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Through interdisciplinary course offerings, innovative theoretical models, and accomplished instructors, the English major exposes students to a wide and diverse body of knowledge and provides them with the tools to think, analyze, and write with confidence.

The Department of English offers a wide range of literature and writing courses that introduce students to significant global literary works and trains them in the careful analysis of texts, ranging from traditional novels to emerging electronic communication. English faculty specialize in the study of animals in culture, law and humanities, digital humanities, literature and health, and Islam and the West. Working through a variety of theoretical approaches, students will learn how to analyze the heavily textualized world around them, communicate their ideas effectively, and prepare themselves for numerous professions.

Note: the department encourages students to learn a foreign language and recognizes up to six credits of foreign-language study toward fulfilling the electives credit requirement for the major.

Students wishing to pursue teacher certification in English can complete a double major with English and Secondary Education OR a major in Secondary Education and a concentration in English.  For more Information, see the Secondary Education catalog page.

English majors will be able to…

Read texts closely and think critically 

• Comprehend a text’s literal/factual content
• Distinguish between a passage's literal/factual content and its figurative/symbolic/interpretive content
• Analyze a text closely and identify rhetorical strategies therein
• Connect a passage's formal structure and thematic content with the text as a whole
• Extrapolate the larger implications (social, philosophical, ethical, argumentative) of these patterns

Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of literatures in English

• Demonstrate familiarity with specified content areas in literature, literary history, theory, and criticism
• Understand literature as a culturally and historically embedded practice 
• Relate literature to other fields of inquiry

Communicate effectively

• Approach writing as a recursive process
• Develop and support claims about literary texts
• Articulate claims in conceptually coherent essays
• Use conventions of standard written English
• Present research findings orally within the conventions of the discipline

Conduct research in literary and cultural studies

• Use bibliographic tools to find source material
• Employ appropriate critical approaches in their research
• Contribute to scholarly conversations about literary and cultural texts and phenomena
• Incorporate and document source material using MLA style
• Communicate in accordance with standards of academic integrity

If you are an exceptional undergraduate student aspiring to a career in medicine or dentistry, the É«ÏãÊÓƵHuMed program provides the opportunity that spans your junior and senior years as an undergraduate and your four years in É«ÏãÊÓƵ’s College of Osteopathic Medicine or College of Dental Medicine. É«ÏãÊÓƵ HuMed makes it possible for you to deepen your learning in English/History/Liberal Studies while you prepare for a career as a dentist or an osteopathic physician. Requirements are described at .

During your years as an undergraduate in É«ÏãÊÓƵ’s College of Arts and Sciences, you complete the requisite coursework in the natural sciences to prepare for your graduate education, while earning a Bachelor of Arts in English/History/Liberal Studies.  As a HuMed student, you are not required to take the DAT for the College of Dental Medicine, or the MCAT for the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Instead, the College of Osteopathic Medicine requires that you take the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude test (UKCAT). In both programs, you have an assurance of acceptance contingent upon fulfilling the HuMed curricular requirements and passing the interview process.

A student with a major in another department may minor in English with the permission of the English Department Chair. Eighteen hours of approved course work is required for the Minor in English and will include ENG 334: Methods in Literary and Cultural Studies and its prerequisite, ENG 206: Introduction to Literary Studies. 

Note: the department encourages students to take advantage of all courses that it administers and recognizes ENG 110 English Composition and SPC 100 Effective Public Speaking as electives toward fulfilling the credit requirement for the minor.

We offer qualified students the option of participating in our and graduating with Honors. This includes significant research, scholarship or creative activity under the direction of a faculty member.

See Undergraduate Admissions.

See Undergraduate Admissions.

Tuition and Fees

Tuition and fees for subsequent years may vary. Other expenses include books and housing. For more information regarding tuition and fees, please consult the Financial Information section of this catalog.