Ph. D.,Duke University,1970 His books include Mark Twain as a Literary Comedian (1979), The Literary Humor of the Urban Northeast (1983), American Humor Magazines and Comic Periodicals (1987), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: American Comic Vision (1988), Sister Carrie: Theodore Dreiser's Sociological Tragedy (1992), Mark Twain's Humor: Critical Essays (1993), New Directions in American Humor (1998) and Student Companion to Mark Twain (2001). He is currently writing a biographical study entitled Edison's Daughter, examining issues in the life of Madeleine Edison. He teaches "Power Writing" and "Power Speaking" courses as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and various national and regional professional organizations as "Sloane Communication Systems." He lectures to national and international audiences on "Edison's Daughter, "The Edison Test," and "What Would Edison Do Now?" Please refer to his
website. Online Courses
E392 Poe, Hawthorne and Melville
"Poe, Hawthorne, Melville" is a course dedicated to the close study of works by three major figures of pre-Civil War American Literature, especially that period sometimes designated the "American Renaissance." Our focus will be on the writings of these three authors and how to read them (1) formally--in terms of the forms of great literature they represent and in terms of what their authors intended to accomplish, and (2) personally, in terms of the issues they represent that have lasting power and may relate to issues in your own life and in our culture more generally.
E 393 Mark Twain
Prerequisite: E 110. Major works by America’s greatest humorist and moral spokesman studied through interactive discussions, online research, and a portfolio of course work. Selections from the travel works, including Innocents Abroad; the major works, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn; and short stories and sketches. E394 American Humor
"American Humor" will identify traits of American humor as historical phenomena with relations to national character, business attitudes, regionalism, folk humor, and health. Historical precedents will be related to modern media, magazines, and television. Mark Twain and Woody Allen will be studied as major American comic writers.
E395 American Realism and Naturalism
This course studies realism and naturalism as a genre of American literature. Texts and readings include Quirk and Nagel, AMERICAN REALISM READER; Mark Twain, THE GILDED AGE; William Dean Howells, THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM; Henry James, THE AMERICAN; Theodore Dreiser, SISTER CARRIE; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER in the Bedford Edition; Stephen Crane, MAGGIE, A GIRL OF THE STREETS also in the Bedford Edition, and other works online.
ED 634/E 670 Applied Lingustics
Applied Linguistics develops insight into sentence structure and the accompanying language development tools, briefly touching on language history and phonetics before concentrating on Sector Analysis, using X-Word Grammar as the applied system. Participants will develop editing and teaching skills based on Edited American English (EAE) as a standard medium of written English. Sentence structure, markers, ties, and context will be the primary focus of the course.
Classroom
E 659 Writing and Speaking for Professionals
To develop writing skills at the editorial level consistent with managerial and professional needs for conciseness, close identification of references, and efficient organization. To develop speaking skills in manner and clarity of presentation and in strategic organization. Dr. Sloane is the past president of the American Humor Studies Association and the Mark Twain Circle. He was awarded the Henry Nash Smith Fellowship by the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm in 1989 for outstanding contributions to the field in the period 1979-1989. |
