English Course Offerings- Fall 2025
Note for Students
Registration begins April 7th. Advising week is March 31st-April 4th. We encourage you to meet with your advisor.
Please note there could be some adjustments in delivery mode options, like an additional SO section associated with an in-seat class. These changes may not be reflected in this listing but could be found in the online schedule when it goes live on March 17th.
For a full listing of all the courses offered in English, please see the undergraduate catalog or graduate catalog.
Also, did you know that ISU has millions of dollars in scholarships available every year? Register in the Bengal Online Scholarship System to receive updates on scholarships relevant to your major and interests. Sign up today.
English also offers scholarships specific to our program for undergraduate students and TAships/Fellowships for graduate students. You can find information about these awards here.
Delivery Mode Legend
SO courses are online courses that meet Synchronously Online (have a specific day/time meeting pattern).
AO courses are online courses that meet Asynchronously Online (are done anytime on your schedule).
BL courses are blended courses whose in-seat time has been reduced due to a strong online component.
DL courses are distance learning courses that have sections on different campuses such as Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, and/or Meridian as well as a possible online option.
If no delivery mode is indicated, this is an in-seat only course.
ENGL 1101/1101P (Objective 1): Writing and Rhetoric I/Plus
Multiple sections offered, see MyISU class schedule.
In this course students will read, analyze, and write expository essays for a variety of purposes consistent with expectations for college-level writing in standard edited English.
ENGL 1102 (Objective 1): Writing and Rhetoric II
Multiple sections offered, see MyISU class schedule.
Writing essays based on readings. Students will focus on critical reading, research methods, gathering ideas and evidence, and documentation.
ENGL 1107 (Objective 7): Nature of Language
01: TR 4-5:15 pm SO with Elizabeth Redd (CRN: 12519)
This course is an introduction to the field of linguistics. We will look at how the study of language is approached by linguists within the discipline of linguistics and by linguists within the discipline of anthropology, as well as exploring how other fields utilize linguistics for their own interests while impacting the whole field of linguistics in the process. Because this is a survey course, we only examine a portion of the many areas within linguistics without going into great detail in any one area.
ENGL 1123: Advanced Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English
01: TR 9:30-10:45 with STAFF (CRN: 11532)
Introduction to the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing) and concepts such as audience, purpose, and thesis. Continued emphasis on development of grammar and vocabulary.
ENGL 1126 (Objective 4A): Art of Film I
01-03: Thurs. 6-8:30 pm DL with Carlen Donovan
In Art of Film I, we will explore the creative process, artistic principles, and history of cinema. Through film viewings, readings, writing, and discussion, we will analyze influential films, examine major movements, and explore critical approaches and filmmaking techniques. Our goal is for you to develop the skills to critically analyze and evaluate films, both in and outside of class, while gaining a deeper understanding of the human experience through the art of film.
ENGL 1126 (Objective 4A): Art of Film I
04: TR 11-12:15 with Roger Schmidt (CRN: 13049)
A history of film from its early years in Hollywood to the most recent Oscar winners, with emphasis on aesthetic principles, technical aspects, and the creative process. Classic films in a variety of genres and from each era will be watched and discussed.
ENGL 1126 (Objective 4A): Art of Film I
05: MW 1-1:50 BL with Matthew Levay (CRN: 13050)
What can we gain by viewing a film not solely in terms of its entertainment value, but also as a work of art? Why does film matter, as a form of human expression, as a reflection of a historical moment, or as an example of how popular art forms imagine their audiences? By watching and discussing a wide range of films—from early silent cinema to lavish, technicolor Hollywood productions, international arthouse cinema to popular genres like Westerns and film noir—we’ll learn how to understand film in new ways, becoming more critical thinkers on one of the most important art forms of our era.
ENGL 1175 (Objective 4A): Literature and Ideas: The Human Condition
01: AO with Dawn Lattin (CRN: 12152)
Why Do People Do What They Do? Explore the Human Condition Through Literature!
What drives human choices? How do stories, poems, and plays help us make sense of love, conflict, ambition, and identity? In English 1175, Literature and Ideas, we will search for these answers by exploring the emotions, struggles, and triumphs that define the human experience.
In this course, we will:
- Examine how literature reflects the complexities of human nature.
- Analyze characters, conflicts, and themes to uncover deeper truths.
- Explore cultural, historical, and psychological perspectives on human behavior.
- Engage with literature in meaningful ways—through discussion, writing, and creative projects.
This course is designed for anyone interested in literature; it’s not just for English majors!
ENGL 2206: Creative Writing Workshop
01: MWF 12-12:50 with Susan Goslee (CRN: 10021)
02: TR 11-12:15 with Susan Goslee (CRN: 10749)
This class will introduce you to the study of creative writing craft in the genres of poetry, the short story, and creative nonfiction. We’ll read a variety of contemporary texts from a craft-based perspective to learn how authors construct their work. We’ll also practice elements of the creative process, from generating material to revising polished drafts, with the goal of creating works that are valuable to and rewarding for an audience of readers. In class-wide workshops of student works, we’ll practice giving and being receptive to critical feedback. We’ll also have fun with discussions and collaborative activities designed to encourage creative thinking.
ENGL 2210 (Objective 9): American Cultural Studies: 'That's Entertainment' in American Culture
01: AO with William Donovan (CRN: 11533)
Learn about American Culture through what entertains us: ghost stories, Disney animated features, and attending elite cultural events. Textbooks available free as pdf download.
ENGL 2211: Introduction to Literary Analysis
01: MW 11-11:50 BL with Matthew Levay (CRN: 10022)
02: MW 11-11:50 SO/BL with Matthew Levay (CRN: 11974)
What does it mean to read or write like an English major? What strategies can we use to interpret a literary work, and what makes those strategies effective? How do we do research in literary studies? This course answers these questions by introducing students to a wide variety of literary forms—novels, poems, and plays from multiple time periods—and an even wider variety of possibilities for analysis. We’ll learn what makes literature formally distinctive from other art forms, how literature affects and is affected by its historical and cultural contexts, and why people still debate what counts as “literature.”
ENGL 2215 (Objective 4A): Survey of World Mythology
01: MWF 12-12:50 with Michael Stubbs (CRN: 13051)
02: MWF 12-12:50 SO with Michael Stubbs (CRN: 13059)
03: TR 9:30-10:45 with Michael Stubbs (CRN: 13738)
Why do people tell stories of supernatural gods, spirits, objects, and people? What do these stories mean? What do these stories reveal about their cultures of origin? Students will analyze, discuss, and write about world mythologies. We will study the myths of the ancient Egyptians, Japanese, Scandinavians, and the Aztecs.
ENGL 2267: Survey of British Literature I
01: MWF 9-9:50 with Jessica Winston (CRN: 10023)
02: MWF 9-9:50 SO with Jessica Winston (CRN: 12386)
While many think of early literature as "hard," it is more helpful to think of it as strange and often surprising. This literature presents subjects that are at once puzzling and familiar, representing social norms and cultural problems that are distant from us and relevant to our own day. This course helps students to engage with some of the great authors and works in early British literature. It provides historical, linguistic, and literary contexts for making sense of works written in earlier versions of English and representing seemingly distant times.
ENGL 2277: Survey of American Literature I
01: TR 11-12:15 with Margaret Johnson (CRN: 10024)
02: TR 11-12:15 SO with Margaret Johnson (CRN: 14905)
The U.S. Declaration of Independence famously states that “all men are created equal” and they have “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” How well does the vision of America shown through its literature demonstrate these ideas? English 2277 surveys American literature from its beginnings through the end of the Civil War. We will explore major themes, genres, and forms central to early American writers; and we will discuss social, historical, and aesthetic concerns to which the literature responds. We will trace American literature from its origins, considering how the wide range of literary texts and their viewpoints contribute to as well as challenge our understanding of American literature and history.
ENGL 2280: Grammar and Usage
01: TR 230-3:45 SO with Sonja Launspach (CRN: 11975)
This course is a basic introduction to the grammar of standard English. Through preparation and participation, students should be able to use grammar terminology appropriately, identify the lexical categories of words, and analyze the different components of grammar, such as phrases and clauses. The class uses a Team Based Learning approach. Part of our discussion may include the historical development and use of grammatical forms. Assignments will include individual knowledge application exercises, team concept explorations, quizzes, textual analysis and a final grammatical analysis.
ENGL 2281: Introduction to Language Studies
01-04: MWF 10-10:50 DL with Brent Wolter
The emergence of language is perhaps the most important development in human history. And although most people deftly use their first language, many of them don’t understand the basic structures and principles that underpin it. The first part of this course introduces students to the predictable patterns and systems that underlie human languages, such as syntax (the order words can occur in sentences), semantics (what words mean), phonology (how sounds are physically produced and perceived), and phonology (the rules that underlie the sound systems of a language). The second part of the course takes a closer look at various applied fields of linguistics, such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, first and second language acquisition, pragmatics, and so forth.
ENGL 3307: Professional and Technical Writing
Multiple sections offered, see MyISU class schedule.
No matter what field you are going into, communication both written and oral will be a major part of your daily life. This course will teach you how to communicate professionally through various documents such as proposals, emails, reports, webpages, resumes and more. Course content will enable students to tailor documents for readers and users within their chosen fields of study. Additionally, since most people will be working collaboratively in the professional world, team work is stressed. Students often remark that this is one of the most valuable courses they have taken because it prepares them for work beyond the university.
ENGL 3308: Business Communication
Multiple sections offered, see MyISU class schedule.
An advanced course in conventions of business communications, emphasizing purpose and audience. Focus on style, semantics, research skills, format, persuasion, and critical analysis and synthesis of data.
ENGL 3311: Literary Criticism and Theory
01: TR 11-12:15 with Gibette Encarnación (CRN: 11044)
02: TR 11-12:15 SO with Gibette Encarnación(CRN: 14909)
Provides an introduction to theoretical approaches to literature with study of at least 4 or 5 major critical movements. Prepares students for future literature classes and fosters critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Students will practice applying theoretical/critical approaches by writing multiple short papers and/or an in-depth research paper.
ENGL 3323: Studies in Fiction: History of the Novel-A Global Journey
01: AO with Alan Johnson (CRN: 13739)
This course introduces you to the history of the novel as a genre. If we think of the novel as a long and generally cohesive story, then we can see many versions of it across the globe, from ancient times to the present. But before the age of print, only the literate few had access to stories written on clay tablets, scrolls, papyrus, bamboo, and other such materials that needed to be handwritten. Only in the 1500s do we start to get large printings of long narratives, which, for example, Spanish writer Cervantes’ Don Quixote benefited from in 1605. We will therefore begin this class with what many call the modern novel. By “modern” novel, we mean one that has ordinary, fallible characters whose individual lives nonetheless matter, whose thoughts and emotions we are able to follow, and who can participate in the making of history. We will read some representative works that will help us understand and enjoy the many styles, or sub-genres, of the novel, such as historical romances, realism, magical realism, and modernism. We will compare these different forms and their conventions, and look at some theories of the novel. Novels and novellas, and in some cases excerpts from these, that we may read include Don Quixote, Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West (1592), Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1856), James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898), Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), and Morrison’s Beloved (1988).
ENGL 4402/5502: User Experience Design and Usability
01-05: M 4-6:30 pm DL with Abraham Romney
User Experience Design and Usability is an interdisciplinary course ideal for English majors, especially those in Professional Writing, as well as students in design, engineering, or computer science fields. A required course for the new Technical Communication Certificate, it introduces students to UX design and usability principles, with a focus on UX writing—crafting clear, concise content that enhances user experiences.
Through hands-on projects, you’ll gain practical skills in user experience research, analyzing user needs to create intuitive digital communication. This course equips you with valuable tools for careers in technical writing, content strategy, software design, and beyond, emphasizing collaboration between writers, designers, and developers.
ENGL 4407/5507: Topics in Tech and Prof Communication: The Rhetoric and Design of Board Games
01: W 4-6:30 pm with Robert Watkins (CRN: 11315/13754)
Board games explore complex economic, philosophical, literary, and rhetorical concepts. This course has two goals: to rhetorically analyze board games and to design board game instructional documentation. The analytical goal will consist of playing the games, reading theory, discussing ideas from the games, and writing interpretive analyses. The production goal will consist of creating original instructional manuals for an existing game or original game relying on visual rhetoric, document design, UX studies, and technical communication.
ENGL 4408/5508: Advanced Fiction Workshop
01: W 4-6:30 pm with Bethany Schultz Hurst (CRN: 12304/12305)
In Art of the Subtext, Charles Baxter states that fiction “is not a summary of plot but a collection of specific instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unseen.” In this advanced short fiction workshop, we’ll consider how those specific details—as well as elements like staging, dialogue, and action—can be arranged to create the subtext that allows our short stories to more fully express our different ways of being in the world. While we investigate short fiction by a variety contemporary writers, we’ll practice specific strategies and work toward polished drafts that we’ll share in class workshops.
ENGL 4433: Methods of Teaching Literature
02: Thurs. 4-6:30 pm SO with Amanda Zink (CRN: 12384)
This course studies the objectives and methods of teaching literature and composition in the secondary schools (grades 6-12). It is ideally taken the semester before you do your student teaching. In this course you will learn strategies and techniques for teaching reading, writing, and grammar; you will become aware of and think critically about current problems in pedagogy; you will prepare to defend your pedagogical choices rationally and articulately while constructing unit plans.
ENGL 4465/5565: Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature: Music and Theatre
01-05: T 4-6:30 pm DL with Roger Schmidt
A closer look at some of the major music compositions and theatre productions of Eighteenth-Century England. Examples include: David Garrick’s portrayals of Shakespeare’s characters, The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay, and Handel’s Messiah.
ENGL 4466/5566: Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Nineteenth-Century Travels and Transports
01: TR 1-2:15 with Matthew VanWinkle (CRN: 13742/13758)
02: TR 1-2:15 SO with Matthew VanWinkle (CRN: 13759/13760)
Whether bringing new eyes to the natural world or taking stock of industrial impacts, British literature of the nineteenth century frequently portrayed subjects in motion: at sea, on the rails, tracing well-worn paths close to home and chasing fortunes to the very edges of empire. This class maps how some of the era’s most memorable fiction and poetry engage with a variety of voyages and ventures in a rapidly changing world.
ENGL 4475/5575: Topics in Literature, Identity, and Place: Medieval Gender and Power
01: MW 1-2:15 with Thomas Klein and Meghan Woolley (CRN: 14893/14922)
02: MW 1-2:15 SO with Thomas Klein and Meghan Woolley (CRN: 14923/14924)
When we picture medieval men and women, we often imagine them in straightforward gender roles: the fierce warrior, the beautiful lady. However, the landscape of gender in the Middle Ages was complex. It included many people who did not fit into simple gender roles, such as powerful female lords, celibate monks and nuns, and female warriors. In this class, we will examine ideas about gender from medieval Europe. How did ideas about gender and power change over time?
We will read a wide range of medieval sources, including romance literature, heroic epics, letters, trial records, and religious texts. We will also consider representations of medieval gender within popular culture and medieval reenactments, and what those representations say about both medieval history and modern sentiments.
This new class will be co-taught by Dr Meghan Woolley, professor of medieval history, and Dr Thomas Klein, professor of Old English. It is available both in-seat and over Zoom, and fulfills requirements for undergraduate and graduate students in English, History, and other programs.
ENGL 4488/5588: Introduction to Sociolinguistics
01: MW 4-5:15 SO with Elizabeth Redd (CRN: 15335/15338)
Study of the patterned covariation of language and society, social dialects and social styles in language; problems of bilingualism, multilingualism, creoles and language uses.
ENGL 4491: Senior Literary Studies Portfolio
01: TBD with Brent Wolter (CRN: 14894)
For English - Literary majors in catalog years 2024 and later. Students submit a portfolio of their two best papers, at least one of which should include research and citations, and a brief reflection on how they have developed as writers and thinkers relative to the outcomes of the major and literary track.
ENGL 6612 Introduction to Graduate Studies
01: T 7-9:30 pm with Matthew VanWinkle (CRN: 10026)
02: T 7-9:30 pm SO with Matthew VanWinkle (CRN: 12383)
Introduces students to major literary theories and approaches and trains them in scholarly research methods. Requires development of a substantial research proposal.
ENGL 6625 Seminar in a Literary Period, Pre-1800: Medieval Women Mystics and Intellectuals
01: M 7-9:30 pm with Thomas Klein (CRN: 14895)
02: M 7-9:30 pm SO with Thomas Klein (CRN: 14925)
This course will explore the writings and lives of medieval female (and male) authors. We group their texts according to two general themes: first, we will study a group of women writers who, despite everything, were both genuine intellectuals and women of the world, active in the cosmopolitan contexts of their day.
We will then move to the writings and lives of female mystics, those who sought or professed an intimate and immediate knowledge of God, either in the vita contemplativa, as voluntarily enclosed recluses, or in the vita activa, as visionaries and prophets. We will consider how these writers negotiated a highly patriarchal, often misogynistic textual world to make their own way among forms of medieval authorship. We will also explore the dynamic world of medieval visionaries and dream visions.
The Paston Letters record the daily concerns and hopes of both male and female members of a medieval family, offering a view into the lives of (well-to-do) medieval women. Reading the texts of Julian of Norwich and Christine de Pizan will allow us to explore themes of personal revelation, autobiography, and female self-assertion in the later Middle Ages. The stories of Joan of Arc, Langland’s Piers Plowman, the Pearl Poet, and the Ancrene Wisse give insight to the vision-haunted world of the European Middle Ages.
ENGL 6631: Seminar in Teaching Writing
01: W 7-9:30 pm with Robert Watkins (CRN: 10027)
02: W 7-9:30 pm SO with Robert Watkins (CRN: 12564)
Systematic application of contemporary composition theory to the teaching of writing; includes readings in and discussion of theories, research issues, and practices relevant to effective teaching and learning in composition classrooms.
ENGL 6680: Introduction to Linguistics
01: Thurs. 7-9:30 pm with Sonja Launspach (CRN: 14896)
02: Thurs. 7-9:30 pm SO with Sonja Launspach (CRN: 14926)
This course is the first course in the TESOL certificate program sequence. It will provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts and methodologies of modern linguistics necessary for work in ESL. Areas of study include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics, as well as language acquisition issues. The course will provide opportunities to explore the practical application of the topics covered in the course.