If you choose to major in English, you’ll follow one of three concentrations: literature, creative writing, or professional writing. You can also choose to minor in literature, creative writing, or professional writing. Click on links on the right to read more about each program.
Department of English
Why major in English? Considering that you get to spend the better part of your day with the likes of Shakespeare, Austen, Whitman, Dickinson, Hemingway, and Morrison, perhaps a more fitting question is, why not? All bias aside, however, we realize that the ideal program of college study provides the best of both worlds: personal and professional fulfillment.
The department offers a variety of classes for both the English and non-English major. You can choose from literature classes about such famous authors as Shakespeare and Toni Morrison, and creative writing and professional writing classes, along with many classes that can double count for your Core requirements.
Department Highlights
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Top 5 reasons to major in English
Ask just about any project manager, teacher, lawyer, judge, banker, account executive, creative director, actor, curator, editor, journalist, poet, critic, social worker, librarian, counselor, or politician: English majors acquire skills that make them a valuable addition to a range of professions.
English majors – not to mention today’s successful employee – learn to think creatively, to solve problems, and to ask questions that get to the heart of the matter.
Our majors learn to consider a variety of conflicting arguments as they study poems, plays, articles, and novels. In other words, studying literature helps make you fair-minded.
Employers want people who can clearly and succinctly deliver a compelling message. At John Carroll, English majors learn the most effective techniques of persuasion through class discussion and writing assignments.
It’s true. The study of literature incorporates history, sociology, theology, and philosophy, which encourage us to question and understand contemporary culture. Insight into literary characters fosters the ability to understand what a customer, patient, or student needs to make his or her life better.
Of all the reasons to major in English, this is the most gratifying – the feelings that come with reading and discussing books that make you laugh and cry, books that help you understand yourself and others, books into which you can escape from the day-to-day pressures of life.
Students of all majors can submit their poems, short stories, photographs, or artwork for publication in the University literary magazine, The John Carroll Review, which is also student-edited. Click HERE to check out a recent edition.
