Courses
Experience and Engage
CSU English Department Courses
English department courses are opportunities for you to explore the ways in which we employ the language to meet demands of the twenty-first century. A vibrant and diverse group of teacher educators, linguists, literary scholars, novelists, composition specialists, and writers of creative nonfiction comprises your faculty.
Scroll down for descriptions of summer and fall course offerings, and access important links to help you begin mapping out your English education today.

Course Registration, Availability, and the University Course Catalog
The course descriptions on this web page aim to provide a sense of our disciplinary scope. To search for course availability or register for courses, students with access can login to RAMweb. Incoming or prospective students can visit CSU's online course catalog to browse a general listing of English department courses. New students can apply to CSU or reach out for more information. New undergraduates can schedule a visit.
Courses for Summer 2021
The accordion lists below highlight the English department's course offerings for the coming semester. Click on course titles to expand their respective descriptions, and to help plan your immersion in the interdisciplinary study of language arts.
The accordion lists below highlight the English department's course offerings for the coming semester. Click on course titles to expand their respective descriptions, and to help plan your immersion in the interdisciplinary study of language arts.
Scroll to the accordion list for full descriptions of each of the courses featured in this slideshow.
Undergraduate Courses, Summer 2021
CO150 - College Composition, 3 credits, Multiple dates and instructors
CO150 focuses on initiating students into academic discourse and developing composing practices that will prepare them for success as university students and as citizens. Therefore, the course focuses on critical reading and inquiry, writing for a variety of rhetorical situations, and enabling effective writing processes. The course or its equivalent is required by the All-University Core Curriculum to satisfy Category 1a., Basic Competency in Written Communication.
This course is also a gtPathways course. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education has approved CO150 for inclusion in the Guaranteed Transfer (GT) Pathways program in the [GT-2] category. For transferring students, successful completion with a minimum C‒ grade guarantees transfer and application of credit in this GT Pathways category. For more information on the GT Pathways program, go to http://highered.colorado.gov/academics/transfers/gtpathways/curriculum.html
CO130 - Academic Writing, 3 credits, June 15 - Aug 9, Instructor Leslie Davis
In CO130 you will learn writing for academic contexts. As preparation for your other writing-intensive classes, CO130 will develop your research & writing skills in a small class setting.
For some students, CO130 is a required prerequisite for CO150. Other students may elect to take CO130 to further develop their writing skills before completing the required AUCC writing classes — CO150 College Composition and the 300-level advanced writing requirement.
Depending on your ACT/SAT scores, you may test out of CO130. Consult the Composition Placement for more information.
E210 - Beginning Creative Writing, May 18 - July 12, Instructor Felicia Zamora
Introduction to Creative Writing acquaints students with basic principles, techniques, and tools for writing literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. In this writing-intensive course, students will read and write within a community designed to generate, share and discuss the work being created throughout the semester. Students are expected to work on their prose and/or poetry every day, outside of class. Semester activities include writing assignments, writing exercises, large group, and small group discussions, a presentation, a literary reading response, and a fiction and poetry portfolio. The focus of the course is writing, so the emphasis is to practice throughout the three genres, and to read historical and contemporary examples of these genres.
By the end of the course, students participating in E 210 will be able to:
- Identify techniques, tools, and individual elements of writing in the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.
- Analyze readings from three genres from wide and varied examples of published works.
- Produce original works of writing in all three genres.
- Demonstrate knowledge of editing and the revision process by rethinking, editing and revising their own writing throughout the semester.
- Understand the writing workshop format through direct class experience.
- Effectively articulate comments toward other students’ writing by integrating learned creative writing elements into responses.
- Create two portfolios of original work, with revisions, in two of the three genres.
This course can be applied toward the minor in creative writing.
E238 - Contemporary Global Literature, 3 credits, June 15 - August 9, Instructor Jeremy Proctor
Contemporary Global Lit is an exciting exploration of books from the last century to today. Students will study the convergence between literature and important events of the twentieth century such as the Russian communist revolution, the struggle for women’s rights, the aftermath of the Reconstruction era, the colonization of Africa, the search for morality in turbulent postmodern times, and the reaction of fundamentalists in the Middle-East. Beyond the fascinating content of the texts, students will learn new theoretical approaches to studying literature which opens new doors to the way fiction can be read and understood.
This online course includes an original approach to studying fiction. Educational and entertaining video lectures will serve as a guide to the student-led discussions, while treasure hunts motivate students to search for themes and other literary conventions. This course is perfect for those looking for flexibility in their schedule!
CO300 - Writing arguments, 3 credits, Multiple dates and instructors
Reading, analyzing, researching, and writing arguments
CO301B - Writing in the Disciplines: Science, 3 credits, May 18 - August 9
In contrast with scientific writing directed at expert readers, writing about science informs non-experts about how science concepts and discoveries are relevant in our daily lives. Thus, writing about science relies more on analogy than on jargon, more on metaphor than on data tables, and more on writer- based narrative than data-based analysis. Ultimately, writing about science is an educational tool that provides non-technical but interested readers the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the world around them. Some of the best known and widely used examples of writing about science include Scientific American; WebMD; articles about science in TIME, Newsweek, and daily newspapers; and even the brochures we pick up in medical and veterinary offices.
Who are these non-technical but interested readers? Just about anyone. Except when experts write to experts in their own field, writers have to take into account that readers won’t know as much about the science as the writers do. Readers who are less knowledgeable about the science content are more likely to be called non-expert or non-technical readers. Here are some examples of texts to show the range of non-technical readers and how they use science writing texts:
- Webtexts on scientific method with activities that children can do with their parents at home.
- A website that teaches children about the importance of hygiene and vaccinations.
- Materials explaining the physiological and neurological effects of tobacco use to adolescents.
- Newspaper articles explaining the environmental impact and/or benefits of dams on a particular river system.
- Brochures detailing medical treatment options for cancer patients.
- Newsletter articles for fund-raising describing research being done at a local scientific organization.
These are just a few examples of potential texts and readers. Again, anybody can be interested in science and CO301B students study and practice how to write in the sciences effectively.
E311A - Intermediate Fiction Workshop, 3 credits, May 18 - July 12, Instructor Dana Masden
E311A is an eight week online intermediate online fiction workshop. This course deepens the beginner’s fiction writing knowledge learned in E210 through the study of craft and contemporary short stories. Students will learn specifically about sensory imagery, dialogue, characterization, plot, point of view, and setting, as well as writing techniques and process. Students will participate in online whole group and small group workshops of their own short fiction and will produce a final fiction portfolio including an original revised short story and a work of flash fiction. The course is designed to enhance craft knowledge in the techniques of writing fiction, expand the student’s experience in a writing community, encourage a fruitful writing practice, and prepare the student for further advanced workshops.
E311B - Intermediate Creative Writing: Poetry, 3 credits, May 18 - July 12, Instructor Sarah Pipelow
Group discussion of student writing, literary models, and theory; emphasis on developing individual style.
E311C - Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction, 3 credits, May 18 - July 12, Instructor Dana Chellman
Group discussion of student writing, literary models, and theory; emphasis on developing individual style.
E320 - Introduction to the Study of Language, 3 credits, June 15 - August 9, Instructor Luciana Marques
E320 introduces the basic concepts and theories that linguists/applied linguists adopt in trying to understand how language works and how language is used. Language is studied from a structural perspective, with emphasis on morphology, phonetics and phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Additional topics of interest include language variation and language change. This course is recommended for, but not limited to, students interested in language description and its applications, such as TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), language documentation, computational linguistics, foreign language teaching and teaching in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms.
Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to:
- describe and account for the differences and relationships among various sub-fields of linguistics, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics;
- demonstrate control of basic analytical tools and linguistic techniques in the examination of linguistic data to identify and interpret linguistic patterns and state generalizations;
- formulate hypotheses on the basis of observations appropriate for linguistics;
- account for the diversity of language experience and language use; and
- describe the usefulness and relevance of linguistic knowledge to real-world experiences.
E332 - Modern Women Writers, 3 credits, May 18 - June 14, Instructor Aparna Gollapudi
This course brings together twentieth- and twenty-first- century women writers from all over the world working in various literary forms. Poets from Russia and Iran, novelists from India and Zimbabwe, Asian American playwrights, a graphic novelist: these are some of the figures you might meet in this course. We will consider their works from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives. Due to the pandemic, the course will be taught online using strategies such as recorded lectures, online discussion posts, formal essay assignments, optional video conferencing office hours.
E370 - American Literature in Cultural Contexts: American Fairy Tales, 3 credits, June 14 - July 11, Instructor Zach Hutchins
The fairy tale is a genre particular to Europe, populated with talking animals, witches, wizards, gnomes, dwarves, elves, goblins, fairies (of course), and other creatures of the Old World. American authors found themselves fascinated by these moralistic stories of magic and foreign realms and felt compelled to re-imagine them within the context of a melting pot United States. The innovative fairy tales they composed feature these traditional magical creatures but also draw mythic figures from Native American and African folklore into stories that communicate truths about the tragedies and triumphs of the American experiment. In this class, students, will journey to Oz, the Village of Cream Puffs, and many other fantastical settings only to gain a clearer and more nuanced view of the nation and reality they’ve just left. Featuring classic works of cinema as well as texts written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, W. E. B. DuBois, Rebecca Roanhorse, Mourning Dove, and Gloria Naylor, among others, this is a course that will transport and delight while illustrating the deadly seriousness of child’s play.
This course fulfills a Category 2 or 4 elective requirement for English majors.
E412A - Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction, 3 credits, June 14 - August 8, Instructor Maurice Irvin
E412 builds on concepts learned in E311A and E210; however, it is the most workshop-intensive course in this series and most closely resembles a graduate level workshop. This means students’ primary concern will be developing his or her own voice and secondary concern to learn by participating in discussions about others’ work.
AMST 101 - Self/Community in American Culture Since 1877, 3 credits, May 17 - June 13, Instructor Dr. Catherine Ratliff
What does it mean to be American? How do stories reflect and shape American cultural identity in roughly the last one-hundred years? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in AMST 101.
True to the discipline of American Studies, and not a traditional history course, we will employ a variety of interdisciplinary approaches and materials from the fields of history, literature, music, popular culture, visual arts, and more in order to examine the development of American cultural identity since 1877. We are not exploring the chronologies of facts, but the formations and interrelationships of ideas related to Americanness. This course asks you to think critically and engage with U.S. cultural histories from new perspectives. Students will engage with primary and secondary sources dealing with themes of gender, identity, race, religion, and society all to help answer some key questions such as: How do we currently identify and explore past elements of American culture via narrative? How do various narratives and culture(s) inform U.S. identities? What influences the creation of national narratives in the U.S.? In short, this class will be an exploration of Americanness as told through stories, cultures, and histories and it will challenge you to think of U.S. culture and history in new ways.
Graduate Courses, Summer 2021
E526 - Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language, 3 credits, June 14 - August 8, Tony Becker and Tatiana Nekrasova-Beker
This course provides an overview of second language (L2) methods and materials, focusing on the teaching and learning of four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Additional attention will be given to vocabulary and grammar. The goal of the course is to guide participants in developing the knowledge and skills needed to effectively design and implement language instruction for a diverse group of English language learners. This course is also designed to incorporate classroom observation. The course is open to all graduate students who have an interest in research within the English department.
Incoming Students: Ready to take the next step?
If you're ready to join a diverse and inclusive group, which values individual voice and the power of community, and if you're curious about studying challenging ideas and texts, take the next step toward your English education at Colorado State University.
Click one of the options to schedule a visit, apply to CSU, or find more of the information you seek.
Thinking about an education in English but need a little more information? We would love to hear from you.
The Rambler
The Rambler is a semesterly printable document that provides current preregistration advising information and descriptions of special courses available for the coming semester. It also includes a range of timely and important topics for English majors and minors.
Click the button above for this semester's issue of The Rambler, and find an archive of past issues in The Rambler archive, also linked above.
In each issue of The Rambler, you will find:
- Advising information
- Course descriptions
- Registration details
- Important dates
- Composition Placement Challenge & Re-evaluation essay information
- Award information
- Internship information