The English Major
Click HERE for the Minor in English or Minor in Creative Writing
The English major offers students an opportunity to develop and enhance reading, writing, creative and critical abilities which prepares students for various career options, including work and graduate or professional school. There are many good reasons to be an English major.
The program offers a varied and comprehensive curriculum in literature, rhetoric, composition, language study, film, poetry, critical theory, and creative writing. This curriculum structure requires students to enroll in courses that teach them how to analyze, interpret, research, argue, and convey thoughts and feelings clearly and effectively in speech and writing. Click HERE for the complete list of Major Requirements.
Students graduating in English from USC Upstate should be able to demonstrate the following abilities and skills:
- A knowledge of literary periods, movements, genres and authors that is informed by literary criticism, theory, and linguistic analysis: demonstrating an ability to situate and interpret texts in their historical and cultural contexts and utilizing appropriate literary and linguistic theory in discussing the assigned texts.
- The ability to analyze, synthesize and evaluate a variety of texts: interpreting meaning and significance based on close observations of details within and among texts.
- The ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner for a variety of audiences: writing with clarity and precision as appropriate for the given audience.
- The ability to incorporate, engage and utilize well-planned and executed research: critically engaging the ideas of other scholars and incorporating research in writing about the assigned texts.
Students in English courses share the same guidelines for conducting research, interpreting literature and writing about literature. These reflect the shared rules and values of the discipline or field of English Studies. The USC Upstate faculty in English prepared the following documents to explain the guidelines all students in English courses are expected to follow. In English 300, students learn about these guidelines in depth. Students are expected to be able to follow these guidelines in 300- and 400-level English literature courses:
In the English Senior Seminar students demonstrate their achievement of the four above goals through a Senior Seminar Portfolio (See Senior Seminar Portfolio Checklist for details). Students are strongly encouraged to maintain ongoing electronic and paper portfolios of work in the English major throughout their undergraduate careers.