English Degree (BA) | Indiana State University

Why Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in English at Indiana State?

Our program's blend of core courses and workshops ensures you gain communication, research, and problem-solving skills that employers in nearly every profession value.

Two women sitting at an outside table reading and discussing their textbooks, which are opened in front of them. The one on the left is a Black woman with brown dreadlocks wearing a dark blue shirt and cutoff blue jeans. The one on the right is a blonde white woman wearing a white t-shirt that says “Maine.”

Tailor Your Degree to Meet Your Career Goals

Indiana State's bachelor's in English offers you the best of both worlds—a solid academic foundation plus the opportunity for concentrated study based on your interests and career goals. Options include literary studies, creative writing, or rhetoric and professional writing.

Learn from Our Excellent Faculty

As an English major at Indiana State, you will benefit from small classes taught by faculty with diverse specialties, including British and American literature, rhetoric, and creative writing. Most hold doctoral degrees, and many publish books and articles, conduct research, edit journals, and speak at national and international conferences.

The English Department has long been recognized for excellence in teaching, research, and service. Recent awards include the Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award; the Theodore Dreiser Distinguished Research and Creativity Award; the Faculty Distinguished Service Award; and the President’s Medal, the University's highest award for faculty.

Enrich Your Learning

The English Department recognizes the need to promote a spirit of camaraderie, scholarship, and professional development. Toward that end, you will have opportunities to join student organizations sponsored by the Department, including the Sigma Tau Delta honor society and the Creative Writing Society, and to participate in the Landini Memorial Seminars.

You can gain editing and publishing experience working on Allusions, an award-winning journal of student creative writing and visual art; and the Plane Tree, a biannual literary journal edited by creative writing students and faculty.

You will also meet contemporary writers and scholars at Department events, including the Joseph S. Schick Lecture Series, the Bash Lectures in Modern American Literature Series, and the Theodore Dreiser Visiting Writer Series.

A white male professor with short, dark brown hair and glasses stands at the front of a classroom with the words Drama, Shakespeare, Staged Production, Scripts, and Conventions written on the chalkboard behind him. He wears a grey suit jacket with a blue open-collared shirt, and his left hand is pointing to his right hand, on which three fingers are held up as if counting.

What You’ll Learn in the English Program

The BA in English lays a foundation for a wide range of careers in which clear communication, critical thinking, and research skills are needed. Your core coursework will include study in the following areas:

Literary analysis
Introduction to Writing Studies
American and British literature
A creative writing workshop in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction

Additionally, you will select a concentration in literary studies, creative writing, or rhetoric and professional writing.

Note: If you are considering graduate work in English, you should take substantial work in at least one foreign language.

Concentrations

The Literary Studies concentration taps into your passion for reading and writing, and it provides excellent preparation for further study in graduate school, law school, or library science.

arrow_forward View the Literary Studies Concentration Degree Map

The Creative Writing concentration builds enhanced writing skills, supported through the study of literature, and prepares you for careers where creative thinking is valued, particularly in publishing, business, and the arts.

arrow_forward View the Creative Writing Concentration Degree Map

The Rhetoric and Professional Writing concentration teaches you to write in a variety of genres and settings while also gaining experience with new media and other electronic modes of written communication to support your professional endeavors.

arrow_forward View the Rhetoric and Professional Writing Concentration Degree Map

Transfer Credit

Indiana State University accepts credit from regionally accredited colleges and universities within the United States, and from selected schools located outside the United States. Credit also may be granted for military training and experience. Previously earned college credit can be applied toward completion of the program per Indiana State's transfer guidelines.

Transfer Guidelines

Career Possibilities for English Majors

Indiana State’s bachelor’s degree in English prepares you for careers in professional or creative writing, editing, business, and government. It is also excellent preparation for advanced study in creative writing, literary studies, the humanities, and law.

White female faculty member with glasses smiling at the camera

Writing workshops lend added dimension to literary studies.

Literature is fun. Especially if you’re in one of the writing workshops offered by Emily Capettini, associate professor of English at Indiana State University.

Learn more about Professor Capettini & the Creative Writing Program