These requirements are from an excerpt from the University Academic Catalog, which outlines the requirements for a student to earn the distinction of being a Castleton University graduate. The complete catalog is available online.
Student Learning outcomes for English:
Read:Majors will . . .
√ develop sophisticated and active reading strategies--especially skills in close reading, critical reading, and analysis--to understand, appreciate, and work with a wide variety of everyday and complex texts (both in and after college)
√ develop a mature and integrative knowledge of literature and literary traditions across historical and geographical boundaries
√ interpret texts from a variety of literary genres in relation to their social, cultural, and historical contexts
√ develop a deep and enduring appreciation for the pleasure and utility of the practice of reading
Write:Majors will . . .
√ engage in simple and complex rhetorical situations using the university's writing standards of Audience & Purpose, Arrangement, Development, Synthesis, and Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling
√ critically analyze a variety of texts using disciplinary language and critical perspectives appropriate for literary and rhetorical analysis
√ participate in the critical and cultural discourse of English (disciplinary conversations and arguments) in ways that create and advance disciplinary and personal knowledge
√ conduct purposeful, independent inquiry through research, synthesizing the voice(s) and ideas of others to produce engaging, insightful, and persuasive texts
√ develop and hone a more sophisticated critical and/or creative voice
√ write clear, powerful, and engaging original literature (creative writing), and/or rhetorically powerful and persuasive work about literature (literary criticism), and/or rhetorically powerful and persuasive discourse about socio-cultural issues (civic discourse)
SpeakMajors will . . .
√ gain confidence in formulating and clearly articulating their thoughts to a variety of audiences
√ develop skills in listening actively, critically, and sympathetically
√ actively participate in discussions that build knowledge collaboratively
√ plan, prepare, and deliver engaging oral presentations
ThinkMajors will . . .
√ consciously explore and articulate their interests in studying English, (as well as personal values and life ambitions)
√ develop habits of mind that allow them to explain issues/problems, discover and employ evidence, analyze contexts, identify and evaluate personal and others' perspectives, frame a hypothesis, and reach reasonable conclusions
√ use disciplinary vocabulary, concepts, and theories to augment thinking
√ engage in inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving, and risk taking to reach creative and practical resolutions
√ cultivate a mature awareness of and appreciation for creativity, imagination, and reason
WorkMajors will . . .
√ anticipate and explore their interests in preparation for life after college
√ practice the skills and habits of thinking needed to succeed and thrive in an anticipated occupation
So that English department faculty can better evaluate each student's progress and accomplishments in these areas, all English majors submit a portfolio of three essays during the spring semester of their sophomore year and another portfolio of three essays during the spring semester of their senior year. The department distributes submission instructions at the beginning of each spring semester.
Code | Course | Credits |
---|---|---|
ENG 1250 |
Popular Literature-OR- What are you reading? What do you like to read? Mysteries? Science Fiction? Fantasy? Horror? This class looks through a new lens at what people enjoy reading in the current moment, and asks questions like: Why do we enjoy it? What does it say about us? Will people be reading it in 100 years? This course uses current popular fiction to engage students in basic analysis, looking at cultural contexts, critical frameworks and evaluation of literary quality within the field of pleasure reading. It will provide structures for developing skills in literary study, exploring the foundations of pleasure in reading and using literary critical terminology. This course fulfills an Arts and Aesthetics general education requirement. Every semester |
3 |
ENG 1310 |
Introduction to LiteratureThis course asks students to consider and apply the variety of formal strategies by which accomplished readers interpret, appraise, and appreciate fiction, poetry, and drama. English majors should complete this course their first year. This course fulfills an Arts and Aesthetics general education requirement. Prerequisite: ENG 0040/ENG 1010, or equivalents. Every semester |
3 |
Code | Course | Credits |
---|---|---|
ENG 2161 |
World Literature through RenaissanceThis course investigates salient texts from a variety of different cultures, most of which are related to one another by origin or influence. The booklist changes each time the course is offered, and texts are chosen for the contributions they can make to students' knowledge of world literature and ability to contextualize the events, texts, and persons of today's world. Recent selections have included Plato's Symposium, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, Poems of Rumi, and Dante's Paradiso. Course offered every third semester, consult with Department Chair for offering cycle. This course fulfills a Humanistic Perspective general education requirement. Prerequisite: ENG 1061, highly recommended: ENG 1310. Every third semester |
3 |
ENG 2162 |
World Literature from EnlightenmentIn the novels, poetry, and essays read for this course, the major religious traditions confront modernity. Among the changes to which these texts respond are: the voyages of exploration and discovery, the religious warfare that shook Europe in the seventeenth century, the Enlightenment and its violent triumph in the French Revolution, and the modern experience of world war. Course offered every third semester, consult Department Chair for offering cycle. This course fulfills the Aesthetic Understanding or World Views Frame of Reference. Prerequisite: ENG 1061 Highly recommended: ENG 1310 Every third semester |
3 |
ENG 2271 |
English Literature: Anglo-Saxons to 18th CenturyThis course introduces the major authors, genres, and motifs of English literature from its inception to the end of the neoclassical period. A wide range of materials is presented, from the development of the English language and its Anglo-Saxon base to masterfully crafted rhymed couplets, from the Canterbury pilgrims to Dr. Faustus, from the Red Crosse Knight and Oroonoko to Satan and a cat named Jeoffry, from Grendel to Gulliver. Course offered every third semester, consult with Department Chair for offering cycle. This course fulfills the Arts and Aesthetics general education requirement. Prerequisite: ENG 1061 Highly recommended: ENG 1310 Every third semester |
3 |
ENG 2272 |
English Literature: 18th Century to PresentThis course spans the Romantic, Victorian, modern, and contemporary periods of English literature. The scope is broad: from Songs of Innocence to A Room of One's Own, from Manfred to Kurtz, Frankenstein's monster to Godot, from Heathcliff and Aurora Leigh to J. Alfred Prufrock and Stephen Dedalus, from the early Romantic poets' Neoplatonism to the somber mood and modes following the cataclysmic First World War. Course is offered every third semester, consult Department Chair for offering cycle. This course fulfills the Arts and Aesthetics general education requirement. Prerequisite: ENG 1061 Highly recommended: ENG 1310 Every third semester |
3 |
ENG 2311 |
American Literature: Colonial to Civil WarThis course examines the formal and philosophical features of American literature through the Civil War, particularly those features that resulted from the exhilarating yet complex, even contradictory, new American character. Reading includes fiction, poetry, and essays that characterize and illustrate colonial, Romantic, and Civil War era literary endeavor. Course is offered every third semester, consult Department Chair for offering cycle. Prerequisite: ENG 1061 , highly recommended: ENG 1310 Every third semester |
3 |
ENG 2312 |
American Literature: Civil War to PresentThis course examines the formal and philosophical features of American literature from the Civil War to the present, particularly those features wrought by the Civil War, by urbanization, by advances in science and psychology, and by the two world wars. Reading includes fiction, poetry, and drama that characterize and illustrate literary regionalism, realism, naturalism, and modernism-and that begin to characterize contemporary American literature by, and against, those traditions. Course offered every third semester, consult Department Chair for cycle offering. Prerequisite: ENG 1061 , highly recommended ENG 1310 Every third semester |
3 |
Code | Course | Credits |
---|---|---|
ENG 2010 |
Expository and Argumentative WritingPrimarily concerned with writing that explains or elaborates and writing that persuades, this course builds upon the foundation laid by ENG 1061.Further emphasis is given grammar and mechanics, development and style, with particular attention paid the skills of critical thinking and the strategies of persuasion. English majors must complete this course their first or second year. Prerequisite: ENG 1061. Every semester |
3 |
ENG 3360 |
Shakespeare"The play's the thing!" by which we encounter one of the most influential authors of the English (and American) literary tradition. Whether he is poking fun at people's loves and lives in a comedy such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, condemning the damage people do through their hatreds and biases, Romeo and Juliet, or holding up England's best and worst kings for our examination, Shakespeare provides insights into what it means to be human--in any age. Prerequisite: Highly recommended: ENG 1310 or ENG 1250 Fall, even years |
3 |
ENG 3690 |
The English Language: GrammarDesigned to investigate the systematic nature of English grammar, this course draws from both structural and transformational linguistics. It analyzes sentence structure—how to identify, expand, and transform the basic sentence patterns; it studies the assorted forms and functions of words, phrases, and clauses; and it examines the relationship between grammar and rhetoric, particularly by way of cohesion, rhythm, emphasis, and punctuation. This course also considers the evolution of English grammar. Prerequisite: ENG 1061. Highly recommended: ENG 2010. Fall |
3 |
ENG 4140 |
Approaches to LiteratureThis senior seminar studies the variety of critical approaches by which accomplished readers interpret, appraise, and appreciate fiction, poetry, and drama. Not only do students consider the nature and purpose of literary criticism, but they also analyze and apply the principles that define such approaches as formalism, historicism, reader-response criticism, mimeticism, and intertextualism. Prerequisite: ENG 1310 Fall |
3 |
Four of the five electives must be at the 3000-level
Code | Course | Credits |
---|---|---|
ENG 4940 |
English CapstoneThis course provides a capstone experience for English majors. Majors will have four options: 1. A research-based thesis, 2. A creative writing portfolio, 3. A secondary English component to the student teaching program, 4. A professional internship with a community partner. All of these will require the supervision of an English faculty mentor, and will require a substantial written reflection in addition to other requirements. Restrictions Senior status or approval of the instructor Periodically |
1-3 |
Note that no more than two major courses may be taken Pass/No pass
View the General Education Requirements.
This major participates in the 3+2 program with Vermont Law School, in which highly-focused students can earn a Bachelor's degree in just three years at CU and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree in just two years at VLS.
For details, see the Law Degree page.