The power of the written word remains a constant for every generation.
Overview
In our English program in literary studies, you'll cultivate valuable skills in writing and critical thinking while exploring literary works by diverse writers. Courses stress the importance of critical reading, writing and research to provide you with a background suitable for many kinds of careers. Our diverse faculty teach and publish across the historical and theoretical spectrum, and students benefit from an interdisciplinary mix (for example, a course on crime fiction co-taught by faculty in English and sociology).
Present papers at regional and national research conferences. Publish your work in The Oswegonian student weekly, Great Lake Review creative writing journal and Exist e-publication. Excel and join the Oswego chapter of the international English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta. As a senior, enroll in Words in the World, to connect with the world of professional communications by designing and producing writing and research-related projects for businesses and non-profit organizations.
Curriculum
Bachelor of Arts
Outcomes
- Evaluate and analyze, in a variety of expressive forms, literary and extra-literary texts from formal, historical and other theoretically disciplined critical perspectives
- Recognize and recall literary movements and geohistorical periods and demonstrate how writers and critics use these traditions to situate and transform their own practices
- Detect and critique how categories of human diversity influence the identities of writers and readers and can produce cultural, political and institutional inequity, even as they create opportunities for expanding freedom, civic identification and social justice. (Examples of human diversity might include race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity and disability.)
- Enhance ability to revise writing for accuracy in the use of primary and secondary sources, for logically sound arguments, for rhetorically sound strategies and for conformity with standard usage and grammar.
Career Opportunities
- Corporate communications
- Activism and advocacy
- Video game development
- Teaching
- Editing
- Publishing
- Public service
- Non-profit communications and grant writing
- Copywriting
- Marketing
The English Department at Oswego doesn't treat you like a student, but rather like a scholar. Professors treat you as equals and do their best to help you evolve in your styles of argumentation.
I participated in a GLS 100 class to London. It was a place I had always wanted to visit and the class I went with enhanced my knowledge and understanding of the culture.
For my English major, I love the variety of classes am offered. I've taken classes that range from feminist theory to Harry Potter.
The professors really want you to succeed and are willing to sit down and help you figure out your plans both before and after graduation. The English and Creative Writing Department has a very approachable atmosphere.
Program Resources
The Oswego Guarantee
- Timely course offerings
- High touch connections to alumni
- Small student to faculty ratio
- Limited room & board increases each year
Faculty-Led Courses
This unique programs allows students to spend a few weeks studying a course topic before traveling to their destination abroad to experience what they learned in person, on location.
Novel Becomes Amazon Bestseller
Benjamin Allocco, an adjunct professor in SUNY Oswego's English and creative writing department, has topped several Amazon Kindle bestseller charts with his futuristic novel, "Deathform.
Living Writer's Series
Contemporary writers from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to young authors on the cutting edge of contemporary literature are invited to Oswego to share their experiences with our students. Every Monday each semester a new author comes to the class and talks about the writing process, as well as the paths traveled toward success as a writer.
Study Abroad
Take classes and participate in internships while immersing yourself in all that region has to offer.
Get Involved
Join the Great Lake Review, our student literary magazine or Words in the World where students consult with community businesses. From clubs to collectives — there's so many ways to get involved with the English program on campus.