Introduction to the Department of English
Sonnet - Billy Collins
All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,
and after this one just a dozen
to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas,
then only ten more left like rows of beans.
How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan
and insist the iambic bongos must be played
and rhymes positioned at the ends of lines,
one for every station of the cross.
But hang on here while we make the turn
into the final six where all will be resolved,
where longing and heartache will find an end,
where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,
take off those crazy medieval tights,
blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.
From Sailing Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001).
At the heart of all English courses is language: what has been and can be expressed verbally. English professors therefore offer courses in literature, compositional and rhetorical skills, public speaking, linguistics, and related fields, all in one way or another devoted to increasing the literary and linguistic awareness, sensitivity, and competence of their students.
More than half of all the sections offered by the English Department are intended for qualified first-year students, and nearly all of VIU's credit programs more than one year in length require a first-year English course. Students should ensure that they take the first-year course that is most appropriate for their chosen program. English 125 and 135, for instance, are first-year courses most appropriate for further studies in English. We also offer special Cluster Sections of English 115 with Media Studies.
The English Department has a long tradition of offering a significant and varied selection of second-year courses in national literatures, advanced composition, public speaking, and special interests. Many of these courses satisfy program requirements or provide a good foundation for further studies; all may be taken as electives.
The English Department also offers third- and fourth-year (upper-division) courses which may be applied to both Major and Minor degrees. Courses are offered on a two-year cycle to ensure that students have maximum choice when planning their degrees. Check our Upper-Level Course Rotation for a preview of upper-level courses offered in the next two years. For students who wish to undertake a significant research project in anticipation of graduate school, we offer a Special Project (English 490). This is an independent project that usually takes the form of a supervised extended essay. (For information consult the English Chair.)
And for scheduling flexibility and timely degree completion, first-year and upper-level courses are also offered in the spring-summer Intersession.
The study of literature is, in effect, the study of culture itself - the stories and myths, values and ideals, dreams and aspirations that are the concern of all of humanity. And because such study intersects all disciplines, your English experience affords you the opportunity to gain a truly well-rounded education.
English Department Mission Statement
“I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is correct” (French grammarian, Dominque Bouhours, on his deathbed, 1702)
Use Spell Checker?
Owed to a Spelling Checker
I have a spelling checker
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a bless sing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.
Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now win wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.
And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.
Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.
--- Sauce unknown
Updated May 6, 2011