English Major

Requirements for the Major

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A major in English requires a minimum of 12 courses including senior thesis.

Basic requirements (must be taken at Scripps):

• ENGL101 SC Readings in British Literature  
• ENGL102 SC Readings in American Literature  

Distribution requirements:

• One course in British literature before 1800 (courses numbered 110-122, or their equivalent)
• One course in British literature after 1800 (courses numbered 123-139, or their equivalent)
• One course in American literature before 1900 (courses numbered 140-149, or their equivalent)
• One course in global Anglophone literatures (courses numbered 170-179, or their equivalent)
• ENGL180 SC Seminar in Literary Theory  
• One course fulfilling the senior seminar requirement (courses ending in S), along with the separate thesis credit (ENGL199T SC )
• Three additional courses in English

A minimum of seven of these courses must be taken at Scripps.

Requirements for the Major (Creative Writing Emphasis)

A major in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing requires a minimum of 12 courses including senior thesis.

Basic requirements (must be taken at Scripps):

• ENGL101 SC Readings in British Literature  
• ENGL102 SC Readings in American Literature  

Distribution requirements:

• Three workshops in creative writing.  At least two of the following genres must be represented among these 3 courses: fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama.
• Three courses in literature. One of these courses must be in British literature and another in American literature. It is recommended but not required that a third be in postcolonial/Anglophone literature.
• ENGL180 SC Seminar in Literary Theory  
• One course fulfilling the senior seminar requirement (courses ending in S), along with the separate thesis credit (ENGL199T SC  )
• One additional course in either literature or creative writing.

A minimum of seven of these courses must be taken at Scripps.

Senior Requirement in the English Major

Each year the English Department offers 4 or 5 upper-division courses, capped at 12 students, with priority given to Scripps senior English majors. These courses are designated with “S” after the course number. While the seminars are designed to provide seniors with a broad array of topics leading to the thesis, and differ widely in subject and genre, they all have common requirements and expectations for students taking them for the senior requirement.  A senior wishing to take a course for senior seminar credit will write a culminating 30-page thesis at the end of the semester, and will receive separate course credit (designated as ENGL199T SC  ) and grade for that written thesis. The senior requirement, then, is fulfilled by two simultaneous but discrete course credits: the S-level seminar class, and the thesis (ENGL199T SC ) that emerges from it.

Honors Requirements

A student who wishes to receive honors in the English major must graduate with a GPA of 11.0 (A-) in the major and must receive at least an A- on the senior thesis (ENGL199T SC ).