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)
2 credits, plus 1 in Spring 2025; Spring course is only 5 weeks
This class will immerse students in the study of diverse texts for young readers by Black writers. We will explore a range of work 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 historic influences on writing and reading literature as well as exploring 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 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 for 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 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. 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 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 436: American Fiction since 1945 (King)
Higher education is in crisis. The causes of that crisis might be debated: declining state support for universities, administrative bloat, out-of-touch liberal professors, out-of-mind conservative politicians, too much free speech, not enough free speech, increasing tuition costs, declining birth rates, artificial intelligence coming for our jobs, and the quarterback of the football team making more NIL money than the provost of the University. You name it, we blame it! All of it is adding up to a sense that, as Paul Tough wrote in the New York Times in September 2023, “Americans’ feelings about higher education have turned sharply negative.” And those feelings are being felt both locally—throughout the Commonwealth and at Penn State Altoona specifically—and across the United States.
This course treats that crisis as an opportunity—an opportunity to forensically investigate the history of higher education in the United States, evaluate the present epideictic rhetorics of praise and blame, and deliberate over the future of higher education both locally and nationally. To help us in our task, we will look at an interdisciplinary range of texts and artifacts: histories, legislation, journalism, and legal cases, as well as novels, films, and television.
