English Major (B.A.), Creative Writing Concentration

Professors Allison, DeMarco
Associate Professors Butcher, Comorau, Long, Merkel
Professors Emeriti Musser, Olmstead
Part-Time Senior Lecturer Burns

English majors develop both reading and writing skills. They gain a wide knowledge of authors, of texts originally written in English, of the English language, and of interpretive approaches to literature. They read literary works and watch films selected to illustrate the linguistic connections among texts, historical perspectives, cultural contexts, the development of English as a language, and the canon, its critics, and its alternatives. The major and minor foster curiosity about language, and the conviction that literature and film enrich human experience.

In English courses, students develop close reading skills—heightening their awareness of the conventions of literary and cinematic form, structure, language, genre, and rhetoric—and are introduced to current critical methods. Throughout the major, students test and revise their notions of what makes literature literature. They cultivate sensitivity to language as a medium of thought and communication, and they learn to ask penetrating questions about texts and language.

English majors and minors become thoroughly acquainted with the writing process, sensitive to the rhetorical situation, and alert to the demands for correctness and precision. Creative Writing majors develop a sense of voice, style, and tone, and practice adapting the conventions of various literary genres.

The English department expects that its students will explore the relationship of language and literature to social and cultural issues. It hopes they will become habitual, morally engaged readers, appreciating literature’s function in developing an imaginative sensitivity to and disciplined regard for the relation between words and the world, the writer and the work, the representing self and the represented other.

The English major and minor also provide practical preparation for the world of work. They equip students to communicate clearly, to write effectively, and to read critically and accurately. These skills are fundamental for success in numerous professions and occupations, especially in the age of the Internet.

Many English courses do not carry prerequisites. In general, however, courses at the 100 and 200 levels are most appropriate for first-year students and sophomores, or for those students who have not previously taken a college literature course. Upper-level students and those who have previously taken a college literature course may take courses at all levels.

Learning Objectives

1. Read, interpret, and analyze a variety of canonical and contemporary creative writing texts across multiple genres, including literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, and playwriting.

2. Study and demonstrate understanding of various forms and structures of fiction, essay, playwriting, screenwriting, and poetry. Explore and engage critically with texts that represent a variety of perspectives and experiences.

3. Identify and implement narrative strategies and techniques employed by contemporary publishing creative writers.

4. Produce original creative writing in a variety of genres that evidences critical awareness of tradition, elements of craft, aesthetics, prosody, and narrative technique.

5. Work collaboratively and constructively with a community of writers to further develop a personal voice, writing style, tone, and sense of literary citizenship.

6. Develop the critical skills and vocabulary necessary to engage critically and effectively with peer manuscripts in a formal writing workshop environment.

7. Employ critical feedback to carry manuscripts through a series of substantial revisions that strengthen plot, narrative structure, thematic cohesion, form, voice, and language.

8. Produce a polished and cohesive body of work through a capstone creative writing course.

9. Pursue opportunities to practice the professional habits of creative writers: revision, workshopping, public reading, and submission for publication.

10. Demonstrate substantial knowledge of editing and revision techniques, post-undergraduate opportunities in writing and publishing, and other career-related aspects

11. Develop and hone skills in creating, editing and revising in the student’s primary genre.

12. Demonstrate ability to read and respond thoughtfully and critically in both oral and written form to other student’s work.

Major Requirements

ENG 250 is required for all English majors, and prospective and declared majors are strongly encouraged to take ENG 250 in their first or second year, before enrolling in upper-level courses. However, if a Junior or Senior English major has not yet taken ENG 250 and has successfully completed several upper-level English courses, then the student may petition to the Department chair to substitute ENG 380 for ENG 250 . Unless this petition is approved by the chair, ENG 250 will be required to complete the major. Students are encouraged to plan ahead with regard to required seminars and advanced workshops.

Creative Writing Concentration:

The Creative Writing Concentration is 10 units.

I. Foundation Courses (2 units):

II. Craft-of-Genre Courses (choose 3 units):

III. Advanced Genre Workshops (choose 1 unit):

ENG 314 Fiction II (prerequisite: ENG 200 3)
ENG 315 Creative Nonfiction II (prerequisite: ENG 215)
ENG 316 Poetry II (prerequisite: ENG 216)

IV. Literary Editing (1 unit):

ENG 496 Literary Editing

V. Literature and/or Language Courses (choose 3 units):

One upper-level British, European, or Postcolonial Literature course
One upper-level American Literature course:
One Unit of English Literature or Language Elective (any level and not taken above):
- Literature Electives
  - ENG 100 5 Graphic Literature
  - ENG 110 Myth, Legend, and Folklore for Storytellers and Gamers
  - ENG 145 Reading: (variable content)
  - ENG 176 Alternative Worlds (variable content)
  - ENG 177 The Hero(ine) Sets Forth: Medieval Quest Narratives
  - ENG 180 - Narratives I, ENG 182 - Narratives II, and ENG 100 6 - Narratives III (any combination of two)
  - ENG 224 African American Images
  - ENG 226 American Images
  - ENG 228 British Images
  - ENG 252 Vengeance
  - ENG 254 Introduction to Film
  - ENG 255 The Devil, the Hero, & God
  - ENG 256 Tragic Vision
  - ENG 258 - Studies in Shakespeare
  - ENG 270 - Women’s Literature in English
  - ENG 268 Black Women’s Literary Traditions
  - ENG 273 Approaches to African American Literature
  - ENG 278 Native American Literature
  - ENG 290 Rogue’s Progress: The Picaresque Experience
  - ENG 300 14 What’s Love Got to Do with It? Sexuality in Premodern English Literature
  - ENG 300 15 Britainistan: Literacy and Religious Narratives of British Muslims
  - ENG 300 15 TL Britainistan: Literacy and Religious Narratives of British Muslims. Travel Learning
  - ENG 300 16 Literary Encounters in the Medieval Mediterranean
  - ENG 300 7 Slouching Towards Empire: The Literary Politics of Ireland
  - ENG 330 Studies in Medieval Literature
  - ENG 332 The Legends of King Arthur
  - ENG 334 Chaucer and his Contemporaries
  - ENG 338 Shakespeare: This Great Stage
  - ENG 340 The Renaissance Author
  - ENG 342 Premodern Theatre in the Modern World
  - ENG 346 - Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture 18th-Century Literature in the Digital Age: Gender, Genre, and Engagement
  - ENG 347 Reason & Romanticism
  - ENG 348 The British Romantics
  - ENG 350 The Victorians
  - ENG 351 Great Books of the Nineteenth Century
  - ENG 352 Modern British Literature
  - ENG 354 Contemporary British Literature
  - ENG 355 Great Books of Russia: Russian Literature and Thought
  - ENG 356 Race, Power, and Identity in Postcolonial Literature
  - ENG 360 Early American Literature
  - ENG 362 Nineteenth-Century American Literature
  - ENG 369 Genre Studies in African-American Literature
  - ENG 372 Modern American Literature
  - ENG 374 Contemporary American Literature
  - ENG 380 Critical Methods: Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory
  - ENG 415 Special Topics in Literature and Language
  - ENG 484 Seminar in British and Postcolonial Literature
  - ENG 486 Seminar in American Literature
  - ENG 490 Independent Study
  - ENG 491 Directed Readings
- Language Electives

Note(s):

ENG 105 does not count toward the major. Internships, while encouraged, are viewed as an extension of the major, not as a substitute for a regular course. ENG 495 does not count toward the major.

A course taken credit/no entry may not be counted toward the major. At least seven courses must be taken at Ohio Wesleyan.