English, B.A.

The English Department engages students in the study of the written word. We help our students to become powerful writers, creative and critical readers and thinkers, and innovative English Language Arts teachers. We do this through offering challenging and rewarding preparation in writing, literature, and English education and valuing close faculty–student mentoring designed to support students in their development and discovery. Rooted in Westfield State’s tradition of building professional preparation on a strong liberal arts foundation, our curriculum encourages students across the university—first-years in composition classes; students in core literature, film, and writing courses; English majors and minors—to develop as rhetorically flexible writers and researchers and as imaginative and responsible interpreters of texts, and then to carry what they learn in our classrooms into lives that create meaning and change for themselves and others.

To be recognized in New England for an innovative, high-quality, and versatile program that invites students to explore the multiplicity of options in an English degree and to leave our department with the confidence to pursue meaning and purpose in their professional and personal lives. We seek to be leaders in promoting a culture of belonging and in pursuing anti-racist work on our campus and in our field.

Literature Concentration Outcomes

• Demonstrate understanding of literary history by analyzing literary texts in relation to literary movements, genres, or periods.
• Demonstrate ability to employ concepts and methods from major literary theories and critical approaches in original critical writing.
• Demonstrate ability to investigate connections between cultural contexts (domestic or global) and the English language and literature in English.
• Demonstrate competence in locating and using library resources, including book collections and scholarly research databases, and in selecting and integrating source materials in critical essays, using MLA documentation style.
• Demonstrate understanding the ability to write clearly, engagingly, and persuasively in literary analysis and other genres.
• Demonstrate ability to apply learning in the major to professional and applied settings, as evidenced in such activities as teaching practica, internships, graduate school and career exploration, and participation in conferences and societies.
• Demonstrate effective and informative oral and presentation communication skills.

Outcomes for 200-level Literature Survey Classes

• Demonstrate close-reading skills that produce layered, rich, cohesive meanings from a text.
• Through formal writing, demonstrate original and critical thinking by posing and answering interpretive questions clearly and persuasively.
• Demonstrate the ability to recognize and use reference books, databases, and leading journals in the discipline.
• Demonstrate breadth of exposure by analyzing literary texts in relation to a variety of literary movements, genres, and periods.
• Demonstrate awareness of larger debates in American and British literary history.

Writing Concentration Outcomes

• Demonstrate practical applications of a variety of writing styles, creative and professional genres, and rhetorical strategies and conventions.
• Demonstrate competency with revision processes and collaborative revision as both critic and author through activities such as workshops, peer reviews, and group projects.
• Demonstrate competency in editing for grammar, mechanics, and conventions.
• Demonstrate the ability to present original written materials orally in contexts such as workshops.
• Demonstrate awareness of opportunities to circulate original writing beyond the classroom in forums such as publications, internships, contests, and poetry slams.
• Demonstrate the capability for self-assessment, including in relation to portfolios and self-critiques.

Assessment of Writing Concentration Outcomes 

The Writing Committee conducts a regular assessment of student papers and portfolios submitted for specific writing courses.

Composition Program Outcomes

Goals for Composition I and Composition II

In these courses, students will:

• Consider: Rhetorical occasion, or the audience, genre, and purpose of any writing/reading situation
• Reflect: on the relationship between individuals and society, on their development/growth as a writer, on strategies/tools they might import to other rhetorical occasions, on their role as a writer and thinker in our world, and on the relationship between oral and written texts
• Explore: strategies for organizing a text, multiple viewpoints; strategies for reading academic texts; and strategies for developing rhetorical flexibility in regard to voice 
• Engage: with texts, with peer and instructors feedback, with complex ideas and problems, with academic discourse, with sources, and in scholarly conversations 
• Practice: generative work and extensive revision; locating, evaluating, summarizing, and synthesizing sources; thinking on paper; representing complex thinking in formal writing; conventional documentation; and inquiry-based writing and reading 
• Produce: polished prose that claims a position 

In achieving these goals for Composition I, students will: 

• Write and revise at least 16 pages of formal academic prose in varied genres and for varied audiences 
• Write at least one issues-based documented text that uses summary, response, and analysis 
• Gain exposure to and practice a variety of feedback strategies involving their instructor and peers throughout the drafting process 
• Read texts as models for writing 
• Develop strategies for comprehension, interpretation, and analysis of texts 
• Attend a library session related to a class text/project 
• Actively prepare for and participate in the classroom community 
• Produce a final portfolio 

In achieving these goals for Composition II, students will: 

• Write and revise at least 20 pages of formal academic prose (including an annotated bibliography and research proposal) that have been through an extensive drafting process 
• Write at least one inquiry-driven research text and correctly document source gathered from the library and from other methods of research 
• Write a formal annotated bibliography and project proposal to assist in scaffolding researched text 
• Build upon and continue to practice feedback strategies 
• Read, respond to, and critique a variety of texts 
• Attend a library session related to a class text/project 
• Actively prepare for and participate in the classroom community 

Assessment Plan for Composition Program

The Composition Committee regularly assesses student learning through an analysis of students’ end-of-the-semester portfolios. Please see the Composition report in section 2B, especially “Promoting Portfolios for Comp II”, for more information about this year’s assessment activities. 

Westfield State University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). Our educator preparation programs are also approved by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP).

Westfield State University does not require an application essay, SAT and/or ACT scores, or letters of recommendation (except for special program admissions).     

All first-year applicants are reviewed for admission based on their high school record. First-year applicants must meet the minimum eligibility requirements established by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE) in order to qualify for admission to a state university.   

Learn more about the application process and admissions here.

Westfield State University offers a comprehensive university experience at an affordable cost—with many options for financial aid. Visit our Cost and Aid page to learn more. 

We’re invested in your success. Whether you need a little help adjusting to college, study strategies, tutoring, or disability services, the team at the Academic Achievement Department is ready to help. Our mission is to provide you with the tools to explore academic opportunities as well as to plot strategies for continued growth. 

Learn more about our student support services here.