English

Bachelor of Arts

Open the door to infinite possibilities.

Majoring in English sharpens your critical thinking, reading, and communication skills — abilities that will serve you well on any career path.

The Curriculum
Become widely versed in literature

Your literary classes will expose you to a wide variety of works by authors from different times, places, and walks of life. Some courses will focus on only one or two authors, while others will invite you to perform comparative analysis of several works related to a single topic.

Study multiple forms of communication

There’s more to English than just literature! You’ll study films, playwriting, linguistics, language development, and multimedia. By exploring how we use language to communicate ideas, you’ll come to understand English as both an art and a science, allowing you to better express your own creative ideas.

Tailor the major to your career goals

You’ll work with your academic advisor to create an English major that suits your needs. If you’re looking to teach English in grades 7-12, you’ll take graduate courses during your senior year. If becoming a writer is your objective, then you’ll take specific classes that concentrate on creative writing in different genres. Whatever your passion, there’s a way to make your degree in English work for you.

Get paid experience

In addition to your classes, you’ll be able to take on paid positions that allow you to build your teaching and leadership skills. These opportunities include internships, departmental assistantships, editing the award-winning literary magazine Morning Glory, and tutoring in the Writing Center.

Go beyond the books themselves

Travel seminars will allow you to experience the locations where great literary works first came to life. By studying up-close the cultures and histories that inspired these works, you’ll gain a more complete understanding of these important writings — and a greater appreciation of them.

Publicly present your research and original works

Performing research, writing critical analysis, and creating original works will all be integral parts of your coursework — the results of which you can present at local, regional, and national conferences. Also, the culmination of your major will be a public presentation of your capstone project.


Emphasis Areas
Writing

Programs

Offered as a major (BA) and a minor.


Recommended Minors

Want to add even more value to your degree? Consider one of these minors to gain a unique combination of skills and perspectives.


The Experience

Morning Glory is so much more than just a college magazine. It has been a place of refuge and comfort for students, faculty, alumni and family, where people can process their emotions and make meaning and beauty out of both beautiful and painful experiences. It has been personally rewarding to cultivate a community of openness and dialogue on campus through the magazine.

Brianna Zaragoza '20

Ideas have a life. When the life of ideas connects to the individual lives and experiences of students, I remember that ideas aren’t just abstractions. To remember that is to remember why I got into this business in the first place.

Bryan Rasmussen
Associate Professor
Your Future

Because of the well-rounded training an English major provides, our graduates have successfully pursued career paths as varied as their individual interests. Teaching, law, non-profit development, political advocacy, marketing, film, library science, and business leadership are just a few examples of the fields you can enter with your English degree.


Our alumni study at:
  • American University in Cairo
  • Antioch University
  • Arizona State University
  • Boston College
  • Emerson College
  • Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Trinity University, Dublin
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of San Diego
Our alumni work for:
  • Creative Media Marketing
  • Dole Food Company
  • ELCA Division for Global Mission
  • J.D. Power & Associates
  • Sage Publications
  • The Trevor Project
  • Louisville High School
  • Peace Corps.
Career paths:
  • PR Account Coordinator
  • Consumer Response Specialist
  • Online Operations Manager
  • Research Supervisor
  • Media Research Associate
  • Executive Assistant
  • Magazine Editor
  • Teacher

of Cal Lutheran graduates find a job or enroll in graduate school within nine months

More Career Outcomes



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