English

Objectives

The immediate objective of the English program is to enable students to write and communicate effectively at the college level. Through courses in composition, literature, and the English language, the department seeks to provide students with skills, tools, insights, and perspectives that will enable them to research and write well in all the courses they take across the curriculum-- especially in their major fields of study.

The broader objective of the English Department is to help students write and communicate effectively in a wide variety of occupations. Reading good literature increases students’ appreciation of the history, cultural and social background, and human values found in their literary heritage. Reading diverse literary works exposes students to diverse world views, requires them to develop critical thinking skills, and broadens their cultural background.

The long-term objective of English studies is to grow souls, to produce people who will lead productive and satisfying lives. The great literature of the ages can help give wisdom and insight into the human condition; it constantly raises the great moral and spiritual questions of the ages; it constantly challenges our values and stretches our thinking; it nurtures our understanding, our compassion and all that is highest and best in us; and so in a hundred ways it can help us feed our souls as Christians.

Programs in English

Some English students use their major as immediate preparation for a career, usually in K-12 education. For those wishing to pursue a teacher education program, the English Department works with the Division of Education to offer an English Education major that prepares students for teaching at the elementary and secondary levels.

Others approach English as a pre-professional degree that does not translate immediately into a career, but prepares them for more schooling or more professional training. Others have no specific career goal in mind: they simply love to read and want to write well, and they know that doing so will eventually help equip them for their vocations. The York College Department of English provides a strong background in English language and literature for those who wish to pursue graduate studies in English that lead to teaching at advanced levels, and for those who wish to study literature as a pre-professional preparation for such fields as law, medicine, business, communications, etc. Law schools, medical schools, and many businesses have seen the proven value of the intellectual training and the communication skills that the mastery of language and literature provides, so they actively recruit graduates with English degrees. The principles and techniques of rhetoric, grammar, and usage equip students to think and communicate effectively, regardless of the vocational niche they occupy.

The English Curriculum

All students must fulfill the freshman composition requirement as part of their general education (Gen Ed) requirements. In addition, to fulfill their Gen Ed artistic expression and critical appreciation requirement all students must take at least one literature class. Beyond the Gen Ed requirements, the Department offers a wide variety of upper-division language-and-literature courses covering several areas: linguistics, history of the English language; journalism, children’s and young adult literature; Classical literature, English literature, American literature, and world literature; various genres (drama, poetry, short stories, novels); creative writing; the Bible as literature; and literary criticism and critical theory. By taking a sequence of literature courses English students can get a broad sweep of Western literature from its roots in the Bible and in Classical literature and philosophy, to its development in Medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, Victorian and Modern British and American literature.