Guidelines for constructing an English 300 course:

Based on the External Review process and the long history of assessment in this department, the following things should be part of every English 300 course:

Awareness of genre – representation of fiction, drama, the essay, and poetry—especially poetry, because there is no other place in the curriculum for ensuring that all novice students are introduced to poetry

Mention of opportunities that the English Department has to offer—internships, tutoring at the Write Place, English as a Second Language career possibilities, advising

Mention importance of saving work during years at SCSU for use in developing Senior Seminar portfolio

(Optional): point out MnSCU’s e-portfolio system

Instructors are otherwise free in course design

Here is a list of terms and concepts that the department as a whole gathered in order to provide guidance for English 300 instructors. An important goal of this course is to help students become familiar with some of the key terms in the field.

text

speaker

reader

critic/criticism

audience

persona

voices

tone, mood

languages/discourses

point of view

thesis

argument

fallacy

paradox

exposition

refutation

proof/evidence

analogy

style

strategy

logic

invention

plot

-narrative, narration

-character

-anagnorisis/turning, recognition (?)

-climax

-closure

-setting

metrics

-iambic

-trochaic

-anapest

-dactyl

-tetrameter, pentameter

accent/stress/meter/rhythm

syllable

alliteration/ assonance

rhyme

couplet

slant rhyme

free verse

blank verse

sonnet

genre

poem

lyric

drama

essay

fiction

novel

comedy/tragedy/romance/satire

convention

close reading

literary analysis

allegorical reading

rhetorical analysis

political reading

cultural study

sign/semiotics

linguistics

theory

web/internet/cyberspace

hypertext