What students, faculty, and recent graduates say about English at Principia.

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Learning to communicate clearly

"What I like best about the English major is the ability it has given me as a writer to state my ideas concisely and clearly," says a senior. English majors at Principia are asked to write, re-write, and re-write again until they have written the best paper, poem, or story they can. "I like the level of intellectual depth that the major offers," says another senior with a double major in English and environmental studies, who wants to be a journalist. "I've read many different types of literature and experienced many different teaching styles." A recent graduate adds, "I think Principia's English education was particularly good for me because of its emphasis in writing, and using writing as a thinking tool."

Depth and breadth of literature covered

The English department offers a wide variety of literature courses full of writing, ranging from period surveys to intense seminars focusing on individual authors and their works. "My first quarter at Prin I was able to take a seminar focusing solely on works by Thomas Hardy and studying critical essays written about his works," reports a recent graduate. "It was one of the most focused and memorable courses I took, with only six of us in the class." English majors speak of the welcome demands of the program. A senior likes the "the challenge of creating a sharp focus in your papers, as opposed to doing a broad overview of a topic." Since writing is not the only focus of the English major, another senior, speaking of the depth and breadth of reading assignments in English and American literature, says, "You have to have a constant desire to know; you can't just have a passing interest in literature."

Flexibility and room to explore

A senior with a double major in English and education finds that it gives him "a very wide base of knowledge with a lot of freedom to choose a specific class within the major guidelines." An English and studio art major sees a connection between her creative interests, "learning how to understand the written language and the way other people communicate. You're also learning to express that yourself." The flexibility of the program may be typified by another senior major with a double minor in sociology and women's studies, who points out that "professors are very open to new and alternative ways of writing." A recent graduate who also majored in French cites a class which focused on translations of European short stories, saying, "We didn't just learn about the story and the author, we learned about other cultures' histories and traditions." In addition, a faculty member sees each discipline as an angle of vision on the human condition. Specifically addressing the English major, he adds "It's really a look at mankind and human nature at work, meeting difficulties, facing issues, facing challenges and choices."

A forum for developing critical thinking

English majors talk about the experience of learning to analyze and think critically about literature, and the all-college requirement that they must learn to write clearly and correctly. They speak of developing the skills of analysis and writing as an indispensable preparation for any career they might eventually pursue. "The skills of being able to think critically and analytically," says a senior English major, "are important in all walks of life, not just when you read a book." A recent graduate who is now teaching English with a master's degree from Stanford says, "The literature background was good at teaching me to read carefully. In addition, we did a lot of re-writing, which is the key to becoming a better writer." English majors also like the small classes, because, as one student puts it, "There's more opportunity for discussion among professors and students themselves."

Relevance to the "real" world

The English major offers plenty of options to the graduate after commencement. "After I got out I did some soul searching and praying, and I ended up in the field of copywriting and advertising. My English major really helped me with the fluidity of language, expressing ideas concisely, and knowing the rules and how to break them—which is what they do in advertising." This graduate later earned a master's degree in English and had his thesis published in a professional journal. Another alumnus reports that in graduate school at a major public university "all my professors seemed extremely pleased with my writing skills. That's what I took with me from Prin."

A member of the English department specifies three skills learned by the English major: writing skills, exercised in the assigned analytical, research, or creative papers; creative skills, which are fed and nurtured in the student through reading the works of creative minds like Milton, Shakespeare, Austen, and Woolf; and thinking skills, which are developed and strengthened when the student grapples with the ideas he meets in the literature. Principia College graduates who were English majors have prospered in graduate programs, become teachers, made a living by their writing, and used their talents in a variety of fields, from family camping to stockbrokerage.