Program Learning Outcomes
“Expected student learning outcomes specify the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes students are expected to attain in courses or in a program.” Page 69. Resource Manual for the Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), 2018.
1. Students will identify the major historical periods and key movements in American and British literature, demonstrating an understanding of the major authors, ideas, and literary techniques (including genres and subgenres) of those respective periods and movements.
2. Students will display a command of standard written English and an appreciation for its structures, nuances, and rhetorical effects.
3. Students will know and apply key literary terms and interpretive strategies, demonstrating a basic familiarity with major literary theories.
4. Students will write mature, substantive analyses of literary texts, informed by the appropriate tools of the profession.
5. Students will employ critical and creative thinking in various reading and interpretive processes.
6. Students will demonstrate the ability to read and interpret literary texts with reference to a Christian perspective
Graduation Requirements
Conferral of a Baccalaureate degree in this program of study is determined by successful completion of the Baccalaureate Graduation Requirements outlined here.
NOTE: Students must earn 39 upper level (3000-4000) credit hours in order to graduate. A total of at least 21 of these upper level credit hours must be completed in the selected major.
Visit this program’s information page for additional program-specific requirements.
English Major - 39 Credit Hours
Core English Courses - 9 Credit Hours
English Area Requirements - 18 Credit Hours
Students must take the designated number of semester hours in each of the following areas:
Area I: British and American Literature
At least 3 credits of British literature and 3 credits of American literature for a total of 6 credits in 2 of the following 3 groups.
A) American Literature
B) British Literature after 1660
C) British or American Literature after 1900
Area II: Literary Studies in Cultural Diversity
At least 6 credits in 2 of the following 3 groups
Note: ENG 4513 - Shakespeare may fulfill a requirement for only one area.
A) Multiculturalism in American Literature
B) Comparative or World Literature
C) Literature before 1660
Area III: Studies in Literary Production and Analysis
Six credit hours, including
And one of the following courses:
Note: ENG 4513 - Shakespeare may fulfill a requirement for only one area.
Professional Writing and Editing Requirements - 9 Credit Hours
Upper-level English Elective – 3 Credit Hours
Any 3000- or 4000-level ENG courses that are not used to fulfill a specific requirement listed above may be used to fulfill the elective requirement. Students in the Professional Writing and Editing concentration are encouraged to take ENG 3513 - Creative Writing for Publication as the upper-level English elective.
School of Arts and Sciences Additional Natural Science Requirements - 5 Credit Hours
Students in the School of Arts and Sciences must take five additional hours of natural science: 1 lab to accompany the course taken for general education [BIO 1043 , BIO 1023 , ESC 1043 , OCY 1043 , FOR 1003 , PHY 1033 , PHY 1063 , or PHY 2113 ] and one additional natural science course and accompanying lab. The two natural sciences must be in different areas: one must be a life science (biology) and the other must be a physical science (chemistry, physics, oceanography, earth science, or forensic science). In sum, students are required to take a minimum of 8 hours of natural science courses (one life science and one physical science, with their associated labs).
Modern Language Requirement - 3-6 Credit Hours
English majors are required to take:
- one intermediate modern language course (3 credit hours), OR
- two elementary modern language courses (6 credit hours), OR
- one elementary and one intermediate modern language course (6 credit hours).
Note: No CLEP or transient study credits may be used to fulfill this requirement. Transfer credits and other forms of credit-by-examination will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and may not be approved to fulfill this requirement. English majors taking classes at PBA in French, German, or Spanish to meet the language requirement for the major should use one of those to fulfill the Global Studies requirement.