The English department offers a Literature major and a Writing major. Described below are the requirements for the Writing major.
Major Requirements
The Writing major consists of 10 courses given by, or approved by, the department.
Core Courses
Two core courses are required for the Writing major:
| ENGL 199 | Approaches to Literature | 4 |
| ENGL 210 | Creative Writing; Theory and Practice | 4 |
Required Courses
Four of the following writing courses are necessary. Preferably, two of the four will be taken at the 200 or 300 level:
ENG 350 requires the consent of the instructor.
Context Courses
Two Context courses that cross borders of space or time are required for the Writing major:
- One course that emphasizes Geographical and Cultural Contexts
- One course that emphasizes Historical Contexts
The remaining two courses are taken as electives.
ENGL 199 is an introduction to the Literature and Writing majors and is open to all students thinking about majoring in Literature or Writing. All potential majors are urged to take it no later than the beginning of their sophomore year. While ENGL 199 and ENGL 210 constitute a sequence in the Writing major and must be taken in that order, this sequence does not necessarily have to be completed in consecutive semesters.
ENGL 199 is the prerequisite to all 300-level classes offered by this department. Some 300-level classes may have additional prerequisites.
The English Department does not permit double-counting. Although some of our courses fill multiple requirements, each course can only be used to fill one requirement for a particular student’s major.
Some context courses will be designated by the department as filling both the Historical Context (HC) requirement and the Geographical and Cultural Context (GCC) requirement. Students may choose to use each course to fill either of the two context requirements, but not both simultaneously.