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Program Codes:
BAENGPL
Bachelor of Arts
Introduction
The English department constitutes a major humanizing force within the university. Our courses engage with diverse literary and cultural texts, giving our students the opportunity to practice critical reading and effective writing, thus preparing students for career options and advanced study. English majors develop skills in writing, information literacy and research, oral communication, cultural awareness, reading comprehension, and literary analysis.
The English department at Mercyhurst offers a B.A. in English, as well as the following concentrations: Creative Writing, Professional and Technical Writing, Secondary English Education, and Pre-Law. The English department also houses the Theatre Minor and the Film Studies Minor. These programs allow students to personalize their studies while acquiring the breadth of knowledge and skills found in the traditional English major.
The English Department sponsors the Mercyhurst Literary Festival, the Mercyhurst Theatre Program, and Lumen, the campus arts journal. We have a chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international honor society formed to recognize English majors and minors who achieve high standards of excellence in their chosen linguistic or literary fields.
English Department Mission Statement
The Department of English offers programs of study that teach students to think critically and imaginatively about literature, language, and culture. Our goal is to produce discerning and creative readers, writers, and thinkers who have the communication skills needed to excel professionally. English majors and minors study challenging American, British and world texts, while cultivating their skills in oral communication, digital literacy, creative writing, research and information literacy, and professional writing.
English majors must maintain an overall 2.0 GPA. English majors with a concentration in Secondary Education preparation must maintain an overall 3.0 GPA and at least a 3.0 GPA in their major courses. English majors must earn a C or better in any course from the major meant to fulfill a degree requirement. No required course in the major may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis.
All English majors are highly encouraged to take an internship and/or study abroad. All majors will undergo a sophomore review with their advisor during their sophomore year of study or upon transferring into the English major.
The course of study offered for the English Major with a Pre-Law Concentration is well-suited to develop the skills desirable for law school. According to the Law School Admissions Council, no particular undergraduate education is recommended; students are admitted to law school from almost every academic discipline. They write, “Law schools want students who can think critically and write well, and who have some understanding of the forces that have shaped the human experience. Among the abilities named by the American Bar Association as important preparation for law school are analytic/problem-solving skills, critical reading abilities, oral communication and listening abilities, research skills, organization and management skills, and the values of serving faithfully the interests of others while promoting justice.” Our curriculum teaches students to read and comprehend complex texts with accuracy and insight, the ability to think critically, and to analyze and evaluate the reasoning and arguments of others.
This course focuses on the analysis and interpretation of various literary genres, exploring how language is used to enlighten, influence, and entertain readers. This class will involve reading, writing, and researching, as well as analyzing the course themes of identity, gender and class in a number of texts.
Introduces students to the discipline of English studies, with emphasis on close reading, major genres, and critical/theoretical approaches. Readings will be drawn from a range of literary periods and traditions.
Choose One:
A study designed to broaden a student's sense of the roots of the literary tradition of the U.S from its origins to the 1820s. Works include those of 16th century Spanish explorers, Native American tales, Puritan New England writers, and the literature of the American Revolution.
Between 1820 and 1865, American literature came of age with the period's extraordinary cultural and social upheavals. A study of the most important writers of the period, such as Poe, Emerson, Douglass, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson.
A study of the regional voices and the literary movements of realism, including local color and naturalism, that marked the years following the American Civil War through the works of such writers as Davis, Jewett, Chopin, Gilman, Chesnutt, Howells, James, Twain, and Crane.
A study of the modernists writing from 1910 to 1945, along with the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and of the 1930s Depression. Poets include Frost, Eliot, Pound, Williams, Stevens, H.D., Moore, Hughes, and fiction writers such as Faulkner, Cather, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Hurston.
Choose One:
A study of representative prose and poetry of Old English and Middle English from Beowulf to Chaucer, including Old English heroic poems, elegies, gnomic verses and riddles, and works such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
A study in the literary milieu in England from the early 1500s to 1600 with authors such as Wyatt, Surrey, Shakespeare, and Milton.
A comparative study of the historical, cultural, and literary movements underpinning the development and influences of the Neoclassical Age in England, focusing on such authors as Dryden, Congreve, Pope, Haywood, and Johnson.
A close examination of some of the major ideas and influences in British and continental Romanticism, with special emphasis on the development of Romantic literary theory through the works of such writers as Goethe, Hoffman, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats.
A comparative examination of the historical and literary movements of the British Victorian period. The study covers a range of poetry and prose by authors such as Tennyson, Arnold, the Brownings, and Rossetti.
The course examines modernist poetry, fiction, and drama written in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland through the works of such writers as Hardy, Joyce, Woolf, Yeats, Synge, Auden, Shaw, Forster, as well as a more recent group that includes Greene, Murdock, Durrell, Stoppard, Larkin, O'Brien, and Beckett.
Take the Following:
200 Level Seminar in Literature Elective 3 credits
300 Level Seminar in Literature Elective 3 credits
300 Level Seminar in Literature Elective 3 credits
This class is designed to deepen students' understanding of the writing situation - audience, and purpose - within the context of other professional activities. It is designed to enable students to write accurately and thoughtfully about a subject while creating documents that solve problems and improve situations through effective communication.
In this course, students will focus on effective, professional public discourse. Drawing on strategies of rhetorical criticism, students will gain an understanding of the persuasive value of style, arrangement, and delivery of public debate, and presentation.
An in-depth study of critical and theoretical approaches to literature, with an emphasis on the development of theories of literature from classicism to contemporary cognitive poetics.
This capstone seminar is designed for students to prepare and present publically, a significant and sophisticated written project in literary scholarship, technical writing, or creative writing.
Five Concentration Electives in Pre-Law Program:
A survey of the legal principles found in transactions typified in today's business world. Emphasis is placed on the case study method along with real-world examples. Topics covered include: alternative dispute resolution, structure of the court system, contracts, sales, property law, insurance law, and corporate ethics.
A study of the judicial process and the legal framework encountered by criminal justice practitioners. Emphasis is placed on the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments to the U.S Constitution. This course focuses on criminal law factors and evidentiary procedures from investigation through adjudication. Students will participate in a mock trial in order to synthesize the skills they have developed in this course.
Junior-Senior
Course explores impact of the Supreme Court on the doctrine of Separation of Powers and Federalism. Topics include presidential, congressional, and judicial powers; inter-branch constitutional relations; and the division of power between state and federal governments. Recommended for pre-law students. POLI 100 recommended to be taken before taking this course.
An examination of Supreme Court cases dealing with civil liberties and civil rights such as the freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and press. The course also covers due process rights and issues related to criminal law are examined by analyzing Supreme Court cases. The analysis of civil rights and liberties is placed in the context of the American political system and its search for ordered liberty. It is recommended that students complete POLI 100 prior to taking this course.
Co-op/Internship or approved elective
