Core Competencies

The English Core Courses

UNIV 103: English Major Seminar

The English Majors Seminar may not be required for transfer students.

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• distinguish and articulate the subfields of English Studies, their cohesion, occasional discord, and their practical and cultural value;
•  identify the diverse possibilities for meaning of the term “text” and address those possibilities in analyzing texts;
• grow fluent in and effectively apply the terminology--the metadiscourse--that distinguishes English Studies;
• distinguish and apply the basic tenets of composition studies and rhetoric to reading and writing texts--a crossover from our English 110 (Composition) class for some;
• demonstrate facility with strategies for the writing, reading, and speaking demanded of English majors;
• implement effective collaborative strategies for team discussion, writing, and oral presentations;
• apply technology effectively in research and composing processes when and where appropriate;
• demonstrate understanding of and facility with using Millersville University resources that support academic success; and
• demonstrate strengthened inquiry, research, and information literacy skills.

English 220: Introduction to Language Study

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

•  identify and discuss key issues related to these fields and subfields, including the neurology of language, language acquisition, language variation (in both its regional and social dimensions), and language change.
  • Identify 3 principles of language acquisition.
  • Describe regional and social variation of language.
  • Identify examples of linguistic change.
•  apply methods of linguistic analysis to language structures and meanings, including phonology (sounds), morphology (words), syntax (sentences), semantics (meanings), and pragmatics (contexts).
  • Apply an appropriate technique of linguistic analysis to a given problem.

ENGL 237: Literary Theory and Analysis

Students who successfully complete this course will be able

• to recognize major theories, theorists, and critical approaches to “text."
• to develop critical vocabulary and apply it in analysis of literary and cultural texts.
• to apply major theoretical and critical approaches to their own reading and writing about literature.
• to produce texts marked with clarity, precision, depth and correctness.

ENGL 242: Reading Our World

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to

•  Use appropriate literary, linguistic or rhetorical terminology to explain formal elements in texts.
• Analyze the relationships between structure and meaning in texts.
• Explain how expressive works provide insight into human experience and culture, ultimately inviting connection to students’ experiences.
• Explain how literary, linguistic or rhetorical conventions and authorial choices relate to social, historical and cultural contexts.
• Recognize and describe literary, linguistic or rhetorical styles and movements.
• Describe how literary, linguistic or rhetorical traditions are challenged by new voices and innovations in style, theme and form.
• Formulate and revise written arguments following the instructor and/or peer suggestions.
• Compose original work in student’s chosen textual medium.