The English Department serves all students at the university through extensive general education offerings designed to improve writing skills, expand liberal learning, and focus critical and analytic thinking. In addition, its three-track major supports the university’s areas of emphasis in teacher education (English-Education Track), public and private sector development and service (Writing Concentration), and liberal education (Liberal Education/Literature Track). The department’s graduate program in Professional Writing, unique in Maryland and paralleled by only six other programs nationwide, graduates expert writers who meet the needs of government, social, and commercial organizations which rely on expert and efficient writing.
Teacher-scholars of the department pursue not only scholarship in literature but also in new pedagogies for teaching and in evaluating and improving writing. In addition, the faculty plays key roles in shaping and sustaining university programs in Women’s Studies, American Studies, Afro-American Studies, Multicultural Studies, and English Education. It also actively serves the needs of the region, the state, and the nation through consultations, contracted research and instruction, conferences, publications, and presentations concerning writing improvement and educational reform.
Learning Outcomes of
the Towson University Bachelor of English
The undergraduate program in English at Towson University is designed to achieve a number
of learning outcomes. Upon graduation, the successful degree candidate will have developed
qualities and skills listed below with knowledge and abilities specific to the discipline.
What you’ll be taught as an English major . . .
How to write powerful prose with the sparkle of poetry
How to be an architect in building a paper and an interior designer in styling it
How to read with a jeweler’s eye
How to see meanings the casual reader can’t
How to understand literary characters with different points of view
How to understand texts in relation to their contexts
How to engage in magical dialogues with wise authors long dead
How to experience the excitement of visiting other times and places in books.
Did you know that . . .
350 million people use English as their first language?
750 million people speak English as their second language?
Three quarters of the world’s mail is in English?
English is the official language of the European Union?
English is the official language of the World Council of Churches?
English is the official language of 27 states in the U.S.A.
English is the official language of 75 countries?
So what?
“Where there is English there are good jobs for an English major.”
Such as?
Law—interpreting contracts and statutes means “reading between the lines” and winning a case often turns on persuasive writing
Book publishing—acquisitions editing, copyediting, developmental editing, designing
Magazines—copyediting
Military, government, and industrial intelligence—Interpreting images and words for high stakes
This document is
largely the result of a QUE (Quality in University Education) workshop,
a collaborative project to establish standard learning outcomes for
American universities. Sponsored by the Exxon Corporation and held at
the University of Nevada in July 1999, the workshop was attended by
professors from Towson as well as other institutions.
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