The major encourages students to be intellectually creative, to attend closely to the written and visual world around them, and to communicate elegantly and effectively—all skills essential to a number of careers. Students from our program have gone on to careers in writing, publishing, law, digital technologies and commerce, screen writing, business, education, and politics  Need some further career ideas?  Check out Best-Paying Jobs for English Majors or 35 Awesome Jobs for English Majors.

The major consists of 33 units split into 4 distinct modules. The first, module A, is oriented toward exploring aspects of the development of the English and American literary traditions over time. By contrast, courses in module B are oriented towards using literary and cultural studies to engage with a diversity of human societies, viewpoints, and experiences. All students are also required to complete one course in scholarly writing (module C). Finally, students complete seven classes in areas of their specific interest (module D). 

The major consists of 33 units:

• Module A. 3 units selected from the following: ECL 510A, 522, 530, 533, 534, 536, 537, 540A, 541A
• Module B. 6 units selected from the following: ECL 440, 445, 470, 513, 564, 565, 566, 594, 595
• Module C. 3 units ECL 508W - A grade of C (2.0) or better must be earned in this class.
• Module D. 21 units of upper division ECL courses (300-, 400-, and 500-level classes).

Download the advising sheet for ECL Majors.

Students earning the B.A. in English and Comparative Literature are encouraged to develop a range of skills that will allow them to:

1. Read critically.
2. Write meaningfully.
3. Situate texts in contexts.
4. Articulate aesthetic values.
5. Engage diverse perspectives.
6. Negotiate complex issues.

In order to meet the goals identified above, students develop the following competencies in the course of their degree:

1. Distinguish formal characteristics of literary and cultural expression across genre and media, including digital and illustrated texts and film.
2. Evaluate and comprehend major themes and concerns of literary and cultural expression across genre and media.
3. Acquire and implement a vocabulary of literary and cultural critical terms.
4. Locate and incorporate primary and relevant secondary sources into written work.
5. Demonstrate mastery of Modern Language Association standards for research writing and documentation.
6. Acquire and implement techniques of editing and revision.
7. Identify historical periods and features of major movements in literature and literary and cultural criticism.
8. Assess the impact of social history on literary and cultural production
9. Analyze a variety of literary and cultural texts from non-British and non-Anglophone North American traditions.
10. Analyze a variety of literary and cultural texts from minority perspectives within British and Anglophone North American traditions.
11. Evaluate the social construction of "difference" and comprehend its impact on literary and cultural expression.
12. Comprehend and articulate in writing or oral discussion connections between literary and cultural texts and lived experience.

The following matrix (or curricular map) identifies how the different Degree Learning Outcomes are treated in particular courses. It should be noted, however, that literature as an object of study differs from those treated by what we might broadly term the sciences.  Literature, unlike science, does not improve. It is not progressive. A poem written today is not automatically "better" than one written two or three hundred years ago—whereas a medical diagnosis or an astronomical calculation almost certainly is.  The study of literature, then, is not based on the steady accumulation of specific skills, with each competency creating the scaffolding for the next. Rather, it works by an awareness of similarities and differences—by a comparison of differently-articulated aesthetic experiences—and requires, as it were, a horizontal immersion in different literary traditions rather than the vertical ascent of a ladder. As a result, and as the curricular map below makes clear, many of our courses overlap in the DLOs to which they contribute.  This breadth of scholarship is essential if students are to be able negotiate complex issues of personal and global significance, to engage imaginatively and thoughtfully with diverse literary and cultural perspectives, to articulate the value of aesthetic experiences in human culture, and to situate texts within historical and cultural contexts.

Download the matrix

The major consists of 46 upper-division units spread out between required core classes and a range of elective options. 

The full list of required and elective options is given in the catalog.

Download the advising sheet for the Single Subject Teaching Credential in English.