Exciting Summer English Courses Available

This summer, the English Department will be offering students a number of courses to help expand their educational horizons, whether meeting a general education requirement, studying the nuances of language in society, or engaging their creative writing interests. Consider signing up to take a class. Registration begins on March 5, 2018. 

ENGL 100: Composition: a course in critical thinking, reading, and composing, with an emphasis on integrating academic research and documentation. Students read and produce work for a variety of purposes and audiences, focusing on strategies for researching, organizing, drafting, sharing, and revising. To satisfy the composition general education requirement, this course must be taken within a student’s first thirty credit hours of enrollment at UMBC.

ENGL 190: The World of Language—Structural and Biological Aspects: language as a distinctive characteristic of the human species. In this course, we examine the structure of both written and spoken forms of language across cultures, comparing them with animal communication and human gestural systems. We explore language's neurological basis, theories of origin, and first- and second-language learning.

ENGL 191: The World of Language—Cultural and Social Aspects: language as both a reflection and a determiner of social relationships. In this course, we examine the varying idioms of the scientist, the politician, the media, the poet, the child and the magician, and we investigate how language changes and how it marks social groups. Communication strategies and social taboos reflected in language are discussed for various cultures. This is a hybrid course, meeting face-to-face on a regular schedule for the first three weeks of the session; the final three weeks will be online.

ENGL 271: Introduction to Creative Writing—Fiction: an introduction to the writing of prose fiction. This is a hybrid course.

ENGL 272: Introduction to Creative Writing—Scriptwriting: an introduction to scriptwriting, with variable emphasis on drama, film, television, radio, and interactive multimedia

ENGL 393: Technical Communication: This course teaches students from various disciplines to communicate technical information effectively. The course's emphases on critical thinking, synthesis, analysis, and the writing process help students to inform and persuade their audiences through the composition of technical documents. Reflecting a professional writing style and document design principles, these documents demonstrate how text and visuals work together to reach different audiences with specific needs. Students also develop oral communication and collaborative skills along with technological and visual literacy.