Skip to: Major | Minor | Writing Certificate | Course Descriptions
Mission Statement: In accordance with the mission statement of Missouri Baptist University and the academic program, the English faculty seeks to maintain a curriculum that provides standard English skills, permits students to meet the requirements for professional certificates, and prepares English majors for the pursuit of advanced degrees.
Major
The student must complete the following requirements plus select and complete one or more of the following concentration areas (no more than three). Students may not overlap concentration requirements.
Required English (ENGL) courses (27 hours):
ENGL 283 Individualized Writing Instruction
ENGL 303 History of the English Language
ENGL 333A American Literature I
(Colonial America to 1865)
ENGL 333B American Literature II (1865 to present)
ENGL 353A British Literature I
(Middle Ages through the Restoration)
ENGL 353B British Literature II (1800 to the present)
ENGL 443 Research and Writing
ENGL 473 Advanced Grammar
ENGL 483 Critical Theories
CONCENTRATION AREAS: (12 HOURS)
BRITISH LITERATURE CONCENTRATION
ENGL 373A Shakespeare
ENGL 373B 17th and 18th Century British Literature
ENGL 373C 19th and 20th Century British Literature
ENGL 383 World Literature
AMERICAN LITERATURE CONCENTRATION
ENGL 343A The Religious and Romantic Age
ENGL 343B Modernist Literature
ENGL 343C
Minority Literature
ENGL 383 World Literature
GENERAL LITERATURE CONCENTRATION
ENGL 383 World Literature
Three hours from the British Literature Concentration
(excluding ENGL 383)
Three hours from the American Literature Concentration
(excluding ENGL 383)
Three hours from either the British Literature or the American
Literature Concentration (excluding ENGL 383 and any class
already used in this concentration)
WRITING CONCENTRATION
COEN 323 Journalism
ENGL 403 Non-Fiction Writing
ENGL 413 Creative Writing
ENGL 433 Business Writing
SECONDARY EDUCATION CONCENTRATION
Three hours from the Writing Concentration
ENGL 343C Minority Literature
EDEN 453/5531 Teaching Language Arts and Composition
in the Middle and Secondary Schools
EDEN 463/5631 Teaching Literature within the Curriculum
1 See the catalog section on Senior Permission for information on earning graduate credit for this course.
Minor
Students minoring in English must complete at least 21 hours in English, exclusive of any composition or literature courses taken to complete the general education or baccalaureate degree requirements.
The following courses, or their equivalents, are:
Required English (ENGL) courses:
ENGL 333A American Literature I (Colonial America to 1865)
ENGL 333B American Literature II (1865 to present)
ENGL 353A British Literature I (Middle Ages
through the Restoration)
ENGL 353B British Literature II (1800 to the present)
ENGLISH GENERAL EDUCATION SEQUENCE REQUIREMENT
The English sequence is:
ENGL 013 Intensive English
ENGL 103 English Grammar
ENGL 113 English Composition I
ENGL 123 English Composition II
All students who have not satisfied the general education and degree requirements in English are required to take the appropriate English course their first semester as a full-time student at MBU, and to pursue the sequence, without interruption, until the English requirement has been satisfied. Regular students who are not full-time must follow this procedure by the time they have earned 12 semester hours of college credit. Students may not withdraw from any English course in the sequence; they must take these courses for a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F.
WRITING CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH
The writing certificate program will help students become familiar with all types of writing, including journalism, expository, business, radio, television, and creative. This is not a teaching certificate in English and does not fulfill requirements for state teacher certification.
Students must complete at least 18 hours from the following:
Required English (ENGL) courses:
ENGL 123 English Composition II
ENGL 483 Critical Theories
Elective English (ENGL) courses:
ENGL 403 Non-Fiction Writing
ENGL 413 Creative Writing
ENGL 433 Business Writing
ENGL 443 Research and Writing
Elective Communications (COEN and COMT) courses:
COEN 223/323/423 Journalism
COEN 433 Writing for Public Communications
COMT 353 Writing for Audio and Video
The student must pass each course taken as part of the writing certificate program with a grade of C or better.
Course Descriptions
ENGL 013 INTENSIVE ENGLISH
This competency-based course prepares students for successful
college-level reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. ENGL
013 is required of all international students whose computer-based
TOEFL score is between 117 and 172 (430 and 499 for paper-based
TOEFL) and all others whose English ACT equivalent is below
10. No student enrolled in this course may take more than the
minimum number of full-time equivalency credit hours. Successful
completion of ENGL 013 with a grade of “C” or better will permit
the student to enroll in ENGL 103, English Grammar. ENGL 013
does not count toward graduation requirements and does not
meet any minimum university standard.
Three Hours (non-degree credit), Fall, Spring
ENGL 103 ENGLISH GRAMMAR
This competency-based course covers the fundamentals of Standard
English grammar as they relate to reading and writing. The student
will also learn the English words and idioms that are most frequently
used in various situations in daily life and in the American
classroom. A combination of individual, group and laboratory
work will be used. ENGL 103 is required for students who have successfully
completed ENGL 013. It is also required for students whose
ACT English score is below 18, or as determined by a
proficiency test. Successful completion of ENGL 103 with a grade of
C or better will permit the student to enroll in ENGL 113,
English Composition I. This course grants elective credit only and
is not designed to meet any minimum university English
requirement, either academic or professional.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring
ENGL 113 ENGLISH COMPOSITION I
Students will develop skills in writing prose acceptable in academics
and in the professions, with emphasis on grammar, punctuation,
sentence structure, paragraph development, the writing process, and
patterns of essay development. Various selections from expository
and imaginative writing will serve as models and as sources for
composition topics. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 103 (grade of C or
better), ACT English score of 18, TOEFL score of 173 or better
on computer-based test (500 or better on paper-based test), or
passed proficiency test.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring, Summer
ENGL 123 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II
This course furthers the work of ENGL 113, requiring students to
use critical reading and thinking skills, the writing process, and
rhetorical skills in both expository and argumentative writing. A
major course project includes an introduction to library skills and
the appropriate use of academic sources and academic prose
culminating in a documented research essay. Prerequisite(s): ENGL
113, ACT English score of 28, or passed proficiency test.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring, Summer
ENGL 203 WORLD LITERARY TYPES
This survey of world masterpieces includes major writers and literary
movements from world creation texts to the present. Course content
includes selections from short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and
nonfiction. Models used for textual analysis include Christian and
other literary types. This course fulfills the baccalaureate degree
requirement in literature, and is prerequisite for all literature courses
except ENGL 243. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring
COEN 223/323/423 JOURNALISM
This course provides an overview of the mass media, particularly the
print media. It also offers practical experience in writing and editing
articles for newspapers, magazines and specialized publications.
Emphasis is on advanced skills in news writing, feature writing, copy
editing, publication design, journalistic ethics and libel. COEN 423
may be repeated once for credit for a total of twelve journalism hours
over four semesters. Course requirements include participation in
the production of The Collegian, the University’s student newspaper.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring
ENGL 243 SURVEY OF AMERICAN AND
BRITISH LITERATURE
This course is a chronological survey of American and British
literature from their beginnings to the present day, including
selections from short stories, drama, nonfiction, and novels.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123.
Three Hours, On Demand
ENGL 283 INDIVIDUALIZED WRITING INSTRUCTION
Designed for English, religion, and religious education majors,
this course explores the current critical approaches, methods, and
techniques used in individualized writing instruction. As part of the
course requirements, each student will provide 30 hours of service as
a tutor in the MBU Writing Assistance Center during the term.
Prerequisite: ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring
ENGL 303 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Course content covers the internal development of the English
language from its roots in Indo-European to Modern English as
currently spoken in the world. These linguistic changes are
examined in the context of external, historical and cultural
circumstances. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Odd Years
ENGL 313 HISTORIC LITERARY ENGLAND
This course deals with the concepts of literary genre within the
context of the historical environment which inspired and shaped
them. Major English authors, who lived in four different sections of
England, will be selected from writers of essays, poetry, drama, and
fiction. Their lifestyles will be studied and their homes and towns
visited for observing the influences and inspirations they held for the
authors. This course will satisfy three hours of the Humanities/Fine
Arts general education requirement. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123.
Three Hours, On Demand
ENGL 333A AMERICAN LITERATURE I
(COLONIAL AMERICA TO 1865)
This course examines native oral traditions and selections by main
authors in the United States from the pre-colonial period through
the Puritan times and the Civil War era. Emphasis will be on both
the texts and the social, historical, philosophical, and Christian
influences on America’s early literature. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203
or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Even Years
ENGL 333B AMERICAN LITERATURE II
(1865 TO THE PRESENT)
This course examines selections by key American authors from
the Civil War era through the present day, including those of
racial and ethnic minority. Emphasis is on both the texts and the
social, historical, philosophical, and Christian influences on
America’s post-1865 literature. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or
consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Odd Years
ENGL 343A THE RELIGIOUS AND ROMANTIC AGE
This course covers selected American literary works from earliest
native oral traditions, to Christopher Columbus and the Age of
Discovery, to Walt Whitman, and finally to the Transcendentalists.
Particular emphasis is placed on Puritan writing and works from the
Romantic Age. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Even Years
ENGL 343B MODERNIST LITERATURE
This course offers an intensive study of the divergent modernist
movements, styles, and writers in the United States from the Civil
War era to World War II. Among the authors to be examined are
Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, T. S.
Eliot, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway. The student will
also study the various influences on the rise and development of
modernism, including anthropology, psychology, philosophy,
political theory, psychoanalysis, and World War I. Prerequisite(s):
ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Odd Years
ENGL 343C MINORITY LITERATURE
This course examines selected writings by representative American
authors of racial and ethic minority, including Native Americans,
African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.
Among the authors to be examined are Frederick Douglass, Richard
Wright, Carlos Bulosan, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, N. Scott
Momaday, Maxine Hong Kingston, William Least Heat Moon,
Richard Rodriguez, Denise Chávez, Leslie Marmon Silko, Amy
Tan, and Louise Erdrich. Emphasis is on genre, theme, style, and
aesthetics as well as on the political, historical, cultural, and
intellectual context of multicultural literature in the United States.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Odd Years
ENGL 353A BRITISH LITERATURE I (MIDDLE AGES
THROUGH THE RESTORATION)
This course offers a study of the significant works by key British
authors from the Middle Ages through the Restoration. The texts are
examined in their relation to Christianity, philosophy, and history.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Odd Years
ENGL 353B BRITISH LITERATURE II
(1800 TO THE PRESENT)
This course covers literature of the British Restoration and continues
with British literature to the present. Course themes include the
changing view of Christianity, Modernism and Post-Modernism.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Even Years
ENGL 373A SHAKESPEARE
Within the context of the author's life, and Elizabethan and
Jacobean culture, representative comedies, tragedies, histories, and
romances will be studied. Attention will be paid to performance
aspects of the texts, through film versions and acted scenes.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Even Years
ENGL 373B 17th AND 18th CENTURY
BRITISH LITERATURE
Major literary movements, genres, and topics of texts from
Donne to Boswell will be studied. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203
or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Odd Years
ENGL 373C 19th AND 20th CENTURY
BRITISH LITERATURE
Major movements such as Romanticism and Modernism will
be examined in the context of Victorian, Modern, and
Contemporary English literature. Prerequisite(s):
ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Odd Years
ENGL 383 WORLD LITERATURE
Students will study major texts of world literature in translation,
from the Epic of Gilgamesh to such contemporary authors as
Gabriel García Márquez. Readings represent a variety of literary
voices, including those of women, minorities, and writers from the
Third World countries. Particular attention is paid to each literary
work’s genre, theme, style, and aesthetics and to its cultural and historical
context. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Even Years
ENGL 403 NON-FICTION WRITING
Using basic rhetorical skills, the course seeks to develop skills in
critical thinking and analysis as well as a personal writing style.
Models used for textual analysis will include Christian and other
types. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Even Years
ENGL 413 CREATIVE WRITING
This course studies theories of creativity and their applications to
writing in the following genres: poetry (sonnet, ballad, haiku, hymn,
limerick, and free verse); fiction (short story and novelette); drama
(tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, and farce); and
nonfiction (expressive writing, expository writing, argumentation,
biography, autobiography, memoir, journal, diary, and travelogue).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Even Years
COEN 433 WRITING FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS
This course is designed to provide fundamental writing skills for
professional media communications. The focus will be the
communicative vehicles of public relations; feature and news
writing, press releases, radio advertisements, and the press advisory.
Students will explore research, interview techniques, writing styles,
and editing through class discussion, weekly writing assignments,
text reading, and publication analysis. Prerequisites: ENGL 123
and COMR 373
Three Hours, Fall, Odd Years
ENGL 433 BUSINESS WRITING
In this course students will improve writing skills while learning
the basic forms and conventions of business writing and
correspondence. Assignments, including the use of electronic
communication technologies, will emphasize the following:
e-mail, memos and letters (information, persuasion, and positive
or negative news); resume and cover letter; short report, brochure
or newsletter; proposal; and presentation. Prerequisite(s):
ENGL 123, or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Fall, Spring
ENGL 443 RESEARCH AND WRITING
An introduction to the general processes of research, including
library usage of primary and secondary sources, citation methods,
and various aspects and styles of writing. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123.
Three Hours, Spring, Odd Years
EDEN 453/553 TEACHING LANGUAGE ARTS
AND COMPOSITION IN THE MIDDLE AND
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
The student will investigate the middle school and secondary
language arts curricula, materials, and various instructional strategies;
application will be made to the Show-Me Standards and the
National Language Arts Standards. Students will become competent
in applying assesment strategies for the improvement of student
learning. A study of state mandated assesment is included. A field
experience is included in the scope of this course. This course is
required for middle school language arts certification and/or
secondary teacher certification in English and for middle school
certification for all subject areas. Students taking this course for
graduate credit must complete all graduate course requirements.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123, EDUC 213 and EDUC 303.
Three Hours, Spring
EDEN 463/563 TEACHING LITERATURE WITHIN
THE CURRICULUM
The course will consist of units which survey literature appropriate
for both children and adolescents, including examples of literature
from various ethnic groups. Attention is given to analysis, selection,
and the encouragement of the appreciation of quality literature.
Students will become competent in applying assesment strategies for
the improvement of student learning. A study of state mandated assesment
is included. This course is required for students seeking middle
school language arts certification and/or secondary certification
in English, as well as for students seeking Library Media Specialist
certification. Students taking this course for graduate credit must
complete all graduate course requirements. Prerequisite(s): ENGL
123, ENGL 203, EDUC 213, and EDUC 303.
Three Hours, Fall
ENGL 473 ADVANCED GRAMMAR
This course consists of a study of specific techniques in modern
English grammar and the writing of effective compositions.
Grammar theories and language theories are emphasized.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 123.
Three Hours, Fall, Even Years
ENGL 483 CRITICAL THEORIES
This course explores the principles and practice of critical theories,
including traditional and contemporary theories about literature, rhetoric,
and discourse. The intentionality and motives for writing, reading, and
communication are evaluated from a Christian perspective. By studying
some of the major critical texts written by literary theorists and thinkers,
students will become familiar with a variety of critical approaches to
literature and learn to apply those approaches to their actual reading of
literary texts. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 203 or consent of instructor.
Three Hours, Spring, Even Years
