Mar 29, 2024  
2021-2022 Westminster College Catalog 
    
2021-2022 Westminster College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

English, B.A.


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The Westminster College English programs envision their undergraduates as scholars and writers from the beginning by placing scholarly conversation and writing at the center of its curriculums. Our programs begin with a trio of courses that introduce our students to literary studies, creative writing, and professional writing. We move on to seminars and writing workshops in the sophomore, junior, and senior years that build on the students’ increasing levels of sophistication. In the junior and senior years, our students’ work culminates in a two-semester capstone project that has both a scholarly and creative component.

English majors are engaged in developing and mastering their ability to:

  1. discuss literature, including engaging in an exchange of ideas and offering and supporting insights;
  2. sustain controlled, critical arguments that analyze and synthesize texts;
  3. understand the craft of writing, including concision, diction, grammar, and syntax;
  4. begin mastering a particular genre of creative or professional writing;
  5. critique peers’ work to assist their fellow writers and improve their own revisions;
  6. identify and use a range of sources suitable to the scholarly conversation on a particular topic, to evaluate and integrate source material, and to document accurately;
  7. understand the literary tradition, the historical and cultural contexts of literature, and critical methods of reading; and
  8. give well-planned, engaging presentations.
  9. write convincingly about the art of creative writing-how it is made and why it endures.

Concentrations


As English majors, our students choose between two concentrations that have significant overlap.

Our Literary Studies Concentration  emphasizes the scholarly approach to literary texts, and it culminates in a capstone project that includes a creative element, but is dominated by the critical study of literary work.

Conversely, our Writing Concentration  emphasizes creative and professional writing, culminating in a capstone project dominated by these forms of writing, but including a critical study of literary work.

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