English Studies and Journalism

All Programs

English Studies majors learn how to make a living and they learn how to make a life.

  • An English degree provides you with highly sought after career skills to make a successful living in a diverse, changing, and complex world.  

    • English majors learn to read closely,  write coherently, persuasively, and beautifully, and they learn to pay close attention to language: to recognize and evaluate the manipulative use of language by others, to produce artful language that inspires, and to think independently, using precise language to convey bold new ideas. 

    • English majors learn technological and informational literacy skills that help them adapt to the ever-changing digital media landscape. They also learn project management skills from idea to implementation. Intensive study of language means engaging with, analyzing, and producing texts though 21st century technologies, media, and genres for a wide variety of purposes and audiences.

    • The English major develops excellence in communication, critical thinking, creativity, connecting complex ideas, and consideration of multiple views: the kinds of skills that pave the way for career success. https://www.themuse.com/advice/10-job-skills-youll-need-in-2020

An English degree challenges you to make a life of uncommon success by helping you better understand the human condition across time, culture, and distance, and by encouraging you to develop and contribute your voice both personally and publicly. 

  • Studying literature builds empathy through an understanding of others’ perspectives by putting you in intimate contact with the diversity of human experience, allowing you to learn about people, places, times, and cultures similar to and very different from your own.

  •  Studying writing builds confidence, helping you find your voice. Whether you are drafting a reasoned opinion, proposing an idea, explaining a technical concept, working for social justice, or crafting a lyric poem or dystopian novel, you’ll learn how all kinds of writers hone their craft--and, in ways small and large, change the world. 

  • Studying language builds a sense of joy, delight, wonder, awe, and curiosity about the world. Not only does language offer us a source of relaxation, play, and entertainment, but language shapes our understanding of cultures, relations of power, and the way we understand ourselves and others.