The anticipated learning outcomes of the English major at UNE revolves a lot around understanding literature. There is an expectation to be able to look at a text, understand what it’s about, and then connect it to other things. It’s important that English majors become capable of analyzing texts from an editorial or critical standpoint rather than just reading for recreation. Beyond that, creating a well formulated analysis of the literature we experience is an expectation as well.

Given the world we live in with so much technology, the English major allows a bit of a break from that. Using actual writing pieces as a source of analysis or even an example for our own writing keeps literature pretty alive. English majors, being relatively uncommon, will have the capability to communicate better than many of their peers in many forms of discussion. With this skill, English majors can work in many different fields, doing many different things.

The goal of the English major at UNE is to equip students with plenty of tools they can use in their lives after college. Learning how to think and understand literature are the primary focus, as you need these to be able to do the fun part, writing! Thinking is just a baby step to learn how to write effectively, and both are taught through the English major. With the ability to access resources as well, English majors will have all the tools they need to succeed.

Michael Cripps is the director of the School of Arts and Humanities! Knowing how much experience he has, and how involved he is with the UNE English major, he would definitely be interesting to interview. There is also an assistant director named Andrew Rotondo, who I’ve yet to meet. These two would be the most helpful to speak if questions are raised about the major, but it would also be interesting to hear about their journey among English as a whole.