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English Major Goals
At the end of their program of study, English Majors should be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the power of words by reading critically, interpreting responsibly, writing and speaking with clarity and grace, reasoning intelligently, and arguing thoughtfully and persuasively for a range of audiences and purposes;
- Exhibit the kind of intellectual independence and sustained, critical thought required for the production of high-quality literary, linguistic, textual and/or rhetorical scholarship, using the current resources available for conducting primary and secondary research in the discipline of English;
- Discover, assert, and insert their own critical "voice" in ongoing dialogues, critiques, and debates - both oral and written, general and specific - that characterize the discipline of English, including debates over aesthetic value, literary historiography, and disciplinary politics;
- Apply linguistic, literary, rhetorical, and cultural theory to texts and their contexts in order to elucidate complex issues and to suggest additional avenues of critical inquiry;
- Demonstrate their understanding of major linguistic processes and subsystems, appreciating the importance of data collection in language study;
- Bring their understanding of language to bear on their discussions of writing, whether literary or otherwise;
- Recognize the impact of cultural environments upon language, respecting and understanding language diversity;
- Demonstrate familiarity with a significant body of texts within - and on the margins of - a variety of literary traditions (e.g., British, American, continental European, Asian, African, and Latin American); and
- Demonstrate sensitivity to the concrete historicity of texts and to the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language over time.
