English 
Write your own future.
Make your undergraduate career one of exploring the profound nuances that permeate our lives, and then champion them in one of humankind’s most fundamental and poignant methods of communication: the written word. Let writing change you and your world.
The William Woods University Bachelor of Arts in English program enables you to study and produce great writing across the discipline. Whether you’re interested in literature, creative writing, professional writing, or film studies, our program offers a variety of classes for you to use as the first steps in writing the story of your own future.
The BA in English program builds your knowledge and experience in research, writing, reflection, editing, and theory. Fine-tune your interpretive and rhetorical skills through classroom analysis and debates. Try your hand at creative writing while you study the works of iconic and influential writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, and screenplays. Learn the fundamental precision of technical writing, an essential tool in all professional fields. Explore multifaceted forms of creativity and strategy, cultivate your passions, gain invaluable skills, and move ahead with purpose, fueled by inspiration and equipped for success.
Special opportunities
- Engage in service activities and classroom assignments—such as grant and proposal writings, public readings, film festivals, creative writing contests—which have strong connections to work you will do in your professional career, helping to build your portfolio
- Join organizations like Writer’s Ink and the Reel Fanatics Student Film Club
- Explore and establish exciting interdisciplinary opportunities—such as double-majors or cross-curricular projects—with other fields such as ASL, History, Communications, Business, and Law
- Complete internships, capstone projects, grant writing exercises, and research alongside expert faculty to gain broadly applicable knowledge in the field and prepare for success in any future career
Our English degree at work
Pursue an exciting career as a/an:
- Publishing
- Professional and technical writing
- Editing
- Journalism
- Teaching
- Marketing
- Grant writing
- Copywriting
- Speechwriting
- Development
- Screenwriting
- Copyediting
- Or, attend graduate school for law, education, journalism, and more.
Employers
- Department of Labor
- The Rolla Daily News
- IRS
- Ingram’s Business Magazine
- Battle Creek Bombers Minor League Baseball Team
- And more
I have always been interested in English and equally interested and dedicated to writing academically, creatively and journalistically. William Woods University has given me the opportunity to explore all of my interests. I am grateful for the support and sincere concern for my academic career from the professors of the English department.— Nickol Enss, English major
I chose to attend William Woods University because I felt the one-on-one attention I would receive from small classes would be most beneficial for me in my professional life, and I have never regretted it. In my field of study, rarely did I have to sit through hours of boring lecture classes — Many of my classes were hands-on. I got much more practical application for my skills than I would have at a larger university.— Leah Hohmeier Strid, English graduate
The Bachelor of Arts in English degree at William Woods University consists of 122 distinct credit hours for graduation — including 21 core major credits, 18 credits of required electives, a year of foreign language and a minor.
Major Requirements
Core Credits: 12.00
| Creative Writing is considered from aesthetic and structural perspectives: students read and discuss contemporary writing in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and/or drama; develop their expressive writing skills through writing assignments; discuss and evaluate concepts related to the aesthetic challenges writers face. Prerequisite – ENG101 credits: | Introduction to Creative Writing -X | 3 |
| Students are introduced to the major genres of literature (fiction, poetry, and drama), as well as their attendant forms, conventions, and contexts. Students are also introduced to techniques for interpreting, analyzing, and commenting on literature, using the vocabulary of literary studies. Prerequisites: ENG101 credits: | Introduction to Literature -Q | 3 |
| A study of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories, and of his cultural background. Prerequisites – ENG102 credits: | Shakespeare | 3 |
| Students design and create capstone projects and portfolios for the undergraduate English major, in which the program core objectives are synthesized and applied. Prerequisites – ENG102 and Senior Standing credits: | Humanities Senior Seminar | 3 |
Required English Electives - 18 Credits
credits: | Introductory Projects | 3 |
| A survey of English literature from Old English to the Romantic Period with emphasis on reading, interpretation, and criticism of representative works of major authors, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Swift, and Johnson. Pre-requisite – ENG101 credits: | English Literature I -Q | 3 |
| A survey of English literature from the Romantic Period to the present with emphasis on reading, interpretation, and criticism of representative works of major authors, including Keats, Shelly, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Arnold, Yeats, Eliot, Joyce, and Woolf. Pre-requisite – ENG101 credits: | English Literature II -Q | 3 |
| An introduction to significant works drawn from the span of world literature. Course readings might include Gilgamesh, work by Dante, Dostoyevsky, Allende, Achebe, and others. All works will be read in English. credits: | World Literature -U | 3 |
| Shakespeare and the Devil, is an honors course exploring the plays of William Shakespeare within a historical, cultural, and religious context. Specifically, the content of his plays is related to Elizabethan and early Jacobean perceptions of the Christian hell, Satan, and the nature of sins and punishment at the turn of the 16th Century. Special consideration is given to the way that religiosity in 16th Century England informs and influences Christian beliefs in today’s world, and the extent to which Shakespeare’s works reflect, critique, and anticipate mainstream religious values. credits: | Shakespeare and the Devil -Q | 3 |
| This course will explore readings from four centuries of African-American Literature. Students will read examples of writing by African-Americans across the range of genres and styles– poetry, fiction, memoir, drama, comedy, drama, romance, adventure, and more. Prerequisite: ENG101 credits: | African American Literature -U | 3 |
| A survey of American literature to 1860 with emphasis on reading, interpretation, and criticism of representative works of major authors. Prerequisite – ENG101 credits: | American Literature I -Q | 3 |
| A survey of American literature from 1860 to present with emphasis on reading, interpretation, and criticism of representative works of major authors. Prerequisite – ENG101 credits: | American Literature II-Q | 3 |
credits: | Independent Study | 3 |
| Writing With Style is an intermediate level class that pushes students to further develop their skills in creative writing, academic writing, and workplace writing. In a semester divided evenly between these different writing styles, students will use elements of the different writing styles to draft substantial original compositions. They will develop vocabulary and strategies to enhance written work in varied environments. Prerequisite: ENG102 credits: | Writing with Style | 3 |
| A study of the origins, changes and reasons for changes in the grammar, sounds and vocabulary of English from the beginnings of the language to modern times. Prerequisite – ENG102 credits: | History of the English Language | 3 |
| This course is a survey of various myths and legends, both oral and written, told by multiple cultures across the globe. Prerequisite: ENG101 credits: | Legends and Mythology | 3 |
| In this course, students will study the major schools of literary criticism, focusing on the formal (e.g. – deconstructive, reader-response, psychoanalytic) and the cultural (e.g. – Marxist, New Historicist, African-American, feminist) aspects of theory. Students will apply these theories to assigned works with recognized significance in the field. Students will write short responses to the theory and apply them. They will also undertake a major project where they undertake a fuller exploration of the two main approaches to theory (formal and cultural). Prerequisite – ENG280 credits: | Theory and Criticism of Literature | 3 |
credits: | Advanced Projects | 3 |
| This course combines frequent writing practice with discussions of rhetorical theories and strategies for teaching writing. Students will examine how linguistic and rhetorical theories apply to the teaching of writing and how teachers may evaluate student writing constructively. The course also provides information about professional resources and ways to design effective writing courses, assignments, and instructional materials. Several writing assignments give students firsthand experience with instructional techniques; a term project permits students to design a writing course, examine professional issues, or conduct original research. Prerequisite – ENG102 credits: | Compositn for Prospective Teachers | 3 |
| A theoretical and practical study of the teaching of English at the secondary level. Not creditable toward the English major or minor. credits: | Methods of Teaching | 3 |
| Requires a minimum of 120 clock hours in an approved work situation. In addition to submitting a log of work activities with dates and times, the student will develop a complete portfolio illustrating internship activities and outcomes, with brief explanatory texts. The student will also prepare a resume. Requires the permission of the division chair. credits: | ENG Internship II | 3 |
credits: | _________________________________ | 0 |
credits: | _________________________________ | 0 |
credits: | Must complete at least 3 credits from the following options | 0 |
| Students study the basic elements of film production and meaning, with particular attention paid to defining and interpreting various aesthetic, technological, social, psychological, and philosophical aspects of cinema. Prerequisites – ENG 101 credits: | Introduction to Film Studies -Q | 3 |
| Students identify and interpret the narrative, visual, and genre conventions of classical Hollywood style. Additionally, students identify and interpret the defining characteristics of the major American film genres. Prerequisite – ENG101 credits: | Film Genres -Q | 3 |
credits: | Must complete at least 3 credits from the following options | 0 |
| Students investigate an assess specific genres, stylistic movements, historical periods, artistic developments, etc. in cinema. The specific topic focus changes each time the course is offered, and the course may be repeated for credit as long as the topic focus varies each time a student is enrolled. Prerequisite – ENG210 credits: | Special Topics in Film | 3 |
| Students investigate and assess major critical perspectives narrative cinema, from the journalistic approach to the ideological/theoretical approach. Students distinguish between film reviewing and film criticism and apply what they learn to their own analysis of specific works. Prerequisite – ENG102 and (ENG210 or ENG215) credits: | Film Theory and Criticism | 3 |