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About the Department

The Department of English empowers students “to seek, to know, to serve” by training them to better understand the world through insightful reading, and to better express themselves through incisive writing. While the department’s objectives target our majors and reflect our disciplines, our mission extends to the entire student body through the composition program, the University Studies courses we teach, and the Writing Center. A minor in English provides an opportunity for students who major in other fields to pursue their interests in developing expertise in writing and literary studies.

The English Department Welcomes You!

Learning Outcomes

Students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English should be able to:

  • Read analytically and perceptively with appreciation for both content and style;
  • Write clearly in a variety of genres (across the range of academic to creative), and demonstrate a habit of thoughtful revision and editing;
  • Think critically about the sociopolitical, historical, and literary content of a diverse range of writers;
  • Effectively employ disciplinary conventions, such as source documentation, information literacy, fluency in literary terms, and the mechanics of the English language.

Further, students’ concentration in either literature or writing should be reflected in discipline specific outcomes. Students graduating with a literature emphasis in English should be able to:

  • Evaluate literary texts, from a variety of perspectives: theoretical, historical, artistic, etc.;
  • Form a defensible argument about a work of literature, which is supported by analytical argument, effective evidence, and appropriate documentation;
  • Write analytically about literature, demonstrating knowledge of generic conventions and innovations.

Students graduating with a writing emphasis in English should be able to:

  • Write in a variety of genres, including nonfiction, poetry, drama, short story, and novel;
  • Employ a number of literary devices in their writing, such as dialogue, metaphor, characterization,alliteration, foreshadowing, plot, rhythm, point of view, voice, irony, simile, conflict, and setting;
  • Reflect insightfully on the artistic process.

Student Scholarship John Milton Presentation by Kierstin Dunaway

Contact and Location

english@lasierra.edu
(951) 785-2241
Humanities Hall - First Floor #102

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