Students work directly with faculty in relatively small classes. The department participates actively in UH Manoa's Honors Program and its Study Abroad Semester and offers professional internships for interested students in the senior year.

The goals of the undergraduate English program are: (a) to offer a comprehensive range of courses in literary and cultural studies, composition, rhetoric, and creative writing; (b) to develop students' critical thinking and reading skills; and (c) to develop students' interests and abilities in rhetoric and writing across a variety of genres. Many of our courses recognize Hawai'i's geographical and cultural location in the Pacific.

The graduate program enriches students' knowledge of literature, composition and rhetoric, creative writing, and cultural studies. MA students are asked to take approximately half of their course work in a specific concentration so that they begin to develop an area of expertise while broadening their understanding of other areas of study. The MA thesis or final project at the end of the program gives them the opportunity to do extended research and writing on a topic of their own choosing.

The doctoral program prepares students to become professionals in the field. Required courses are not its focus; rather, it offers students considerable latitude in course selection and requires disciplined, independent work on examinations and the dissertation. Candidates completing the program should have the skills and experience to function as critics, scholars, and writers in an area associated with the profession of English.

The Department of English offers the BA degree with informal emphases in American, British, and Pacific literatures; composition and rhetoric; and creative writing.

Non-English Department Course

With the consent of the student's advisor or the director of the undergraduate program, one appropriate three-credit upper division course from outside English may be counted as a major elective.

Advising is mandatory for majors; new majors will be assigned an advisor when they meet with the director of the undergraduate programs for their required orientation session.