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B.A. English
Welcome to the Department of English
In today’s media-saturated world, the ability to think critically and express oneself with clarity and precision are crucial to leading an engaged and productive life. A core liberal-arts discipline, English provides rigorous instruction in language skills, enhancing students’ ability to speak and write with the clarity, persuasiveness, and intellectual sophistication that distinguish university-educated people.
Courses in literature and language also help students refine their aesthetic sensitivity, logical rigor, and capacity for seeing the world as complex and multifaceted. The English department enhances the informational and technological literacy of High Point students, equipping them for success in a wide range of professions.
English Will Take You Places
Twenty-first century professions demand a more sophisticated understanding of texts and the contexts that produce them. Work in English prepares students to become creative thinkers and communicators who can thrive in this global information economy. Students may choose an emphasis in either literature or writing, but all classes emphasize the research and evaluation of information, ethical practice and the human connection achieved through reading and writing.
Why Major in English?
• English is among those majors whose students learn the most through their college education, making the English degree an especially good investment. (Arum & Roksa, Academically Adrift)
• Employers most want and need the four “soft skills” that make English majors so versatile: critical thinking, creative problem solving, collaboration and oral and written communication skills. (2012 Woods Bagot/Global Strategy Group Study)
• Study in English provides an excellent foundation for graduate and professional degree programs, especially the study and practice of law. (American Bar Association)
• As English majors, students obtain the meta-skills necessary to learn how to learn and how to adapt to a world characterized by constant change.
The English Minor
The English department invites majors of any program to minor in English literature or writing. The minor gives all High Point University students the opportunity to hone their critical thinking, creative problem solving, collaboration and oral and written communication skills.
High Point’s English Department has some of the university’s most academically distinguished and professionally active faculty—writers and scholars whose publications and research programs are directly related to their teaching and who are dedicated to mentoring students. All English majors work one-on-one with a faculty member to create a senior portfolio, a selective body of work individually designed to help the student achieve his or her creative, academic and professional goals.
