If you love to read and write, the Department of English and Modern Languages is where you will learn critical reading, organizational skills, and research techniques. Plus you’ll learn how to use your imagination in our writing-intensive classes! Our faculty are award-winning teachers and published authors who take an interest in your work and get to know you well in our small class sizes.
Choose Your Path
We offer two areas of emphasis to choose from:
The Creative Writing emphasis helps you learn good research, writing, editing and storytelling skills while producing your own stories, poems, plays, critical and personal essays.
In the Literature emphasis, you study literature in historical and cultural contexts and learn how the works of generations of writers explore unifying ideas, ideals, achievements, and aspirations.
No matter which area you choose, you’ll acquire skills in critical thinking, creative expression, close reading, persuasive writing, and effective speaking.
Degree Requirements
You must complete 36 credits in English courses. These include two required courses, as well as courses in literature, writing workshops, editing and professional writing, and foreign language.
For more information, and to see a complete list of degree requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Core Classes Creative Writing Concentration
Creative writing emphasis students must complete the following required courses:
Introduction to Creative Writing
Students are introduced to basic techniques in the writing of short fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography.
Sophomore Seminar in English
Students are introduced to the academic discipline of literary study and includes a variety of texts and explores various critical approaches to their interpretation.
In addition, two historical surveys of literature must be completed such as American, English, or European, as well as four writing workshops. Examples include:
Creative Writing: Poetry
Creative Writing: Fiction
Writing for Publication
Playwriting
For more information, and to see a complete list of Creative Writing Concentration requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Core Classes Literature Concentration
Literature emphasis students must complete the following required courses:
Introduction to Creative Writing
Students are introduced to basic techniques in the writing of short fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography.
Sophomore Seminar in English
Students are introduced to the academic discipline of literary study and includes a variety of texts and explores various critical approaches to their interpretation.
In addition, two historical surveys of literature must be completed such as American, English, or European, as well as four high level literature courses. Examples include:
- Dante’s Divine Comedy
- Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
- English Renaissance Literature: The 16th Century
- Myth, Legend, and Folklore
For more information, and to see a complete list of Literature Concentration requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Additional Requirements
Students much complete one course focused on English language, editing, or professional writing, or any modern language at the 111-level or above (FR, GER, ITA, or SPA). Students also must complete an internship and Capstone course.
Learning Outcomes
Bachelor of Arts in English students will:
- Manifest an ability to read and understand a wide variety of literary texts.
- Express themselves, whether in their interpretations of literature or in their own creative writing, with clarity, subtlety, and originality.
- Use the vocabulary of literary criticism effectively and confidently.
- Display a broad knowledge of the relationships of literature to historic and/or cultural contexts.
3+1 BA in English and MBA Program
Complete your undergraduate and graduate degree in just four years with our new BA in English and MBA program. This option is available to students in both the creative writing and the literature emphases. You take your undergraduate English courses in the College of Arts and Sciences and complete graduate MBA requirements in UHart’s Barney School of Business. This accelerated program allows you to finish both degrees in the same time it would normally take to finish one, and at a reduced cost.3+1 Program Information
- You must maintain a 3.2 GPA to enroll in the Barney grad program the summer after your third year.
- Courses taken in the winter and summer term as part of the undergraduate degree are offered at no extra tuition cost.
- As a UHart student, you are eligible for the Hawk Alumni Scholarship during the graduate studies portion of the program, which reduces your tuition by 25 percent.
- You are not “locked in” to the schedule and can opt out of the 3+1 accelerated program and change to a 4+1 model.
English Minor Requirements
If you enjoy reading and thinking about great literature and writing your own essays, poems, plays, and stories, then a minor in English can complement any program of study at UHart, whether you are in the College of Arts & Sciences or another one of our schools. This minor will sharpen your critical thinking skills, and make you a better writer and speaker.
The general English minor allows you to sample a variety of English courses. You will take any six courses to fulfill the minor requirement.
For more information, and to see a complete list of English minor requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Creative Writing Minor Requirements
The creative writing minor requires six courses, three upper level creative writing workshops, along with two English electives. Two screenwriting courses, offered through the University’s Cinema program, can count as those electives.
For more information, and to see a complete list of the Creative Writing minor requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Kimmie Martinez ‘21, EnglishThe professors’ passion for English is contagious. They show us how literature is all around us, and creativity is a window to the soul. I feel so happy to have begun my English experience here.