Your degree in the Department of English
The degree programmes offered by the Department of English have been created to ensure that you are provided with a solid grounding in academic scholarship. You will be given the freedom to pursue your own interests and ideas, while always receiving clear guidance about the course options that best suit you.
Study
The majority of your time will be spent in private study – reading texts in preparation for lectures and seminars, or writing up assignments – so you will need to be disciplined and independent. However, your personal advisor and course leaders will be with you every step of the way, assisting you in all the decisions you have to make, and equipping you with the skills you need to fulfil your potential whilst you’re at university.
Teaching
At the centre of your studies will be the formal programme of teaching. Every year you will take four courses during each of the two main semesters (many of these are double courses covering both semesters, meaning that in total you will complete between four and eight courses each year). In your first year, these will usually be compulsory core courses; in your second and third years, the emphasis is on choice and flexibility as you select from a range of options. Each course will require you to undertake a schedule of relevant reading that will then inform the discussions that take place in weekly lectures and seminars, as you build your understanding of a particular topic or approach. Lectures supply the backbone for the degree programmes; they involve academic experts delivering accessible but detailed presentations about a designated text or theme. Seminars are used throughout the three years (often in conjunction with lectures), and will encourage you to share and develop your own ideas both with members of the teaching staff and with your undergraduate peers.
Assessment
To enable you to think about the texts you read, you’ll also complete a range of written assignments – the marks for which will form the basis of your final degree classification. These might include traditional forms of assessment such as essays, exams, analyses of short passages, and translations (for example from Old into contemporary English). Other tasks will involve a more personal engagement with writing. You might produce a journal in which you record your own responses to course reading; elsewhere you may be asked to write imaginative and creative work that explores the key issues in a text. This means that by the end of your degree, not only will you know a lot more about literature, you’ll also be producing well-organised, lucid, and entertaining pieces of writing.