The purpose of instruction in the Department of English is to empower student’s discourse by enabling them to increase their awareness of the many functions and attributes of language, to develop their confidence and involvement in the process of writing, and to respond critically to texts. In addition, we believe that we are in the process of creating active participants in life, citizens who will lead our country in positive directions throughout their lives; therefore, we try to ensure that--either directly or peripherally--each of our interactions with a student furthers those aims.
Faculty members of the English Department offer to their students a variety of scholarly expertise and pedagogical styles. They are in contact with English majors in the classroom, during conference hours, at social occasions such as the regular English Majors Luncheon every semester, and through e-mail. In advising sessions every semester and the portfolio assessment process, they nurture students' academic success.
Curricula for an English major prepare students for reading, writing, and critical thinking throughout the WVSU curricula, for careers in teaching, in writing for business and professional employers, in publishing and related fields, and as graduate students.
More specifically, graduates with an English degree learn to read and write using critical thinking skills that include placing a text in an historical framework, understanding human differences as evidenced through the literature of various cultures, and transferring principles of effective communication from one field to another.
Graduates learn to use the process of writing to generate material, draft, and revise and edit their writings to produce documents in various formats. They learn to retrieve source material from on-line and print sources and to document appropriately their uses of source materials.
Graduates become independent learners who can retrieve and access materials beyond the textbooks and learn to use their skills and knowledge to find meaning in a text, through their own writings, and, we hope, in their own lives
Draft Proposed
November 1, 2001
The English curriculum (with --- hours of required coursework in the discipline) consists of --- components: [will be posted soon!]
I. A (-- hours)
II. A (-- hours)
III. A (-- hours)
IV. A (-- hours)
V. A (-- hours)
VI. A (-- hours)
VII. A (-- hours)
For all English majors
The graduates of the English program will be able to:
1. Perform critical thinking and analytical reading.
2. Comprehend a variety of literary texts from various periods and countries, both canonical and non-canonical literature.
3. Understand various elements of form and genre.
4. Use various critical approaches to literature from historical and cultural perspectives
5. Effectively engage in the process of writing: invention, drafting, revising and proofreading.
6. Create various kinds of writing.
7. Perform research using print and on-line sources with appropriate documentation and synthesize it in composition.
For majors in the Literature Option
The graduates of the English program's literature option will be able to:
8. Comprehend in breadth and depth a variety of literary texts, in English or translation, from various periods, specifically (a) their form and genre, as well as style and rhetoric, (b) their literary and artistic significance, (c) their historical political, social, and cultural context.
9. Compose extended literary analysis and interpretation, using research in critical and scholarly sources appropriately.
10. Explain the major developments in the history of the English language, and to identify different ways of studying language and understanding how it is used.
For majors in the Professional Writing Option
The graduates of the English program's professional writing option will be able to:
8. Compose professional correspondence with appropriate formats, language, and organization, showing an adaptation to audiences and purpose.
9. Compose fiction, non-fiction, or poetry that reflects their understanding of themes, genres, possibilities of form, and the market for such works.
10. Understand and perform the role of editor.
11. Compose professional reports that reflect (a) a variety of purposes, (b) a variety of audiences, (c) proper documentation of a variety of research methods, (d) appropriate formats, organization plans, and visual aids, (c) adaptation of the language and style to the audience.
Reviewed and Adopted
Fall 2001