This guide is designed to help you make course selections for 2012-2013. Our Academic Calendar gives brief descriptions of all of the English and Writing courses that our department offers over several years, but this Course Guide gives more detailed descriptions of the 1000-level, 2000-level, and 3000 to 4000-level courses that we will be offering in 2012-2013, along with instructors’ names and timetable details, when available.
If you are interested in English courses that are cross-listed in other departments, you can look at our English and Women’s Studies or English and Cultural Studies pages.
Program requirements
In addition to the official Program Description in the Academic Calendar, you can also use our program requirement
checklists to keep track of your English courses. You can take a 20-unit B.A. degree with an
Honours or a
Major in English literature. English can also be taken as a
Combined Major with another subject in the B.A or B.Sc. offerings. A 15-unit General Studies degree with a
Concentration in English is also available.
For students interested in completing a Minor, the Department offers two choices: a Minor in English Literature (for students who are not in an English Department program) or a Minor in Writing, which is open to students from all programs as well as English students.
If you were registered in the university before July 2009, you have the option of following the above degree requirements or the older requirements for a 20-unit Advanced Major or a 15-unit Major in English Literature.
ENGL or WRIT? What do these course designations mean?
English Department courses are designated as either or both ENGL (English) and / or WRIT (Writing) courses. An ENGL/WRIT designation means that a course can be counted towards any of the English programs in literature (Honours, Major, Combined Major, Advanced Major, Concentration, Minor in Literature) or towards the Writing Minor. A course designated as WRIT only will count towards the Writing Minor (or it can be taken as an elective), but it will not count towards an ENGL Minor, Concentration, Combined Major, Advanced Major, Major, or Honours degree. A course designated as ENGL only will not count towards the Writing Minor.
Please note that if you are looking for WRIT courses in WebAdvisor, you have to look under "Writing" and not "English." If you are looking for WRIT courses in the Academic Calendar, you will have to look under “English.”
Class sizes
Your English classes will be small. Writing classes are usually limited to 25 students. First-year literature classes are normally limited to 30 students. Second-year classes will have 35 students as their limit. English classes at the 3000 and 4000 level are seminar classes that are limited to 20 students. These small class sizes will allow you to have close interaction with other students and your instructor. Your work is graded by your professor, who is able to give you ample feedback on your progress.
Pre-requisitesPlease consult the Academic Calendar and make sure that you are adequately prepared for the courses you want. Generally, you may take a 2000-level ENGL course once you have completed one unit of ENGL at the introductory (1000) level or you have completed five units of any university study. ENGL courses at the 3000 level require successful completion of at least one unit of ENGL at the 1000 level, although one unit at the 2000 level is strongly recommended.Pre-requisites for WRIT and ENGL/WRIT courses are spelled out in the Calendar descriptions.
Other resources
If you have never taken a university English course before, you might want to read Doing English. For those of you who would like to plan a program in advance, our list of courses that we are likely to offer in 2013-14 can be found in Forward Planning. Of course, all students should read the Plagiarism page, which contains information that will be discussed in all of your English classes. If you're wondering what you can do with a B.A. in English, take a look at the stories on our Career Paths page.
If your questions aren't answered in this Course Guide, you can also consult the professor of the course that interests you. The department chair, Dr. Karen Macfarlane, welcomes your questions; moreover, our department secretary, Tracy McDonald in Seton 533, can often help you. Students taking a writing minor should consult Dr. Susan Drain, the Writing Co-ordinator. Don't forget to consult the University Calendar and WebAdvisor as well. All English students are assigned to a faculty advisor; the list of advisors is posted on the bulletin board in the English Corner, Seton 5th floor, or you can ask Tracy McDonald for a faculty advisor. In other words, there are many ways to ensure that you make the right choices. As always, though, the final responsibility is on your own shoulders.
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