Design Discourse - Composing and Revising Programs in Professional and Technical Writing, 2010a

Henze, Sharer, and Tovey
for future change” (13). Since we began working on this account of the turmoil
that ensued when we attempted to alter the curricular structure of the department,
we have witnessed the kind of “future change” that can eventually result
from a moment—in this case the demise of our proposed RSPW concentration—that
feels like failure. As we mentioned earlier, in response to the issues
raised by our proposal, an ad hoc committee was formed to conduct a survey
of faculty views on the nature of an English degree. The committee was further
charged with developing a revised undergraduate core curriculum based upon
these views. The work of the ad hoc committee has resulted in several significant
changes to the department’s undergraduate degree, changes that were unanimously
approved by departmental faculty. The two most significant changes,
which went into effect in spring 2005, are as follows:
1. The core group of courses required of all majors in the department was
revised to give some presence to classes dealing with rhetoric, professional
writing, and English language study. At the same time, the number and
specificity of core requirements was reduced, thus allowing students more
opportunity to explore the variety of specialties within our diverse department.
The new core is elaborated in the table below.
Old Core
(required of all majors in the
department before Spring 2005)
• ENGL 2000. Interpreting Literature
• ENGL 3000. Lit in English to
1700
• ENGL 3010. Lit in English, 1700-
1880
• ENGL 3020. Lit in English,
1880-Present
• One Shakespeare course
(Tragedies, Comedies, or
Histories)
Revised Core
(required of all majors in the
department beginning Spring 2005)
• One Historical Survey (selected
from a variety of offerings in Literature
pre-1700)
• One Historical Survey (selected
from a variety of offerings in Literature
post-1700)
• One Shakespeare course
(Tragedies, Comedies, or
Histories)
• One Language Study Course
(chosen from a variety of
courses in Creative Writing,
Linguistics, Rhetoric &
Composition, and Technical &
Professional Communication)
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