Do you enjoy reading and writing? Do you love books, not for their entertainment value alone, but for the way they make you think more deeply about the issues they address, the words they're made of and the places and times in which they were written? If so, you should major in English at the University of North Texas.
Your Future In English
A Bachelor of Arts degree in English prepares you for jobs that require strong writing, communication and analytical thinking skills. Our graduates choose careers in a variety of fields, including law, publishing, education, advertising, journalism or public relations.
Many alumni teach English composition, British or American literature, or English as a Second Language in public and private schools. Some pursue master's and doctoral degrees in a variety of fields in competitive graduate programs nationwide.
Other alumni include:
- An editor with Rolling Stone magazine
- A curator in the Rare Book Division of the New York Public Library
- A member of the public relations staff at PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm
- Novelists Karleen Koen, David Lindsey and Larry McMurtry
- Poets Chad Davidson and John Poch
- Screenplay writer and director Ken Harrison
- Various employees of government agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Government Printing Office
What we offer
While pursuing your degree, you can choose from concentrations in literature, writing and rhetoric, creative writing or language arts with secondary teacher certification.
Our well-published and award-winning faculty members have:
- Published books with major university presses such as Cambridge, Oxford and Michigan
- Had essays featured in prestigious journals such as PMLA, ELH: English Literary History, SEL: Studies in English Literature, American Literary History and Postcolonial Text
- Published creative work in the New York Times, the Paris Review, Raritan, Ploughshares, Granta and Tri Quarterly
Their honors include the BBC International Short Story Award, a $1 million U.S. State Department grant and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. Faculty research and creative writing projects have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
As an English major, you can participate in a number of student organizations, including the Sigma Tau Delta international English honor society. You may also help faculty members with research projects or with one of the department's journals — the American Literary Review, Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies and Studies in the Novel. Students can publish their work in the North Texas Review.
We fund several scholarships to help you pursue your degree.
A wide range of educational opportunities are available to cultivate your literary education. Creative writing students receive feedback from published writers, and the Visiting Writers Series provides a forum to meet accomplished authors. Ongoing events focus on British, American and global literature, featuring prominent literary scholars.
What to expect
The curriculum develops your writing, critical thinking and analytical skills while introducing you to American, British and world literatures, creative writing, literary theory, composition, language arts and rhetoric.
We offer a wide variety of courses ranging from survey classes to innovative special topics classes that focus on our faculty members' research interests. To learn more about major requirements or our outstanding faculty members, visit our website.