Announcement of Classes: Spring 2019

• 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 15-20 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 1-2 are intended for lower-division (freshmen and sophomore) students.  English 198BC sections 1, 2, 4, and 5 are intended for upper-division (junior and senior) students, while English 198BC sections 3 and 6 are intended for new (spring) junior transfer students as well as other juniors and seniors.

ENGLISH 43B (Introduction to the Writing of Verse):  This lower-division writing workshop, unlike the other writing workshops being offered this semester, does not require an application or writing sample from prospective students in order to be considered for admission.  Instead, students will  enroll directly, and all the seats in the class will be (at least initially) reserved for freshmen and sophomores. 

UPPER-DIVISION AND GRADUATE-LEVEL CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP COURSES (English 143A, 143B, 143D, 143N, and 243N): These are instructor-approved courses, and enrollment is limited.  Only continuing UC Berkeley students are eligible to apply.  Only upper-division students should apply for 143A, 143B, 143D, and 143N; graduate students and (in exceptional cases) upper-division students may apply for 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 25, 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 bulletin board in the hall just across from the entrance to the English Department main office (322 Wheeler Hall) on Thursday, November 1. Please come on or shortly after Thursday, November 1, 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 mainly for senior and junior English majors. During at least Phase I of enrollment, only majors who will be in their fourth or third year as of Spring '19 will be able to enroll directly into most sections of 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 declared (as well as non-majors) will need to put themselves on the wait list of the section they are interested in taking, and they will be admitted if and when there is still room for them. Due to space limitations (maximum enrollment is normally 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 late in Phase I and during Phase II of enrollment, we may loosen the restrictions for admission to sections of 190 that are not yet full.

ENGLISH H195B (HONORS COURSE): This course is open only to students who are enrolled in a Fall 2018 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 2019 DE-Cal courses must be submitted to the work-study student at the front desk of the English Department main office (322 Wheeler Hall) BY 4:00 P.M., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25. 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 office, the following for approval: (1) a carefully completed COCI Special Studies Course Proposal Form for 98 and 198, available at: http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu. (Click "Committees", then "COCI," and scroll down to "Committee Resources" and click "Student-Facilitated Course Information" and select "Required Documents.") Students must download and complete the newest version of 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 fully developed syllabus of the proposed course; (3) a copy of the course description, including the criteria for passing the course; (4) a completed Unit Value Worksheet; and (5) the faculty sponsor's letter of support. A few days after the October 25 submission deadline, the students whose proposals have been approved by the Department Chair will be notified that they need to see Laurie Kerr, in 322 Wheeler, in order to arrange for a classroom for their course and to work out a few other details before the submission of copies of their approved proposals to COCI (for its final approval) and to the DE-Cal Office.

INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES: These are instructor-approved courses and require a written petition, available from the front desk in the English Department's advising office (319 Wheeler). 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.