The WSU English Department offers a number of degree programs: a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Arts degree, and a Master of Science degree. Students working toward the B.A. can focus their program of study on literature or on writing: the department offers both a traditional major and a writing option that includes courses in technical and creative writing. Students working toward the B.S. complete an interdisciplinary major in Communication Arts and Literature to prepare for careers as teachers of English. The department further offers additional “combining majors” (ones taken in conjunction with another full major) for those pursuing interdisciplinary studies, as well as three minors, in literature, writing, and creative writing. The Master’s program combines required seminars in literature with training in pedagogy and research methods, culminating in a comprehensive exam and a capstone thesis.
The department focuses its study on the English language as art and as communication. Its gateway course, Literary Studies, introduces students to the primary genres of literature and to issues of literary history, criticism, and canonicity. This course provides the foundation for subsequent studies, which focus more emphatically on British and American literatures, as well as on more sophisticated forms of writing and language studies. A junior-level sequence provides survey courses in literary history, and, at the same level, courses in creative genres provide critical reading and workshop experience for student writers. Upper-level courses include not only advanced courses in writing and linguistics, but also offerings in Comparative Literature, Shakespearean Comedies and Tragedies, Chaucer, and Seminars in British and American Literature. One- and two-credit “special topics courses” provide opportunities for in-depth study of other authors (Toni Morrison, Jack Kerouac, William Faulkner), genres (Folklore, The Sonnet, Adaptations), works (Hamlet, Moby-Dick), and themes (Dreams of Paradise). Graduate courses include a regular rotation of seminars in figures, periods, genres, and themes, allowing faculty to pursue their scholarly interests with small groups of graduate students.
The WSU English Department enhances its students’ opportunities through a number of co-curricular, extracurricular activities and internships. The student club, Grub Street, sponsors poetry readings, book sales, and department outings and socials. English majors contribute creative work to Satori, WSU’s undergraduate literary publication, and to the Writing Labyrinth, a quarterly publication of the Writing Center. Internships are available for writing, editing, publishing, tutoring, and teaching. And the department offers annual awards for creative writing, first-year essays, academic work, and distinguished graduation portfolios.
The department also contributes greatly to general education at WSU, providing not only the Basic Skills College Reading and Writing course to the University Studies Program, but also electives in the Humanities, the Fine and Performing Arts, and other categories. The Department is currently comprised of 20-25 full-time faculty and a few adjunct faculty. Approximately ten graduate assistants and a dozen other students are enrolled in the graduate program; approximately 120 students are enrolled in the undergraduate majors and minors.