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Curriculum

The English Department at Saint Vincent College is an expressly active environment of mentoring and collaborative learning. Students work with departmental faculty and in small groups on independent and extracurricular projects, as well as in regular courses. Students can choose to concentrate in Literature, Secondary Education, Professional Writing, or Creative Writing to prepare for graduate school, law school, or medical school, to receive training in journalism, business, and technical writing, to achieve certification in secondary or primary teaching, or to pursue a career in writing fiction or poetry. As part of their chosen concentration, students can gain direct work experience through internships.

In their courses and assignments, English majors at Saint Vincent can expect to pursue the processes of reading and writing as investigations of the world and its events. Working with novels, poems, plays, and other creative media, all of which represent the values and ideas of past and present thinkers, students have the opportunity to learn by discovering, examining, analyzing, and discussing literature. In these pursuits, students gain fluency in thinking, reading and writing, and the ability to express ideas and values in a number of ways. Most important, students develop a critical awareness of self.

Requirements for the major are set to ensure that students study language, criticism, genres, periods, and figures; they include three distinctive emphases within the Department’s offerings:

  • Writing courses focus on the ability to read critically and to gain skill in established rhetorical modes. In these courses, students are introduced to a variety of forms and styles of writing and provided with the opportunities to master these modes themselves;
  • Literature courses emphasize treatment of an individual work in relation to literary history, as well as the effect that writers and works have on readers. Students develop an understanding of primary texts and secondary texts, as well as the ability to explicate any kind of text;
  • Thematic courses explore the connections literature makes with other disciplines and thus with other ways of finding meaning and expressing it in human activity.

Students who major in English are eligible to participate in a cooperative program between Saint Vincent College and Duquesne Law School that allows them to earn their bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor degree in six years. In this program, qualified students who complete their first three years of study at Saint Vincent, fulfilling the Core Curriculum requirements and the requirements for the major, may transfer into the Law program and complete the requirements for the Juris Doctor in three years. For details, see the explanation of this program in the Pre-Law section of the Bulletin.

Note: all students at Saint Vincent, including English majors, take EL 102 Language and Rhetoric. In addition to that course, English majors take the following courses; two of the requirements listed below can be used to fulfill the remaining core requirements that apply to all students.

English Major Requirements for ALL majors (15 credits):
(See Core Curriculum requirements)

EL 200 Literary Criticism I 3
EL 201 Literary Criticism II 3
EL 202 Intermediate Writing 3
EL 310 Junior Seminar 3
EL 400 Senior Project 3

Concentration requirements in the English Department (see below): 27-30 credits.
Extra Concentration Requirements (see below): vary by concentration.
Regardless of concentration, at least one of the literature courses that students choose must be a course in minority/multi-cultural literature. In addition to the course requirements, all students must develop a portfolio in which they file a sample of their written work in their concentration-related courses and a self-assessment of their learning each semester. Department faculty will evaluate student work after the Junior Seminar.

Major Requirements for the Literature Concentration (27 credits)

1 thematic course 3*
2 genre courses 6*
  Four Period/Figure** courses including  
  at least one course in American Literature 3
 

at least one course in British or European Literature
before the 18th century

3
  at least one course in British or European Literature
after the 17th century
3
  any other Period/Figure course 3
1 English elective 3
EL 400 Senior Project in Literature 3

Extra Concentration requirements for the Literature Concentration (18)

3 Humanities courses in addition to Core Requirements (at least two courses must be in History or Philosophy) 9
2 Fine Arts Courses in addition to Core Requirements 2
  One Modern/Classical Language course beyond 203/204 3
Free electives 11

Students may substitute a declared minor for the extra concentration requirements OR a declared second major for the extra concentration requirements and free electives.

Major Requirements for the English Secondary Education Concentration (27 credits):
Students should consult the English Department Chairperson, as well as the Education Department Chairperson, for the guidelines to complete the teacher certification requirements in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, or Secondary Education. Students begin the Education program (usually in the sophomore year) by registering for ED 100 Foundations of Education.

EL 206 History of the English Language 3
EL 234 Young Adult Fiction and one other genre course 6*
EL 240 Survey of American Literature 3
EL 314 Shakespeare’s Histories OR  
EL 315 Shakespeare’s Comedies/Tragedies 3
1

British/European Literature course, 18th Century
or later

3
1 Period/Figure course, any area 3
English Elective 3
EL 400 Senior Project in Literature 3

Extra Concentration Requirements for the English Education Concentration (37)
Students must complete the Minor in Education and/or the Certificate for Secondary Education in English; some requirements will also fulfill Core.

PY 115, 214, 290 9
ED 100, 205, 220, 301 10
ED 101, 400, 410, 411 15
MA 102 for teachers (2nd course) 3
No free electives

Major requirements for the Professional Writing Concentration (27 credits)
The professional Writing concentration prepares English Majors for careers in Technical Writing, Grant Writing, Editing, Documentation Manual Writing, and Corporate Communications. This concentration consists of stipulated major requirements and electives that will give students a background in professional written discourse, design, electronic media, and publishing. In addition, English majors concentrating in Professional Writing will be encouraged to secure a professional writing internship during the junior or senior year, and
will be required to enroll in a Professional Writing Seminar during the fall semester of their senior year.

EL109 Business Communication 3
1 thematic course 3*
EL 237 Prose Nonfiction and one other genre course 6*
Four Period/Figure** courses including
  at least one course in American Literature 3
  at least one course in British or European Literature
before the 18th century
3
  at least one course in British or European Literature
after the 17th century
3
  any other Period/Figure course 3
EL 400 Senior Project in Professional Writing 3

Extra Concentration Requirements for the Professional Writing Concentration (18)

EL 108 Technical Writing 3
EL 110 Introduction to Creative Writing 3
AR 131 Design: Two Dimensional (may also fulfill Core) 3
CA 230 Writing for Media 3
EL 301 Creative Writing: Magazine Production 3
Writing Internship 3
Free electives 11

Major Requirements for the Creative Writing Concentration (30 credits)
The concentration in creative writing is for students interested in writing and editing fiction, poetry and nonfiction. The program also leads to graduate study in publishing and, especially, in creative writing. Upon completion of the program, students should have a portfolio of creative work suitable for submission to MFA programs. The creative writing concentration consists of both the departmental requirements for the English major and additional courses specifically designed to teach and enlarge writing, reviewing and editing skills. Many creative writing classes include a service learning component. During their studies, creative writing students take a required course in magazine production for firsthand editorial experience. Students must also intern within the fields of writing, publishing or editing during the junior or senior year. All students will give a public reading of their work in their final semester of study.

EL 110 Introduction to Creative Writing 3
2 genre courses OR 1 thematic & 1 genre course OR 1 genre course & 1 Creative Writing course in another genre 6
Four Period/Figure** courses including
  at least one course in American Literature 3
  at least one course in British or European Literature
before the 18th century
3
  at least one course in British or European Literature
after the 17th century
3
  any other Period/Figure course 3
2 intermediate/advanced Creative Writing courses 6
EL 400 Senior Project in Creative Writing 3

Extra Concentration Requirements for the Creative Writing Concentration (18)

EL 207 Creative Thinking/Critical Thinking 3
EL 301 Creative Writing: Magazine Production 3
2 courses, in any combination, from Art History,
Music History, Studio Art (excluding electronic Media)
6
1 advanced Creative Writing course 3
Writing internship 3
Free electives 13 credits

English Minor Requirements (18 credits):

EL 102 Language and Rhetoric 3
EL 200 Literary Criticism I or
EL 201 Literary Criticism II 3
One Language Arts course or  
One Thematic course 3
One Genre course 3
Two Period and Figure courses 6

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