Students

Reading, writing, critical thinking – all are skills that can lead to success in one’s professional endeavors.

While serving all NMU students with composition and study skills courses, the English Department also offers strong programs in literature and specialized writing. As literature courses challenge students to consider matters of broad human significance, so the many offerings in creative writing, exposition and journalism encourage students to develop their talents for expressing ideas and emotions.

The department directs its majors and minors toward courses that will further enhance their abilities to analyze and discuss literature or to write fiction, nonfiction or poetry. A career in one of these fields, either teaching or another professional endeavor, can be a richly rewarding experience.

The department offers two undergraduate English majors and six minors. The majors are in English and Secondary Education in English. The six minors offered are in English, writing, journalism, film studies, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and English education. The department also participates in the interdisciplinary major in technical communications, as well as the religious studies, gender and sexuality studies, and Native American studies minors.

In addition to the classroom learning, student opportunities abound within the English Department, including working on one of the department’s three student produced publications – the student newspaper, a literary magazine and the departmental electronic newsletter; volunteering with local reading and writing programs; and student employment that involved literature or writing, both locally and on campus. The possibilities are plentiful.