English Major

Major Requirements

Students majoring in English complete at least nine courses, including:

Survey Courses

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of ENSU in the course offerings.

• at least two survey courses. Survey courses encompass a broad range of material, allowing students to appreciate how writers influence one another and observe (and perhaps reconsider) canonicity, that is, how some writers have come to be considered more significant than others. Survey courses are normally completed at the 200 level. Survey courses include: , ,  

Literature Electives From Three Historical Periods

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of ENMR or EN89 in the course offerings.

• at least one literature course at the intermediate (300) level from each of three historical periods:

  • medieval/early modern (to 1700)

  • the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (1701-1900) 

  • the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (1901 to now)

Three Electives

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of ENEL in the course offerings.

• three electives at any level, only one of which may be at the 100 level

English Seminar

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of ENSE in the course offerings.

• at least one seminar in literature, that is, a course at the 400-level in which students engage in advanced reading, discussion, and writing about a specific literary topic

GPA Requirement

Passing grades are required in a minimum of nine departmental courses, with a departmental GPA of 2.00 averaged over all courses taken in the department.

Honors

The following honors requirements are effective with the Class of 2030. Prior class years should refer to the 2025-2026 catalog.

The privilege to work toward honors is granted at the discretion of the faculty. Seniors with an average of 3.5 in ENGL courses are eligible to apply to pursue an honors project. Interested students should begin discussing their projects with potential directors in their junior year.

Candidates in literary criticism must enroll in , a 0.25-credit course offered in the fall semester. In consultation with a member of the faculty, the student selects a topic and submits a formal prospectus, which must be approved by two faculty supervisors, the director of the honors program, and the department as a whole. The deadline for submission of the prospectus normally falls in October, while the deadline for an annotated bibliography normally falls in December.

Students pursuing an honors project are enrolled in  during the spring term of their senior year.  must be taken in addition to the required 400-level seminar and in addition to the minimum number of courses required for the major. Students must successfully complete the honors seminar and submit a final version of the thesis on a date specified by the department. If the thesis is provisionally approved by the faculty supervisors and the director of the honors program, the student then discusses the project at an oral presentation scheduled during finals week.

A student who completes a project judged worthy of honors by the department and maintains at least a 3.5 average in all ENGL courses, including , is awarded a degree in English with honors. If a student withdraws from the program, or if the thesis is not approved for honors,  is converted to , and a grade is assigned by the faculty member who supervises the completion of the work.

Students with further questions should contact the director of honors in the Department of English and Creative Writing.

English and Creative Writing Department

For more information about the department, including Faculty, transfer credit, awards, etc., please visit the  catalog page.