The English department's mission is to promote both facility with the English language and students' appreciation of the rich traditions of literature in English and in translation. Core courses and electives are skills-oriented and meant to spark intellectual curiosity in our students. Students build empathy and learn to appreciate difference by studying literature and culture; this work helps prepare students to identify and challenge inequities in society.
The English department curriculum is richly diverse and firmly grounded in skill development. The goals are to provide each student with a strong literary background, to develop skillful writers and communicators through a rigorous, sequenced program, and to foster critical thinking. Reading, writing, listening, speaking, discussing, and vocabulary-building are stressed at every instructional level. Assignments range from personal response papers to formal academic writing.
A range of electives is offered to seniors in each semester of the senior year and, with proper approval, to sophomores and juniors whose schedules permit their taking a second English course. Departmental electives may be designed around genre, theme, region, historical period, distinct author, and literary theory.
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