Announcement of Classes: Spring 2017

• Reading and Composition
• Lower Division
• Upper Division
• Graduate
• All Courses

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY ALL THE PARAGRAPHS BELOW THAT APPLY TO ENGLISH COURSES IN WHICH YOU WANT TO ENROLL. SOME COURSES HAVE LIMITED ENROLLMENT AND/OR HAVE EARLY APPLICATION PROCEDURES.

ALL ENGLISH COURSES: Some courses are in such high demand that they will end up having wait lists. If you end up having to put yourself on one for an English course, please attend the first few classes, as space might open up for you after classes have started.

BERKELEY CONNECT: Would you like to get together with your peers to talk about literature and books? Are you wondering what to do with your English major once you graduate? Do you want to hear about the books that most influenced your English professors? Do you want expert advice about which courses to take? Would you like to see your favorite professors debating about a great work of literature? If so, please join Berkeley Connect!

Berkeley Connect in English fosters community in the English Department and offers a space for “serious play”: small group discussions about ideas and texts, explorations of the many riches of the Berkeley campus, visits by department faculty and distinguished alumni, and one-on-one advice on courses and graduate programs from graduate students and professors.

Individual Berkeley Connect groups (each with about 14-20 students) meet every other week for one hour of “serious play.” On the off weeks, your graduate student mentor will hold office hours so that you can talk individually about issues important to you. Some of the small group meetings will be informal discussions of a range of literary issues, while others involve visits to places around campus (such as the Berkeley Art Museum and the Bancroft Library). On other weeks we will meet as a large group to hear from distinguished alumni, or to listen to Berkeley English professors talk about their own paths into literary study or debate key books in their field with other professors.

There are no essays, papers, exams, or outside reading for Berkeley Connect, just lots of good discussion, valuable advice, and all sorts of “serious play.” Although this is not a traditional course, each participant will enroll in and earn one unit for group independent study (as English 98BC or 198BC, on a Pass/NP basis). The program is not meant to offer extra help or tutoring on things like the mechanics of paper-writing or literary analysis; rather, it aims at providing a more relaxed and fun way to make the best of your Berkeley experience.

Berkeley Connect in English sections:  English 98BC sections 1-3 are intended for lower-division (freshmen and sophomore) students.  English 198BC sections 1-2 and 5-9 are intended for upper-division (junior and senior) students, while English 198BC sections 3 and 4 are intended for new (spring) junior transfer students (as well as other juniors and seniors).

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP COURSES (English 43A, 43B, 143A, 143B, 143C, 143N, 243A, and 243N): These are instructor-approved courses, and enrollment is limited.  Only continuing UC Berkeley students are eligible to apply.  Only lower-division students should apply for 43A and 43B; only upper-division students should apply for 143A, 143B, 143C, and 143N; and only graduate students (and upper-division students with considerable writing experience) should apply for 243A and 243N.  In order to be considered for admission to any of these courses, you must electronically submit a writing sample AND an application form, using the link on the corresponding class entry on this "Announcement of Classes," BY 11 P.M., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, AT THE LATEST.  (If you are applying for more than one of these classes, you will need to submit an application and the corresponding writing sample for each of the classes/sections you are applying for.)  The instructors will review the writing samples and applications, and the class lists will be posted on the partition "wall" for the desk area just inside the entrance to the English Department, at the Hearst Field Annex, Building B, on Thursday, November 3. Please come on or shortly after Thursday, November 3, to see if your name is on the class list for the section(s) you applied for; please check in person, as this information is NOT available over the phone. ONLY STUDENTS ON THESE CLASS LISTS WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE CORRESPONDING CLASSES, AND EACH ADMITTED STUDENT WILL NEED TO OBTAIN HIS/HER INDIVIDUAL PERMISSION CODE FROM THE INSTRUCTOR AT THE FIRST CLASS MEETING. NO ONE WILL THEREFORE BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY ENROLL IN THESE PARTICULAR CLASSES BEFORE THESE CLASSES START MEETING IN THE SPRING.

ENGLISH 190 (RESEARCH SEMINAR): English 190 is intended for senior and junior English majors. During at least Phase I of enrollment, only already-declared majors who will be in their fourth or third year as of spring '17 will be able to enroll in this course; upper-division students who intend to major in English and have taken some courses that will count towards the major but who have not yet delcared will need to put themselves on the wait list of the section they are interested in taking, and they will be admitted later (probably towards the end of Phase II) if and when there is still room for them. Due to space limitations (maximum enrollment is 18 students per section), students may initially enroll in or wait-list themselves for only one section of English 190. However, if it turns out that some sections still have room in them at or near the end of Phase II appointments, we may loosen the restrictions for admission to those sections.

ENGLISH H195B (HONORS COURSE): This course is open only to students who are enrolled in a Fall 2016 English H195A section. Your H195A instructor will give each of you a permission code for H195B in class sometime in November.

DE-CAL CLASSES: All proposals for Spring 2017 DE-Cal courses must be submitted to the work-study student at the front desk of the English Department Office (in the Hearst Field Annex, Builiding B), addressed to the attention of the Chair of the English Department, BY 4:00 P.M., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27. Please note that individual faculty members may sponsor only one DE-Cal course per semester. Students wishing to offer a DE-Cal course must provide, to the English Department Chair, the following for approval: (1) a completed COCI Special Studies Course Proposal Form, available on DE-Cal’s website at http://www.decal.org, for 98 and 198 classes. Students must download and complete this form and obtain the proposed faculty sponsor’s signature on it before submitting it, along with the other necessary paperwork; (2) a copy of the syllabus of the proposed course; (3) a copy of the course description, including the criteria for passing the course; (4) a unit value worksheet (obtainable by following these steps: log onto: academic-senate.berkeley.edu; click "committees" [in the left-hand toolbar]; click "COCI"; click "Information on student-facilitated courses"; scroll down and click "unit value worksheet"). A few days after the October 27 submission deadline, the students whose proposals have been approved will be notified that they need to see Laurie Kerr, in the Hearst Field Annex, Building B, in order to arrange for a classroom for their course and to work out a few other details before the delivery of copies of their approved proposals to COCI and to the DE-Cal office.

INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES: These are instructor-approved courses and require a written petition, available from the rack on the front counter as you enter Hearst Field Annex, Building B. Completed petitions should be signed by the instructor and returned by the student to the "undergraduate petitions" drop box on the same counter as the rack containing the blank petition forms. Students will subsequently be emailed the Class Number that they will use to actually enroll in the class. Often students will elect to wait until spring courses have started to apply for independent study courses.

UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS INTERESTED IN BECOMING WRITING TUTORS (ENGLISH 310): This is an instructor-approved course with limited enrollment. In order to be considered for admission, you must pick up an application for an interview at the Student Learning Center, Atrium, in the Cesar Chavez Student Center, during the fall semester through finals week or during the week before spring semester classes begin. No one may apply after Wednesday of the first week of classes. Students admitted to 310 will need to appear in person at the Student Learning Center, at the time the Learning Center specifies, in order to obtain the Class Number and then enroll. See the course description in this Announcement of Classes under English 310 for more details.