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Lovers of literature, aspiring authors, and budding journalists will find a home in the English major at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½. By the time they graduate, our students understand the breadth, variety, and depth of literature in English across a range of genres, time periods, and topics. Take a survey class on a genre like fiction or a tradition like African American literature; dive deep into the works of major authors like Toni Morrison, Shakespeare, or Jane Austen; tramp through the mountains of northern England on the Kiplin Hall study abroad trip; talk to living writers about their craft; learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry; pioneer digital humanities scholarship on out-of-print authors; complete your own investigative journalism podcast; analyze and evaluate literary texts and media; plant a poetry garden; gain real-world experience through internships; and so much more. Creative encounters, critical knowledge, and experiential learning are at the core of our major.  
 
Whether you're taking a course on literature, creative writing, journalism, or something else, faculty facilitate and engage students in discussions, critiques, workshops, and more. Learn not only how to analyze work, but how to research, stake a claim, make an argument, and present your findings in a clear manner for a range of audiences. As a critic, editor, essayist, journalist, poet, and storyteller, you will become knowledgeable and skilled in analysis, creativity, inquiry, and persuasion. Faculty regularly offer special topics courses on a range of topics and partner with other groups on campus to offer unique, interdisciplinary opportunities. Published authors, scholars, and experts in a variety of careers come to campus every years through the Sophie Kerr Series and Rose O'Neill Literary House Series. These visiting writers come to classes, chat with students over meals, read from their work, and give public talks on everything from their creative process to how to break into their industries and genres. The ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Rose O'Neill Literary House also provides many opportunities for students, including workshops in our historic print shop and over 50 internships.  
 
Your time at Washington will culminate in a Senior Capstone Experience (SCE), a research project in the form of a traditional thesis. Many SCE research questions stem from projects that started as an assignment that students keep thinking about and want to flesh out further. Other projects come from personal interests and questions raised outside of coursework. Some combine favorite texts with those discussed in class, while others study similar themes over an author's body of work or dive into one element in a single book. Students take critical approaches to these projects, reading work through theoretical lenses to analyze the work. Seniors work closely with their chosen faculty advisor throughout the SCE process.  
 
English majors are not only engaged inside the classroom, but outside their studies as well. Our students are leaders in campus organizations like the student-run publications and several clubs. Our students are also regularly invited to attend professional conferences, including the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), each year. They also complete internships within the English department, in other areas on campus, and across the country. All English majors are eligible for funding through Sophie Kerr Promise Grants to support experiential learning and professional opportunities, including internships, study abroad, summer learning opportunities, independent research and scholarship, and graduate and professional school preparation. The flexibility of the English major also makes it possible for our students to pursue other interests—including double majors or minors in other departments across campus—and students have many study abroad opportunities, for one semester or one year.