’ll also watch films that bring slavery to the big screen, assessing how well (or not) filmmakers have handled the responsibility of accurately dramatizing the lives of enslaved African Americans. (Counts as GH, US Cultures)