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Why Choose English?

As an English major at DePauw, you will have the opportunity to read an impressively wide range of writers both non-traditional and traditional, study film and the visual image, develop creative and academic writing skills--all while probing provocative questions that have encouraged us to turn to the written word for centuries: issues of social justice, ethical dilemmas, legal battles, the politics of beauty, the polemics of love. Majoring in English at DePauw is an exciting and challenging experience. You will have the opportunity to study with dedicated, accomplished faculty who have published in a broad range of areas and who will challenge you to become a better reader, writer, and thinker. The English major is an extremely versatile one: according to results from a recent post-graduate survey, DePauw English majors have gone on to successful careers in publishing, law, creative writing, teaching, film, business, and science. Across the board, our graduates appreciate the excellent writing and analytical skills they developed as DePauw English majors, and they have found these skills to be an integral aspect of their success in diverse fields of employment and graduate study.

What do English Majors Do After Graduation?

In the last five years, almost two-thirds of English department alumni have pursued some form of postgraduate study. Alumni have entered a variety of postgraduate fields: law, education, literature, publishing, writing, public administration, and others. The variety of their endeavors reflects the versatility of the English major.

Law school represents the most common postgraduate study for department alumni. These students unanimously express appreciation for the writing and interpretive skills they have gained in our courses. In a recent survey, a writing major comments, “Workshop continues to serve me in law school as I edit my students’ writing as a legal writing tutor, fine tune my own briefs and arguments, and work closely on the text of statutes and cases in class.” Another writing major says, “I think I have been helped in my practice and in law school because DePauw helped foster a love for writing and an understanding of the writing and rewriting process. I am not afraid to take a second, third, fourth, or tenth stab at writing a brief, motion, or memorandum." Literature majors as well find themselves well-prepared for law school. One writes, “The analytical approach that I developed as an English major carried through to law school and assists me in reading and interpreting legal cases, statutes, and regulations. Moreover, the well-reasoned analysis that I developed in my undergraduate studies has been fine tuned through further study for a legal approach.”

Graduate students in literature and writing programs express a similar satisfaction with their experiences in writing and textual analysis, as well as a confidence in having been well-prepared for their postgraduate work. A writing major says, “Going to graduate school I had better preparation than any of my classmates in any program. My English background has helped me immensely, since being able to write critically and assess information is such a large part of my graduate experience.” A literature major writes, “I frequently teach texts to my students that were taught to me at DePauw and consider what questions faculty framed in relation to them; I try to model my teaching after the many excellent teachers I studied with there. As a student, I felt confident . . . in my ability to write persuasively and authoritatively from the very beginning of the program.” Another writing major explains, “The department has given me the base from which I would like to pursue graduate studies in literature and has been seminal in my evolution as a student and now, in my choice of careers.”

A number of our alumni have won prestigous postgraduate fellowships or placed as finalists. Recent graduates include Fulbright scholars, Luce scholars, Truman scholars, and Rhodes scholar semi-finalists.

In 2006 the New York Publishing Institute accepted six DePauw graduates for its summer program.  In the list of 100 students accepted by the program, DePauw had the second-largest representation of all the schools in the country. Many department alumni have gone on to jobs at prominent publishing houses, including Simon and Schuster and HarperCollins.

In 2005 five of the fourteen seniors accepted by Teach for America were English majors. In 2006 four of the fifteen were English majors: three majors in Literature, one major in Writing. One serior last year was accepted for the Peace Corps.

How Can I Prepare for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)?

Since 1993 Andrea Sununu has administered a program geared toward helping students who plan to take the Graduate Record Examination, which is typically given in early November.  Andrea notifies juniors about the program in the spring, urging them to use the summer months to read and review the Norton Anthologies for English and American Literature. When students arrive in the fall, Andrea contacts them again to set up seven Wednesday night sessions, each of which runs between one to two hours or more.  The review sessions for the subject test in literature is covered in chronological order (e.g.  Medieval, Renaissance or Early Modern, Restoration and Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century British, and so on). In the past, Andrea, who often presents the Medieval portion of the review,  has been joined by Cynthia Cornell (Medieval), Martha Rainbolt (Restoration and Eighteenth Century), Wayne Glausser (Nineteenth Century British), Michael Sinowitz (Twentieth Century British), Bill Little and Joe Heithaus (American), Istvan Csicsery-Ronay and Meryl Altman (Literary Theory). These dedicated departmental members have students work on questions prepared by the Educational Testing Service and made available to students either via booklets or online. Each instructor identifies questions in his or her designated field and the students answer these questions.  The instructors and students then go over the questions, and the instructors explain any background the students need to get the right answers.