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Mission
The Department of English is committed to studying the history, theory, and teaching of literature and language; to developing the practice of writing in creative, academic, and professional environments; and to promoting an interdisciplinary perspective on diverse cultures. This commitment is carried out in a professional learning community that fosters interaction of students, faculty, alumni, and interested external constituents and that integrates technology into its educational and administrative activities.
Role
As the largest arts and humanities unit on the USU campus, the Department of English has an important role in providing liberal arts education. It offers academic programs for majors on the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels, and it supplies courses that meet communication and humanities requirements for University Studies. As a unit in the state's land-grant university, the department supports an outreach program that includes distance education, opportunities for professional training, and the dissemination of research and creative activity to academic and community audiences.
Academic programs for majors at the baccalaureate level include
· Literary Studies, giving students knowledge of the texts and writers in American, British, and world literature and their cultural contexts;
· Professional and Technical Writing, preparing students for various communication careers in nonprofit organizations, business, industry, and government;
· Creative Writing, offering students the opportunity to learn the craft of literary writing and to develop critical, cognitive, and writing skills applicable in numerous professional fields;
· English Teaching, preparing students for teaching on the secondary school level of the public school system;
· American Studies, providing students an interdisciplinary perspective on American culture and preparing them for careers in teaching and public service.
On the graduate level, master’s specializations are offered in
· Literature and Writing, a flexible program enabling students to acquire professional training in the areas of advanced literary study; rhetoric and professional communication; and English teaching;
· Technical Writing, an online program for students with established careers in non-academic workplaces who wish to improve their understanding of the field and progress beyond editing and writing into the development and management of technical publications.
· American Studies, an interdisciplinary program for students wishing to specialize in American literature and culture;
· Folklore, an interdisciplinary program preparing students for teaching and research in an academic setting as well as for jobs in government, arts administration, and museum management.
On the doctoral level, the PhD is offered in Theory and Practice of Professional Communication. The program is designed to meet the interests and needs of students who aspire to conduct advanced study of and research into the communicative practices of organizations and the professions. The program offers the opportunity to study professional communication, technology, and culture in a department with a long history of expertise and achievement in writing and technology.
The department offers minor options in English emphasizing either Teaching or Nonteaching tracks. In addition, three interdisciplinary minors are available, in American Studies, in folklore, and in British and Commonwealth Studies (jointly operated with the Department of History). The English Department also helps support the linguistics minor in the Languages, Philosophy, and Speech Communication Department by providing a full range of linguistics courses through the USU Online Linguistics Program.
The department contributes extensively to University Studies by offering English 1010 (Introduction to Writing: Academic Prose) and 2010 (Intermediate Writing: Research Writing in a Persuasive Mode) in both face-to-face and online formats as well as an array of Breadth and Depth courses in literature, writing, and humanities for non-majors. In addition, the department maintains various teaching, research, and support facilities for the benefit of its students and faculty:
· The Writing Center, providing tutoring services for students across the university either face-to-face or online together with a drop-in computer lab with 30 terminals available to students enrolled in English classes;
· The Computer Classroom, providing a networked teaching environment with 20 terminals emphasizing advanced applications;
· The Usability Research and Evaluation Laboratory, providing hands-on experience with usability testing for both classroom projects and outside contractors.
Utah State University is a land-grant institution with significant expectations for outreach. Accordingly, the Department of English is the home of the Utah Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project. The UWP provides in-service training for K-12 teachers statewide and works closely with the State Office of Education. The department also supports an active concurrent enrollment program, working with secondary teachers in a geographical area stretching from Ogden to Preston. The department is an active participant in Continuing Education, offering a range of courses in an online format available to students worldwide. Through Extension, the department maintains cooperative relationships with USU centers in Tooele, Vernal, and Brigham City.
As part of its outreach commitment, the department provides support for ongoing projects that make research and creative activity available to both academic and community audiences:
· Western American Literature, a quarterly published in cooperation with the Mountain West Center and the Western Literature Association, is the major outlet for scholarly writing in its field;
· Technical Communication Quarterly, published in cooperation with the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and one of the premiere journals in this rapidly developing area;
· Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, a journal embracing the tradition of nature writing but moving beyond it to engage fields such as astronomy, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, sexuality, urban ecosystems, restoration ecology, physics, and mathematics;
· Synecdoche, a quarterly radio program broadcast on Utah Public Radio, featuring dramatic readings of recent literature with local and regional interest;
· Scribendi, an annual publication of the winning entries in the department's Creative Writing Contest;
· English Department Speakers Series, a monthly program of readings and lectures given by department faculty and by regionally- and nationally-known writers highlighting areas of interest to the department.
Jeffrey Smitten
5/17/2005 11:28:55 AM
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