The English department’s offerings provide the basis by which students can enrich their lives through an ongoing contact with stimulating authors, evocative language, and significant ideas.

By graduation, an English student should:

• Read and write clearly, effectively, perceptively, and creatively
• Be familiar with the basic historical and cultural background of literature written in English, including influential historical events, ideas, literary movements, genres, authors, and texts
• Understand how language is used in a range of literary texts
• Make connections among literary texts within and across historical periods, national literatures, cultural groups, and formal categories
• Appreciate how literature and writing are vital to living a full and meaningful life