Three primary educational goals underlie the English major. Graduates will be able to demonstrate their grasp of:

• Critical practices, or the ability to carefully read, analyze, interpret and write about texts from a wide range of genres, historical eras, theoretical paradigms and cultural contexts;
• Disciplinary knowledge, conceived as the intellectual richness, evolution and diversity of literatures in English from different periods, technologies and geographical areas;
• Writing skills, or the ability to write with clarity, grace, economy of expression and persuasiveness.