English

In this program, English majors at Mercyhurst University gain practical experience writing both poetry and fiction in small workshops and seminars. The aim of this coursework is for students to produce publishable work under the close guidance of our experienced faculty. We also strongly encourage students to refine their editing skills by working on the staff of Lumen, our campus-wide arts journal. Additionally, each year the department hosts the Mercyhurst Literary Festival, which gives students a chance to meet and attend workshops with renowned writers from across the country: in the past, we have hosted remarkable talents such as Robert Bly, Grace Paley, Martin Espada, and Jane Hirshfield. Ultimately, students graduate from the program ready to pursue careers as writers and editors in the publishing industry or to attend graduate school to further develop their craft.

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, 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 concentration is designed to matriculate students with the skills needed to negotiate current professional writing contexts (including web design and web media) as well as the awareness of how to keep current with cultural and technological changes. In addition to the English department’s main program of study, students take classes in Advanced Composition, a Professional Writing Seminar, Oral Interpretation, and Applied Linguistics. Students are required to take an internship designed to give them practical experience in their future career field.

The Creative Writing minor is a 21-credit program of study for students seeking to gain experience and skill in composing fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Creative Writing minors take courses in fiction and poetry writing including Contemporary Literature, Introduction to Creative Writing, Creative Writing: Fiction and Creative Writing: Poetry.

The English minor allows students to engage with diverse literary and cultural texts. It gives students the opportunity to practice critical reading and effective writing, thus preparing them for multiple career options and advanced study. The skills English minors develop in information literacy and research, aesthetic appreciation, communication, cultural awareness, reading comprehension, and analysis prepare them for the 21st century economy.

The Film Studies minor is an 18-credit program of study that allows students to understand and critically engage the images that pervade our lives. As film is a major narrative art form - arguably the dominant one - of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this minor allows students the opportunity to study and appreciate it as such. The interdisciplinary courses required for the program allow students to gain a solid grounding in the vocabulary and theory of film studies while giving them flexibility to pursue their interests in various cinematic periods and styles. Students pursuing a Film Studies minor take a class in Film Appreciation and Film Narrative and Theory. They then take four additional film electives, that can include Documentary Filmmaking, Literature and Film, African Americans in Film, Psychology in Film or America in the Nuclear Age among others.

The Theatre minor is an 18-credit program of study that provides students with the aesthetic, analytical, and interpersonal skills necessary for productive and reflective lives of leadership and service. The required courses provide a breadth of knowledge about the various disciplines of theater, while the electives allow students to develop proficiency in one area, such as performance, design, or theater history and dramatic literature.

Students pursuing careers in teaching choose our very successful 4+1 track. In addition to their liberal arts core curriculum, students take extensive coursework in English literature, as well as two education classes. After completing this enhanced undergraduate degree in English, students then pursue a fifth year of study to earn their master’s in Secondary Education—a program that is delivered 100% online. Students on this track must complete the undergraduate English curriculum of 42 credit hours, as follows:

• 200-level Literary Studies elective

• Intro to the English major (ENG 205)

• Early American Lit. or American Renaissance (ENG 251 or 253)

• American Realism or American Modernism (ENG 261 or 263)

• Medieval; Renaissance; or Restoration & 18th Century Lit. (ENG 220, 224 or 228)

• Romanticism; Victorian Lit.; or British/Irish Modernism (ENG 230, 234 or 238)

• 200 or 300-level ENG/THEA elective

• 200 or 300-level ENG/THEA elective

• The English Novel or Seminar in British Lit. (ENG 332, 338)

• Southern Lit.; Catholic Lit.; or Seminar in American Lit. (ENG 351, 354, 358)

• Contemporary Poetry; Postmodern Lit.; or Seminar in Contemporary Lit. (ENG 362, 364, 368)

• African-American Lit.; Women & Lit.; or Seminar in Multicultural Lit. (ENG 370, 374, 378)

• Major Author or Shakespeare (ENG 326 or 344)

• ENG 391 Lit. Criticism

• ENG 490 Senior English project

   

Undergraduate students would also take two courses in the Education Content Area (which requires the Education Graduate Coordinator to approve registration):

• Culturally/Linguistically Diverse Learners—taken in junior or senior year (WL 101)

• Comparative Issues in Education—taken in senior year (EDUC 210)