English, B.A., Writing

Kate McCarthy-Gilmore, Ph.D., Associate Dean

The English program offers majors in Writing and Literature , and many students choose to double major in both. The program also offers minors in English  and in Rhetoric and Public Writing .

Requirements for the Major in English: Writing (B.A.):

The English: Writing major at Loras College offers extraordinary depth and range, together with the kind of close, sustained faculty mentoring which is only possible at a small college. Students choose from courses in Fiction (including Screenwriting), Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and Professional Writing. Students write and defen a senior creative writing thesis.

English: Writing majors also take a number of Literature courses to develop critical reading and analytical skills, to increase awareness of authors and movements within literary traditions, and to deepen cultural understanding.

Student Learning Outcomes - English: Writing

1. Demonstrate critical reading skills required to articulate a persuasive and insightful close reading, and a persuasive and insightful formal or structural analysis of a literary text (Goal #1 is common to all Literature and Writing majors).
2. Demonstrate the rhetorical skills required to make a persuasive and insightful written argument using evidence from a literary text. (Goal #2 is common to all Literature and Writing majors).
3. Demonstrate the ability to write aesthetically interesting original works of creative writing.
4. Demonstrate, through their writings, a clear understanding of genre conventions and literary techniques, such as structure, plot, character, setting, point of view, dialogue, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, rhetoric, or prosody;
5. Demonstrate control of structure and form (unity, coherence, balance, emphasis)
6. Effectively revise and edit their own work for technical, stylistic, and grammatical effectiveness;
7. Orally articulate their composition and revision processes, and explain how the study of literature and individual authors provides them with models and an understanding of literary conventions and traditions which informs their own writing.