English

U ndergraduate study in English prepares students for diverse careers in law, publishing, advertising, media and business, teaching and advanced degree work.

Overview

Courses offered by the department introduce students to a world of experiences that cannot be exhausted in the brief span of a college education; new authors, new works, new media, and new tools for understanding continually enlarge and transform the world. With the help of faculty advisers, Undergraduate majors in English select from courses in various forms, periods and approaches. In addition, students may develop special expertise in one of several models; for example, communication and creative writing, study of the language itself, theory of media, literary study or cultural studies.

Coursework for the Major

Students pursuing the BA in English must take ten courses offered by the English department. These courses must be 3000 level or above, of no fewer than three credits each and completed with grades of C or better. (The requirement is ten courses, not 30 hours).

Prerequisite to all 3000/4000-level courses are six hours of English at the 1000/2000 level or department permission. The three-hour general education requirement in composition does not count toward the major. Students must take at least five of their 3000-level or above English courses at UF. The student is responsible for consulting an adviser and preparing a plan of study.

Course Details

Because English majors will not be tracked for a specific set of courses, but must meet the ten-course requirement described above, there are no particular English courses that they must take on a semester-by-semester basis.

The only prerequisite for most 3000/4000-level English courses is earning six hours of lower-division English course credit by coursework or placement (refer to Placement Section below). In most cases, students do not need to worry about prerequisites when making upper-division course selections. The exceptions are 3000/4000-level creative-writing (CRW) workshops, 4000-level film and video production workshops (ENG 4136 and ENG 4146), 3000/4000-level advanced writing (ENC) courses, department seminars (ENG 4953), honors seminars (ENG 4936) and the department’s internship course (ENG 4940). Refer to the catalog's course descriptions for the prerequisites for these courses.

As students try to decide which 3000/4000-level courses to take, they should not be concerned about differences between the two levels. The higher-level courses are not more difficult, except in the rare cases where the 4000-level course has 3000-level prerequisites. Course numbers are not created by the English Department but by a statewide course numbering system. Students can gauge a course's level of difficulty by reviewing the department's detailed course descriptions.

The majority of the department's upper-division courses are variable or rotating topics courses, many of which can be repeated for credit given a change in topic. The only way to discover what the actual course topics will be in a specific semester is to consult the department's course descriptions, which explain topics and approaches, and generally give some idea of the texts and assignments. These descriptions are usually posted online three to four weeks before advance registration so that students have ample time to consult them before registering.

Certificates

A certificate in Asian-American studies is possible through the dean’s office of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students interested in the certificate should contact Malini Schueller at malini@ufl.edu.

Specializations - Models of Study

The department encourages students to follow models of study to help them create coherent patterns of focus and breadth in their coursework. Models of study range from traditional courses of study such as British and American Literature, through film and media studies, creative writing and studies in theory, to cultural studies, postcolonial studies and studies in feminisms, genders and sexualities.

Models of study do not have tracking status. Students will never be monitored, electronically or otherwise, for completion of models of study. The models identify to English majors the faculty's enthusiastic recommendations about coursework distributions for various interests they might want to pursue. Department advisers also can recommend which models of study seem most appropriate for particular post-undergraduate career and educational goals.

• Advanced Writing
• African-American/African Diaspora Studies
• American Literature
• British Literature
• Children's Literature
• Creative Writing
• Cultural Studies
• Drama/Theatre
• Feminisms, Genders and Sexualities
• Film and Media Studies
• Medieval Studies
• Postcolonial Studies
• Studies in Theory

Because the models of study do not have tracking status, students do not need to declare their intention to follow models of study with the department. Models of study structure the coursework, but students do not have to take specific courses to complete degree requirements for the major and they can modify or combine models of study. While the department understands that students may be disappointed if they are unable to take specific courses relevant to their models of study, the demand for seats in courses is very high and the department is not able to accommodate all course requests.

More information about the courses recommended for each model can be found at http://www.english.ufl.edu/programs/undergrad/major.html

Placement

Scores on the verbal portion of the SAT or scores on the AP, IB or CLEP tests will determine the appropriate composition course. Refer to the charts in the Academic Advising section for course equivalency and placement information.

The department recommends that all students take one 2000-level English department course (without duplicating any course for which they have received placement credit) before moving on to 3000/4000-level coursework. Courses taught at the university level are bound to differ from those taught at the high school level, no matter how enriched the high school curriculum may have been.

Freshmen who intend to major in English should consult a department adviser as soon as possible. Students who intend to establish an emphasis in film studies should take ENG 2300 Film Analysis; creative writing students should take CRW 1101 Beginning Fiction Writing or CRW 1301 Beginning Poetry Writing.

Critical Tracking

To graduate with this major, students must complete all university, college and major requirements. For degree requirements outside of the major, refer to CLAS Degree Requirements — Structure of a CLAS Degree.

Equivalent critical tracking courses as determined by the State of Florida Common Course Prerequisites may be used for transfer students.

Semester 1:

• 2.0 UF GPA required

Semester 2:

• 2.1 UF GPA required

Semester 3:

• Complete 1 English course at the 2000 level or higher
• 2.3 UF GPA required

Semester 4:

• Complete 1 additional English course at the 2000 level or higher with a 2.5 GPA on all critical-tracking coursework
• 2.5 UF GPA required

Semester 5:

• Complete 1 additional English course (1 of the 3 courses must be at the 3000 level) with a 2.5 GPA on all critical-tracking coursework
• 2.5 UF GPA required

Recommended Semester Plan

Students are expected to complete the writing and math requirement while in the process of taking the courses below. Students are also expected to complete the general education international (GE-N) and diversity (GE-D) requirements concurrently with another general education requirement (typically, GE-C, H or S).