Bachelor of Arts - English

Program description

The Bachelor of Arts program in English includes specializations in Creative Writing, Literature, and Writing with Communication Studies. It's personalized to your preferences. Take the next (or first) step in your artistic path. Hear from professional writers, poets, and publishers. Create a portfolio for an MFA program. Develop the skills necessary for professions in law, education, digital media, and other fields.

As English majors, students read extensively, encountering works from many times, geographical places, genres, and literary traditions. Within the major, students choose a particular concentration and advance their abilities and knowledge via in-depth examination of that emphasis. Students in the major develop flexibility of thought, attention to language, the ability to engage with the world around them, and the ability to understand difference (gender, race, class, ability, religion, nation), skills that they can apply in almost any field of study or employment after college.

Upon completion of the major, students will primarily show the following:

• Close Reading: When reading a book, students pay attention to language, method, structure, cultural/historical references, forms, and genres.
• Diverse Methodologies: Students open texts in many ways using critical frameworks.
• Historicizing: Students assess literature in light of the historical time and culture in which they were created.
• Writing: Students write effectively and creatively, utilizing writing to create and convey ideas, build narratives, connect with diverse audiences, and think critically.
• Information Literacy: Students may identify, assess, and interact with sources utilizing disciplinary research methods.
• Synthesizing: When developing their own arguments, students consult a range of books, experts, and/or ideas and bring them into dialogue with one another.