• First, you complete the four Gateway courses. These courses orient you to the practices of studying literature and language, including writing about literature, and studying literature across its entire history in Britain and North America You will become acquainted with major authors, literary schools and movements, the relation of literature to the historical moment in which it appeared, and many other fundamental aspects of English and American literature.
   
• Having completed the Gateway courses, you become more responsible for the character of your English major. You choose the Shakespeare course that most appeals to you, and then begin choosing the four to six upper-division literature courses (and writing courses if you adopt the English Major with Writing Emphasis) that interest you most. The Gateway courses have shown you which authors and literary/historical periods speak to you most. Here is your chance to tailor an English major to your own favorite writers, and to the intellectual questions that make you most curious.
   
• Finally, you choose your seminar from among the six seminars offered during your junior and senior year. These courses focus intensely on one single author or literary issue, and rise out of the faculty's special training and interests. Enrollment in these seminars is limited to only 12 students, so that everyone in the seminar can be heard from often. Everyone writes a long paper on an issue of his or her choosing, and reports one the research process to the other class members. The seminar thus becomes a capstone, or culminating experience in your English major.

The English Major with Writing Emphasis allows students to replace some study of upper-division literature with upper-division writing courses. Here too, students may tailor their major to the type of writing that interests them most, from technical writing to the crafting of poetry.

Students interested in teaching English in the secondary schools should click here for information about the Language Arts program in Education, a cooperative venture between the English and Education Departments.