BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

The mission of the English Department is to provide students with a critical, theoretical, and practical basis for interpreting and evaluating human culture in its written, rhetorical, visual, performative, and aesthetic forms. When appropriate, the Department also prepares students to use the technologies that are necessary for success in their chosen fields. We prepare students instilling a lifelong commitment to using language and image to confer meaning on experience and to promote the common good. The English Department is committed to student learning with a focus on cultural studies, language, and communication processes within the liberal arts tradition by:

• Promoting intellectual curiosity, creativity, active learning, and independent thought;

• Treating students as participants in the construction of knowledge;

• Engaging students in the creation and critical analysis of texts and modes of discourse in their diverse historical, aesthetic, cultural, social, and theoretical contexts;

• Developing life-long, transferable skills in critical thinking, reading, writing, speaking, listening, and modes of inquiry;

• Fostering respect for intellectual and human diversity;

• Encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to content and style;

• Facilitating pre-professional, career development, and graduate school preparation;

• Serving as a community resource for the arts by hosting artistic events featuring regional, national and international artists working in various media.

Students may concentrate their studies in one or more of the following concentrations or career paths:

• Creative Studies - Creative and Professional Writing

• Creative Studies - Film

• Creative Studies - Theater

• Graduate School Preparation - Literature

• Graduate School Preparation - Education

Students with an English Degree have entered the following fields and careers:

• Teaching (elementary, secondary, and post secondary)

• Public relations

• Advertising

• Business

• Law

• Publishing

• Library Science

• English as a second language

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The mission of the English Department is met by the following objectives.

English students will demonstrate a strong knowledge base in literature through the ability to:

• Understand the key aspects of main literary periods

• Identify significant authors, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultural traditions, and their contributions to the literary canon

• Understand the attributes and characteristics of various literary genres

English students will demonstrate high competency in writing through the ability to:

• Write with grace and precision while avoiding distracting mechanical errors

• Synthesize ideas in order to effectively support one’s point of view

• Identify different modes of writing and use the appropriate mode of writing to achieve an intended purpose for a specific audience

English students will demonstrate research skills through the ability to:

• Find, evaluate, and use primary and secondary sources

• Accurately apply the summarization, paraphrasing, and quotation of primary and secondary sources

• Support an argument/interpretation with appropriate sources

• Use MLA documentation method appropriately

English students will demonstrate interpretive skills through the ability to:

• Carefully and critically read, analyze and evaluate literature

• Create independent interpretations of literature

• Apply theoretical perspectives to literature

• Create connections between literature, lived experiences, and historical, social, and cultural contexts