Professional Writing

When we want to convey a message to others, how do we choose whether to Tweet, blog, or shoot video? And why does it matter which we choose? Contemporary life asks us to be agile interpreters of images, texts, and sounds. In response, this course immerses students into the theory and practice of how and why we choose the media in which we communicate. Students explore how we understand and manipulate media, but also how media-in and of themselves-influence what gets written and how. Through an assignment sequence that includes text, webtext, image, sound, and video, students gain strength and versatility as writers by honing their awareness of genre, audience, and rhetorical situation. The course culminates in a multimodal, web-based portfolio. This course may be of interest to those considering not only professional writing, but also business, marketing, technology, creative entrepreneurship, media studies, art, and/or design.

3 CreditsH,CW,CTDHPre-Req: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.

The study of rhetoric investigates the art of persuasion. The course introduces the basic rhetorical concepts and language we need to make sense of the sea of messages we swim in. The course aims to sharpen your ability to reason, reflect, send, perceive and discern messages in a variety of contexts. Upon completion of this course students understand several humanistic perspectives toward communication and are able to apply the basic tools of rhetorical analysis. Students have an increased awareness of the ways in which our symbolic behaviors shape our social lives.

3 CreditsH, CS 

Seeks to develop and improve fundamental principles and methods of selecting, organizing, developing, and communicating a line of reasoning and evidence for constructive influence in speaking situations. Students make three formal presentations, analyze messages, and improve their listening skills

3 CreditsCS, HPrerequisites: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior standing.

This course is designed to improve communication with others in small group task and problem-solving situations. Working with a community partner students propose, plan and carry out a service project. We explore ways of developing communication strategies for group decision making, for leadership, and for managing interpersonal conflict, as well as presentations skills. This course takes a balanced approach to understanding and using communication theories, as well as offering practical experience using those skills for working in small groups. By the end of the semester students understand the group experience in terms of shared leadership of working cooperatively with diverse group members; and the necessity for ethical choices.

4 CreditsH, CS, SW-LEPrerequisite: CM-130 or CM-132 or CM-133. Pre- or Co-Requisite: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.

This course aims to develop a deeper understanding of the art of storytelling and the ability to create narratives for specific and diverse audiences and purposes across multiple mediums. To be able to create impactful stories that can achieve the goals we set as storytellers, we will focus on audience analysis, narrative structure and storytelling for different mediums. AI and ChatGPT will be used to explore the ideas of intercultural sensitivity, empathy, perspective, and humor in storytelling.

3 Credits

This introductory course focuses on how information technologies shape the way we think and organize ourselves. In studying the technology of the book, social media and the metaverse, students explore change and technology as central to the decision making of leaders. 

3 CreditsH, CW, CSPrerequisites: CM133 or IT110 or IT111.

Designed for students to improve and polish their speaking skills for effective presentations in professional settings. It is a performance course with emphasis placed on speech structure, audience adaptation, style of presentation (oral report and manuscript reading), with the use of PowerPoint and/or Prez1. Video is used to help speakers understand the relationship between their speaking behaviors and responses of listeners.

3 CreditsCS, HPrerequisites: CM200.

Designed to explore analytical approaches applied to a variety of media, including advertising, television sitcoms, new shows, propaganda, film, music and architecture, in order to ascertain the persuasive messages inherent in each artifact. By examining the rhetorical choices revealed by each method of criticism, we can better understand the structure of message design, the medium and in a larger sense the cultural values that shape both.

3 CreditsH, CW, CSPrerequisites: CM132 or CM133.

Digital stories derive their power in weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, and thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights. This course offers students the opportunity to experiment with narratives and their visualization using digital media technologies as a vehicle to tell stories creatively with a clear point of view and audience awareness.

3 CreditsH, F, CTDHPrerequisites: CM133 or 1 of the following courses, CM290 or IT110 or AR404.

The discipline of design is basic to all forms of visual art, including painting, drawing, photography, ceramics and illustration. This course is designed to acquaint the student with the basic elements of picture structure: composition, line, shape, value, texture, color, scale, proportion, tension, and balance. Note: A special fee for art supplies is assessed.

3 CreditsF,CTDH  

This course focuses on photography and the creation of digital imagery. Students will learn to operate a DSLR camera and complete projects utilizing a variety of photographic techniques and genres. Students will learn to express visual concepts through photography while utilizing specific techniques unique to the creation of digital photographic artwork. Final works will be exhibited electronically and in print. Students will also look at the work of contemporary photographers and prepare a presentation on one photographer. The course utilizes primarily Adobe Photoshop on a Mac platform.

4 CreditsF, WK-CE  

This course focuses on the creation of art through electronic processes. Adobe Creative Cloud and other apps will be utilized along with scanners, cameras, and printers. Final works will be exhibited electronically and in print.

4 CreditsF,CTDH,WK-CE  

Video Production I is a practical hands-on experience with cinematography, audio production, and lighting. Students learn the necessary skills to tell an well produced digital story with appropriate technical knowledge to enhance the narrative and audience engagement. This course will teach students how to work as a professional videographer by expanding digital media knowledge and techniques. Students will learn the technical foundations of video production, camera operation, lighting, audio acquisition and editing. Students will be encouraged to investigate the impact of video content based on the viewer in addition to artistic potential through digital storytelling.

3 CreditsF,CTDHPrerequisites: IM110 or permission by permission of instructor with prior video experience. 

Community Design Lab (formerly Integrated Media Arts Lab I) is a laboratory context of experimentation and discussion for students in the IMA Program. Students are given the opportunity to engage in a reciprocal partnership with a local community partner. Working in a team-driven environment with a local community partner students propose, plan, and complete a real world design project. The course includes reflection, design deliverables, and client presentations throughout the semester. Community Engaged Learning designated. 

3 CreditsCTDHPrerequisite IM110, sophomore standing or higher. 

English students may apply their acquired skills and knowledge in on-the-job internships of a semester during their junior or senior year for a total of 9 credit hours. Television stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, public relations and advertising agencies are all possible placements for the Juniata interns, who not only work as full-time members of the business's team but also evaluate and document their growth in a journal and prepare a portfolio of presentations or publications.

2-9 CreditsHPrerequisites: Permission of the instructor and Junior or Senior standing. Corequisite: EN495.

In addition to the on-the-job experience provided by the internship, the student is required to pursue research related to the placement. An in-depth research paper or presentation is completed during the semester and turned in for a possible 3 credit hours.

2-6 CreditsHPrerequisites: Permission of instructor and Junior or Senior standing. Corequisite: EN490.

This course serves as a capstone experience in English that culminates in a substantial written thesis. The individual research project is conducted under the guidance of an English department faculty member. When completed, the thesis is presented in a public forum such as Liberal Arts Symposium, an oral defense, or a conference.

2-4 CreditsHPrerequisites: EN120, EN122, EN204 and EN493; Senior standing.

In this course, we'll explore the three primary creative writing genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Through assigned texts, we'll establish a common vocabulary of concepts for discussing form, voice, point of view, structure, and other important elements of craft. You'll then put those concepts into practice by writing in each genre. Every student will be required to submit at least one poem, essay, or work of fiction to be read and discussed during in-class workshops.

4 CreditsWK-CEPrerequisite: FYC-101

Allows the department to offer special topics not normally offered. Departments may offer more than one special topic.

1-4 Credits Prerequisites vary by title.

An introduction to the study of literary forms, including poetry, drama, short story, novel, novella, and essay. Students will read texts from a wide variety of genres and historical periods, to examine how litereay forms developed and gain/lost popularity over time. Students will learn the vocabulary and technique of literary analysis.

3 CreditsH 

Utilizing Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, World War Z, and other popular works of fiction for class, this introductory course will engage students in the fundamental terms and approaches needed to analyze, appreciate and discuss works of fiction at the college level. Students will study introductory elements of literary theory, emphasizing using various social and theoretical perspectives, as a means of learning how to identify cultural and literary meaning within texts.

4 CreditsH 

Studies literature by and about women; looks at the rich history of women's literature and the variety of traditional and non- traditional approaches women have used to describe their experience, from poetry, plays, and novels to letters and diaries; explores the effect of culture on women's writing.

4 CreditsH 

Studies works of African, Asian, Latin American, South American,Caribbean and Native American literature. Discussions focus on ways literature reveals cultural perspectives and philosophies.

3 CreditsH, I 

Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer of the mid-twentieth century, famously said: " 90% of everything is crap. " He was right, too: there's a lot of crap out there. And we'll be reading some of it in this class. But-what do we mean when we say literature is " crap " ? Isn't it just a matter of taste? And if it isn't, how can we tell crap from genius? And who decides? And if 90 percent of everything is in fact crap, does the crap serve any useful function in society? All of these questions and many more, as we enter the wonderful world of bad literature.

3 CreditsH 

In this course we will examine the ways in which specific novels, short stories and films explore various perspectives on nightmarish or ideal societies through alternative political and social ideologies. The class will introduce various literary theories (including Marxism, approaches to feminism and New Historicism) as well as the genre and history of utopian and dystopian literature. V for Vendetta, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Plato's Atlantis writings, Children of Men and other works will be covered during the semester.

3 CreditsHPrerequisites: EN110 or EN109.

Pennsylvania is a rich and storied landscape featuring a large rural area bookended by two historic cities, all serving as the backdrop for this course. Using literature and film, as well as articles, musical selections, and local engagement activities, this course will examine stories portraying various cultures, lifestyles, and people in Pennsylvania. This course will also consider how many of the different communities and peoples that make up the Keystone State have been represented historically and in fiction. Students will also explore some of the complex social, political, and economic contexts that have shaped the state's history as well as the lived experiences of its people.

4 CreditsH,SW-USPre-Req: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.

Students will consider ways in which sports literature written over the last eighty years reveals the developing and shifting American ideologies concerning subjects such as race, gender, sexuality, and justice, over that same time period. Students will also develop an understanding of the genres and purposes in various forms of sports literature, including newspaper articles, magazine feature articles, short stories, and novels.

3 CreditsHPrerequisite: EN110 or EN109.

In this course students will read a variety of novels and review media that inspires and reflects our cultural fixation with zombies. Through critical thinking, analysis, and discussion, students will explore the intersections between fictional zombies and actual cultural practices that reflect the mindlessness of a zombie culture.

4 CreditsCA, HPrerequisites: EN110 or EN108 & EN109.

This course explores the experiences of men and boys as represented through works of fiction and analyzed via cultural, economic and social contexts. The course considers " maleness " as a social construct and how perceptions within American society influence men's actions and the ways in which they perceive themselves, other men, women, and social situations.

3 CreditsH 

This course considers how various texts portray individuals with disabilities. Via short stories, novels, theoretical articles, films, and memoirs we will explore ways that stereotypical portrayals can stigmatize and discriminate against people with disabilities. The class will also examine narratives and voices that question the definition of 'normal' as well as reinterpret traditional representations of disability. We will consider key concepts such as ableism, justice, access, and the medical and social models of disability. The course will also introduce some of the ways that disability intersects with other aspects of identity such as gender, sexuality, race, and class.

3 CreditsH 

An examination of works of literature that have been labeled obscene. Using examples from the comedy of Aristophanes to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, the course looks at why and how serious writers deploy scandalous and offensive elements in their work.

3 CreditsH, CW 

Applying various cultural and theoretical perspectives, students will view and read works from Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Kurt Vonnegut, Salman Rushdie, David Foster Wallace and others to examine ways that consumerism, technology, social institutions and other facets of modern culture and society shape identities and influence the human condition. 

4 CreditsCAPrerequisites: EN110 or EN109.

The United States has always been a violent nation, and American writers have used that violence to explore questions of justice, truth, and human nature. This course will examine the portrayal of violence in writers from Poe to Cormac McCarthy.

3 CreditsH 

A survey of African American literature from the mid-18th century to the present, with emphasis on both the vernacular/oral and written traditions of African American literature and attention to the historical and cultural contexts in which the literature was created. Readings include folktales, slave narratives, autobiographies, poetry, stories, novels, essays, sermons and speeches, hymns and spirituals, as well as blues and gospel music and works by such writers as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Amiri Baraka, and others.

3 CreditsCA, HPrerequisites: EN110.

The personal autobiographies of American slaves are the foundational works of the African American literary tradition, and they have influenced generations of American authors. Originally written as a means of promoting the abolition of slavery, contemporary writers have taken this historical form and transformed it to reflect upon the past and engage with problems of the present. Neo-slave narratives are a reminder that, as Faulkner writes, " The past is never dead. It's not even past. " In this course, we will read a variety of original slave narratives and put them in dialogue with contemporary fictionalized slave narratives. In doing so, we will explore topics such as the boundaries between fact and fiction, the political uses of literature, the afterlife of slavery, and many others.

4 CreditsH, CWPrerequisites: EN110 or EN109.

Deaths. Betrayals. Loves lost. Falls from grace. These calamities, and those that suffer them, have captivated dramatists, novelists, philosophers, and theoreticians since the first tragedy was staged in ancient Athens over 2,500 years ago. This course will explore how literary cultures have understood and expressed notions of tragedy in different historical periods. By examining the ways in which we inflict and endure suffering, we will consider how literary tragedy informs our understanding of the human condition.

3 CreditsH 

Students will read & analyze a variety of literature from the Young Adult Lit category. Students will engage in class discussions and make presentations based on individual research.

3 CreditsH 

In this course, we will explore the use of literature as a means of protesting social injustice throughout U.S. history. How have American authors used novels, poems, stories, and essays to illustrate social problems, create empathy, and advocate for social change? What are the boundaries between art and politics? How might literary aesthetics inspire social action? How has literature shaped social progress and vice versa? Questions of literary form, merit, and content will guide our search, as will questions of representation, politics, and economics. Though topics will range widely (but often intersect), we will ask how each literary work engages with the foundational statement of American dissent, " The Declaration of Independence. "

4 CreditsSW-USPrerequisite or corequisite: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109.

This course will explore how film communicates the myths of a various societies to its members. By combining theoretical approaches to myth with film analysis, we will explore the ways in which cinema both influences and reflects the way we think, what we value, fear, and aspire to achieve. Focusing on some of the most prevalent themes in this genre, students will be introduced to Classical and contemporary adaptations of myths and their historical and cultural contexts, examining how those narratives provide meaning today via cinema.

4 CreditsHPrerequisites: EN110 or EN108 and EN109.

Students will examine the various functions revenge plays in human culture by tracing its role as a literary device from the bloodbaths of popular Greek tragedies to the more psychological retaliation of contemporary works. Engaging in a focused study of the historical and cultural influences that have shaped human notions of revenge over centuries, students will contemplate the often complicated distinctions humans make between perceptions of retribution and justice.

4 CreditsHPrerequisite: EN110 or EN109.

When talking about the canon in literature, we are usually gesturing towards the classics-works of art that have stood the test of time as culturally significant. How did those books become classic in the first place? We will study the histories of canon formation before debating what works to include in a self-designed literary anthology.

4 CreditsH 

Examines historical moments, cultural perspectives, and theatrical constructs that shaped the writing, acting, and reception of Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, and history plays.

3 CreditsHPrerequisite: EN110 or EN109.

By applying queer theory frameworks to a variety of texts, we will examine literary representations of LGBTQ identity. Readings will include works by James Baldwin, John Rechy, Audre Lorde, Leslie Feinberg, Tony Kushner, and others. Topics will include: biological essentialism vs. the social construction of gender and sexual identity; authenticity and performance; social and legal forms of identity categorization and boundary maintenance; the role of literature in social reform; and more.

4 CreditsCA, HPrerequisites: EN110 or EN109.

Heroes-yay! Villains-hiss! All our lives we've learned to think in terms of good guys and bad guys. But why do we think in those categories? And what exactly do we mean by good guys and bad guys? And should we even be in the business of separating good guys from bad guys? This course will take a detailed look at heroes and villains in literature, movies, and television, and ask you to think about the whole duality, and what it means for the stories we tell.

3 CreditsHPrerequisites: EN110 or EN109.

This class will examine the many meanings of " border crossing " in 20th- and 21st-century literature about immigration to the United States. Using critical race theory, this class will put works of fiction and autobiography in historical context to better investigate the influence of immigration law on U.S. national literature. Beginning with short texts from the turn of the twentieth century, we will focus primarily on contemporary works dealing with the post-1965 (or " new wave " ) immigrant experience. Topics will include: " American Dream " mythology, social mobility, generational conflict, acculturation and assimilation, hyphenated identity, nativism, barriers to full citizenship, and more.

4 CreditH,CW,SW-USPrerequisites: FYC-101 or EN-110 or EN-109

This course serves as a capstone experience in English that culminates in a substantial written thesis. The individual research project is conducted under the guidance of an English department faculty member. When completed, the thesis is presented in a public forum such as Liberal Arts Symposium, an oral defense, or a conference.

2-4 CreditsHPrerequisites: EN120, EN122, EN204 and EN493; Senior standing.