Academic Catalog 2024-2025 
    
    Oct 05, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2024-2025

English, B.A.


Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Majors, Minors, and Other Programs

Requirements for the English major


Twelve courses, including:

Seven Intermediate Courses, including the following:


One course on literature before 1700 (202-215):


Three more intermediate courses of choice (any course between 200-299):


Three Advanced Courses:


Advanced courses, Junior and Senior Seminars, are writing intensive and research oriented. Majors must complete three advanced courses, including one Junior (preferably a WAC-R) and one Senior Seminar (a WS), and a third seminar of choice. Students must take an Introductory-level course (unless exempt) and at least two 200-level courses before enrolling in a Junior Seminar. Students must take an Introductory-level course (unless exempt), “Confronting the Canon” (190-99), and at least four 200-level courses before enrolling in a Senior Seminar. Students are strongly advised to take one Junior Seminar before enrolling in a Senior Seminar.

Requirements for English Honors: Thesis (402-3):


Fourteen courses are required for honors: the usual twelve plus a two-term honors thesis seminar, EGL 402 - 403.* The two-term thesis is in addition to the required senior seminar. Other qualifications for honors thesis applicants include: a 3.3 GPA both cumulatively and in the English major; successful completion of  EGL 302: Literary Theory during the winter of students’ junior year; acceptance of a topic proposal, submitted during the Spring Term of students’ junior year. Participation in the thesis workshop presupposes that students will be in residence during the fall and winter of their senior year. See the English Department website for a more complete description. 

In this two-term honors thesis seminar-workshop, students learn research methods, discuss their topics and theoretical approaches to them, share ideas and workshop their creative and critical writing, as they work toward completing their individual theses under the direction of the seminar instructor. Prospective Honors thesis students all take EGL 302 prior to proposing a thesis, whether they plan to write creative or analytical theses. Creative writing thesis students should have already participated in at least one creative writing workshop in their proposed genre. Students should discuss possible thesis subjects with their advisor and other departmental members in order to develop an innovative, sustained yet appropriately-sized thesis topic. Prospective Honors students submit a two-to three-page thesis proposal accompanied by a writing sample for departmental review.

*Note: Double major honors students who are writing one thesis that combines both fields of study should register for IDM 487-488 (with signatures from a director in each department) yet attend EGL 402-403. DO NOT REGISTER FOR BOTH IDM and EGL 402-3. The option of a combined double major thesis is not available in conjunction with all departments, and, of course, relies on a research topic that is acceptable to both departments.

Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Majors, Minors, and Other Programs