English Department
Professors: Susan A. Carlson*, Kathleen DeGrave*, **, Paul McCallum*, Stephen E. Meats*,**, Lyle W. Morgan II*, Kathleen L. Nichols*, Celia Patterson*, Chairperson; Stephen J. Teller*, Laura Washburn*
Associate Professors: John T.I. Franklin*, Casie Hermansson*, Donald P. Judd*, Paul Morris*
Assistant Professors: Christopher T. Anderson*, Philip W. Rudd*, Karen Stolz*, Janet S. Zepernick*
* Graduate Faculty
**University Professor
Room: 426 Grubbs
Telephone: 620-235-4689
Fax: 620-235-4686
Web site:http://www.pittstate.edu/department/english
email: engl@pittstate.edu
Description of Courses
Undergraduate
Graduate
Baccalaureate Degrees
The Department of English offers work leading to the degrees Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Education.
Graduate Degrees
The Department of English offers work leading to the Master of Arts degree, and, in cooperation with the College of Education, the Specialist in Education degree for junior/community college teachers.
Specialist in Education: English
The degree of Specialist in Education with English as the major teaching field for community college teachers is offered by the Department of Special Services and Leader-ship Studies in cooperation with the Department of English. Applicants for this program should consult the graduate advisor in the English Department to plan a course of study. The programs are flexible enough to enable all candidates to obtain the maximum strengthening in the subject matter of their teaching fields.
Applicants for admission to study for the degree Specialist in Education who hold a master's degree in English shall be considered to have passed their preliminary examination. If candidates are admitted who hold the master's degree in another discipline, they shall, within their first enrollment, complete satisfactorily a preliminary examination based on a reading list. For general admission requirements, see the appropriate section of the catalog.
Honors Courses
Any courses numbered 300-799 in the Description of Courses may be taken for departmental honors, except ENGL 579 Supervised Student Teaching and Follow-Up of Teachers and ENGL 699 Senior Seminar in English.
General Education
Bachelor of Arts Traditional emphasis majors, Bachelor of Science in Education majors, and English (Teaching) minors may substitute ENGL 304 Introduction to Writing About Literature for the literature option under the Human Heritage category in the General Education program. Students who do so must take additional upper division literature electives to meet total credit hour requirements as specified above for their major emphasis or minor.
Directed Study Policy for Undergraduate Students
The English faculty believe that classroom experience is an important part of its courses. Therefore, the English Department does not offer directed/independent study courses to individual students on the undergraduate level. In exceptional circumstances involving demonstrated hardship, a student may apply to take a course vital to his/her academic program by independent study. Such applications must be approved by the departmental chairperson and the departmental Curriculum Committee. Application forms may be obtained from the English Department office.
Credit-by-Exam Policy
The English Department normally offers credit-by-examination in freshman composition only. Applications to attempt credit-by-exam for other departmental courses must be approved by the departmental chairperson and the departmental Curriculum Committee. In general, the English faculty believe that classroom experience is an important part of its courses; therefore, applications to attempt credit-by-exam will be approved only under special circumstances. Application forms may be obtained from the English Department office.
Required Writing Courses for Freshmen
Because students need to develop and maintain writing skills in their first two years of college, it is the policy of Pittsburg State University that all full-time freshmen and sophomore students shall be continuously enrolled in an appropriate writing course until they have completed the Writing To Learn series of courses. In their first semester, full-time freshmen shall enroll in ENGL 101 English Composition, unless given credit by examination. Students who successfully complete ENGL 101 shall immediately take a Writing To Learn (WL) course in each of the next 2 semesters and shall complete the WL series by enrolling in ENGL 299 Introduction to Research Writing.
Students with English ACT scores of 28 or higher (or certain other examination scores) and Honors College students enroll in ENGL 101-40 plus a WL class in the fall semester of their freshman year and in ENGL 190 Honors English Composition during the spring semester. These students complete the composition sequence by taking a second WL class after they successfully complete ENGL 190. Students who take ENGL 190 do not take ENGL 299 Introduction to Research Writing. Part-time students shall complete the above sequence before they have accumulated 55 credit hours.