The English program offers concentrations in literature, writing, and theatre; the goals and principles underlying these concentrations are the same:?

(1) To increase the student?s appreciation and understanding of the literary, pragmatic, rhetorical, and dramatic uses of language.?

(2) To develop the student?s ability to write effectively in a variety of situations.?

(3) To help the student become more receptive to the many-sided pleasures of reading, writing, and oral presentation.?

(4) To enable the student to see how literary and nonliterary texts illuminate the complexity of human experience.?

(5) To heighten the student?s awareness of the moral and ethical implications of literary and nonliterary texts.?

(6) To foster the student?s intellectual, aesthetic, and professional creativity.

Students also examine how that tradition is continually re-formed and reshaped as writers from previously excluded cultural traditions and once-marginalized groups are added to the canon. Students in the concentration develop the analytical skills and the critical language to describe, analyze, and evaluate literary texts. Internships within the English department offer students the opportunity to gain experience in research and teaching, while internships in the private and public sectors present students with the opportunity to gain work experience that utilizes the analytical, interpretive, and writing skills that the concentration fosters.