Goals for English Majors

I. TO CELEBRATE AND CHALLENGE LITERARY TRADITIONS

By the end of your studies as an English major, you will:

1. Know many of the major works, authors, genres, movements, and cultural contexts of literature in English.

2. Know many influential works of world literature in translation.

3. Use the techniques of close reading confidently and have an awareness of various approaches to reading literature.

4. Understand how literary traditions are challenged by new voices and by innovations in form and style.

II. TO DISCOVER AND PRACTICE THE POWER OF WORDS

By the end of your studies, you will be able to:

5. Write and speak in a variety of forms (e.g., critical essay, personal essay, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, presentation, discussion) with imagination, style, and voice.

6. Evaluate and respond constructively to the writing and speech of others.

7.Conduct scholarly research using traditional methods and the most recent technologies and be able to assess different kinds of evidence and opinion.

8. Collaborate on interpretation, research, writing, and revision with advisors and peers of many different backgrounds.

9. Integrate primary and secondary sources into substantial essays using MLA methods of citation.

10. Write prose that observes the conventions of standard English.

III. TO NURTURE IMAGINATION, INQUIRY, AND WISDOM

By the end of your studies, you will have had opportunities to:

11. Appreciate the purposes and rewards of reading literature and literature's interrelations with other arts and sciences.

12. Hear an assortment of accomplished creative writers and scholars present work.

13. Develop insightful personal and scholarly responses to literary works and reflect imaginatively and critically on yourself and your culture.

14. Understand the professional options available to graduates in English.

15. Reflect on human experience and your own place in it, by reading literature and making it a means of responding to life's pleasures and challenges.

As you leave Hope College for the next chapters of your life, we recognize that your learning will not yet be complete. We hope you will continue to read good books--both old and new--as a regular means of entertainment and reflection. We hope you will write carefully and well, for your work and your citizenship, for your personal development and your enjoyment. We hope as a graduate of this college you will use your abilities to serve others, to pursue justice, and to search for wisdom. In these and other ways, you will continue to learn throughout your lifetime, and you will enrich and apply your education as an English major at Hope.