1. Completion of a minimum of 60 hours of course work in the English Department (or in courses from other departments as approved by the major advisor). The first and second GEC writing courses (i.e., 110 and 367) do not count towards these 60 hours. A minimum of 35 of these hours must be at the 400-level or above.

2. A minimum grade of C- and cumulative minimum grade point average of 2.0 (C) for all courses in the major program. A minimum grade of C is required in English 398.

3. As part of the required 60 hours, completion of the following courses, which students are encouragedto take early in their major:

• English 201: Selected Works of British Literature I: Medieval through 1800
• English 202: Selected Works of British Literature II: 1800 to the Present

One of the following:

• English 290: Colonial and U.S. Literature to 1865
• English 291: U.S. Literature, 1865 to the Present

4. As part of the required 60 hours, completion of English 398 (Critical Writing). This course, along with English 110 and a 367 writing course in any department, is used to satisfy the Writing and Related Skills requirement in the GEC. English 398 should be taken as soon as the second GEC writing course is completed.

5. As part of the 35 hours of course work at the 400-level or above, courses must be distributed as follows:

• At least one course in literature before 1800, and at least one course in literature after 1800.
• Course work in at least one area of English study other than literature (e.g., creative writing, critical theory, film, or rhetoric and composition.
• A minimum of 15 hours of course work in a Focus Area to be determined by the student in consultation withÑand with the approval ofÑthe student's advisor. Courses included in the Focus Area may also be used to meet requirements A and B above. Up to 5 hours of related coursework in another department at the 400-level or above may be used as part of the Focus Area, subject to the advisor's approval, and provided that the course is not used for any other GEC requirement. Some examples of Focus Areas recent English majors completed at OSU-Mansfield are fiction, drama, rhetoric and composition, creative writing, and women's literature.

Note: Pre-Education majors no longer need to designate a Focus Area. 

6. Five (5) hours of English 693 (Individual Study) may be used as part of the required 60 hours. Note: with approval of the advisor, occasionally ten (10) hours of 693 may be used towards the Focus Area. Because of the additional work that supervising an Individual Study project entails for a faculty member, English 693 is almost always reserved for completion of a Focus Area.

Students majoring in English are urged to take English 398 as soon as possible after declaring the major and completing the second GEC writing requirement; the course is designed in part as an introduction to the major and to the kinds of writing and analysis that will be expected in upper level courses.