English has been a course of study for students to pursue since the creation of the college as an educational institution in 1891. While the original department was not as extensive as the one today, its principles can be seen in the programs and courses that developed in the department over time.
The first English program had a set of founding principles that it worked to instill in its students. Among these principles are:
“the student learns to articulate and pronounce distinctly, and to read understandingly and with naturalness and ease…the student familiarizes himself with the parts of speech without making special efforts at first to acquire the technical terms…learns to write business letters and letters of friendship, giving each letter the proper heading, address, salutation, body, subscription, and superscription; learns to reproduce, orally and written, talk, lectures, speeches, sermons, essays, narratives, and stories; learns to observe things around and within himself, and to describe these observations in his own words; learns to analyze words and sentences; leans to note the various figures of speech and to acquire a taste for standard American and English Literature” (Catalog 1891, 15).
These and other principles are what drove the English faculty during the early years of Concordia. Courses and majors today still represent many of these original values that focused on writing, literature and analysis.
For much of its history, the English department consisted solely of an English major and minor. This major included all aspects of writing, literature and speaking that are now separated into many different courses of study. It wasn’t until 1964 that English education came into existence. From then on, the English department evolved to include English writing in 1979, journalism, beginning with print journalism in 1999 and adding multimedia journalism in 2011, and English literature in 2002. The English major and minor were considered the literature major and minor until it was officially named so in 2002.
The English major with an emphasis in writing continues to be a popular major in the department today. There are five tracts in this major alone on which students can focus their studies. There is fiction writing, which concentrates on the writing of different styles of literary fiction. Poetry writing focuses on the writing of different forms of non-genre, literary poetry. Nonfiction writing concentrates on the writing of nonfiction stories that are specifically related to the student’s own experiences. The business and technical writing tract allows students to learn the finer points of writing a variety of business-related documents such as a resume, instructions, or a report. The feature writing tract allows students interested in journalism to get a closer look at what it is like to interview subjects and write feature-length pieces for newspapers.
The English literature major has been in existence since the beginning of the department. While it was simply titled English major until 2002, it has always focused heavily on literature. Courses often focused on great authors such as Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare and many more. Today the literature major focuses on many areas of literature such as Native American Literature, Women in Literature, Postcolonial Literature and criticism. Students do not only gain an appreciation for “standard American and English Literature,” they also are able to “analyze the words and sentences” before them. Those who want to get into publishing often major in English literature due to the intense focus on grammar and criticism in this course of study.
English education has been an active part of both the English department and the education department since 1964. In 1964, a student wishing to graduate with a major in English education needed to have a teaching major in English or language arts of no less than 36 credits that included areas of study in theory and practice, oral interpretation and play direction and expository writing. Another option for students wishing to teach English was to graduate with a minor in English and language arts of at least 18 credits that focused on academic instruction, literature and composition and speech.
Journalism began as a major in the English department in 1999. It taught students the practical skills they would need to investigate, interview and write in a journalistic manner. In 2011, the journalism major morphed into the new interdisciplinary multimedia journalism program. Students are taught to “find and assess relevant facts, interpret them and present them in a context that is concise, fair and accurate …” in this major, which includes courses from the communication studies and theatre art department and the art department (Catalog 2014-2015, 111). With professions in the reporting field becoming more interwoven, students are taught how to work and report both on paper and online, and how to describe the world around them in their own words.
Contributed by Allison Cassell, archives associate, Concordia College Archives