Bachelor in English with Writing Emphasis

Why Study English?

The English major at Aquinas prepares you for your career and for life through the study of literature and language. In our English Literature major, you will meet some of the greatest writers in the world and keep pace with current trends in such fields as women’s studies, minority literatures, world literature in English, and film studies. Our English Major with a Writing Emphasis will develop written skills, vital in any field your future may hold. Our writing and journalism minors offer you opportunities to express yourself and bring your writing skills to professional levels, no matter your major.

How We're Different

Alumni include published writers Zarah Moeggenberg (poet), Scott Southard (fiction), and Kate Dernecoeur (nonfiction), and academics Jennifer Marquart (teaches English in the People’s Republic of China), James Bromley, Ph.D. (Miami University of Ohio) and Rickie-Ann Legleitner, Ph.D. (Director of the Writing Center at Black Hills University). Courses include Harry Potter, jazz, utopias and dystopias, motherhood, gothic literature, and novels by Jane Austen. Our full-time professors publish in Contemporary Literature, Graffiti Rag, Sulphur River Literary Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Leading Edge, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Language Arts Journal of Michigan, The Explicator, The Journal of General Education, and other journals. Each year, the Contemporary Writers Series brings celebrated writers conduct workshops on campus, including Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney; author of The English Patient Michael Ondaatje; recipient of the National Book Award Jaimy Gordon; and popular performance poet Sarah Kay. English alumni are employed in such diverse fields as law, higher education, counseling and more. “The Sampler” literary magazine, published by our department for 27 years, features work by fifty student writers and artists in each issue. Writing Center Theory and Practice, trains consultants at the AQ Writing Center and provides valuable graduate education and future employment experiences. Majors with a grade point average of 3.6 and demonstrated outstanding scholarly and creative work can be inducted into Sigma Tau Delta honors society.

Major Requirements

Thirty-six (36) semester hours, exclusive of EH101, EH105, EH115, and EH245. At least eighteen (18) hours must be taken at Aquinas College.

Required courses must be fulfilled according to the following distribution:

• EH205
• EH210
• EH220
• EH221;
• Three (3) hours from EH106, EH291, CL300;
• Six (6) hours from EH348, EH349, EH350, EH352;
• Nine (9) hours from literature courses. Three (3) hours must focus on literature before 1800. No more than three (3) hours may be below the 300 level. Students should choose literature courses appropriate to their writing interest.
• Three (3) hours from EH/BS106, CL300, EH230, EH/AT240, EH247, EH248, EH265, EH291, EH292, EH293, EH310 (if the topic is writing), EH348, EH349, EH350, EH352, EH397, EH398/99, EH400, EH460.
• Three (3) hours from EH401, EH/TE410, EH451

NOTE: The state of Michigan does not consider writing a teachable major. The English department strongly encourages students who major in English with Writing Emphasis to earn a second major in another discipline.

English majors must also assemble a portfolio of their work and submit it to the English Department for approval before graduation.

Courses

• EH205 Advanced Composition (3) WI
• EH210 Creative Writing (3) WI, AC
• EH220 Creative Writing II
• EH221 Introduction to Literary Studies (3)
• BS/EH106 Business Communication (3)
• EH291 Introduction to Journalism (3)
• CL300 Fund Development and Grant Writing (3)
• EH348 Poetry Writing (3)
• EH349 Fiction Writing (3)
• EH350 Nonfiction Writing (3)
• EH/TE352 Script Writing (3)
• EH230 Grammar of Modern English (3)
• AT/EH240 Artists and Writers in Collaboration (3)
• EH248 Revising and Editing your Own Prose (3)
• EH265 Writing Center Theory and Practice (3)
• EH292 Advanced Journalism (3)
• EH293 Publication Practicum (1)
• EH310 Special Topics in English
• EH397 Field Experience/Internship in Journalism (Variable)
• EH398 Readings in Literature (Variable)
• EH399 Independent Project (Variable)
• EN400 Teaching Writing (3) (also listed as EH400)
• EH460 Teaching Creative Writing (3) WI
• EH401 Major Authors Seminar (3) SC
• EH451 Chaucer (3) SC
• EH/TE410 Shakespeare (3) SC

The close-knit educational environment at Aquinas develops students who thrive in all dimensions of life. Learn more, in our students' words about the Aquinas experience and the Dominican pillars of prayer, study, service, and community.

The Dominican tradition is two-fold: contemplative and communal. At Aquinas, we are committed to gathering for liturgical prayer nourished by God's Word and the Spirit. Prayer leads us into the deeper Truth needed to live out God's call for us in the world. We commit ourselves to a love of learning, both formal and informal. This necessitates an openness to learn from the most unlikely sources as well as tried and true scholarship. Aquinas encourages students to engage in service projects and service-learning programs. It also offers preparation for careers that will enable graduates to spread the truths that they have learned - "to make a difference in the world."