Bachelor of Arts in English

Central Connecticut State University

The English Department at CCSU offers courses and programs in literature, writing, linguistics, and cinema that immerse students in intensive study of how language, literature, and writing shape the world and our experience of it. The sustained and rigorous study of literature and language sharpens students' skills as readers and writers, deepens their cultural knowledge, and broadens their engagement with the diversity of human thought and experience. The critical and analytical skills students develop prepare them to be productive and active citizens of a dynamic and pluralistic society. Our graduates are prepared for careers in teaching, writing, and publishing, as well as any pursuit that requires skills in written and oral communication, and clear and creative thinking.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will closely read such literary genres as poetry, prose fiction, and drama in order to interpret them not only in terms of content, but also in terms of literary style. [READING LITERATURE]
• Students will develop a substantive claim about works of literature. [THESIS]
• Students will support a substantive claim about works of literature using literary-critical techniques. [DEMONSTRATION]
• Students will quote primary sources effectively in support of a critical argument. [QUOTES]
• Students will, when appropriate, effectively analyze and integrate secondary source material into their own arguments. [SECONDARY MATERIAL]

• Students will situate works of literature in terms of the cultural, literary, historical, and/or biographical context in which they were produced. [CONTEXT]