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Effective Autumn 2005, the Department of English has instituted a new set of major requirements leading to the B.A. in English. These changes are designed to provide core course options that encourage cross-historical and cross-cultural developments in the key areas of theory, forms, and history; the range of options for fulfilling major requirements are more flexible and allow for more student choices. A new honors program offers a coherent, linked set of courses. A new creative writing option is available by competitive admission only (this option is not available in the Evening Degree Program).

Any student who applies to the English major in Autumn 2005 or later is responsible for meeting the new requirements; any student who declared the major in Spring 2005 or earlier may elect to complete the major by meeting the pre-Autumn 2005 requirements in effect when the major was declared, or by switching over entirely and meeting the new requirements as described below.

The major requires the completion of 55 ENGL credits (the competitive creative writing option requires a minimum of 60 ENGL credits). At least 25 credits of English at the 200-level or above must be earned in residence at the University of Washington. A maximum of 20 credits of 200-level courses, including required course work within the options, such as ENGL 202 (required of all English majors, both options), and both 283 and 284 (required of all Creative Writing option English majors), may count toward the English major.  At least 15 credits must be in courses focused on pre-1900 literature. Except for students completing the creative writing option, no more than 5 credits in creative writing may be applied toward the major.

Options available include:

Degree requirements in PDF format: English BA Requirements2nd window graphic, English Core Course Lists2nd window graphic

All English majors and prospective English majors are encouraged to make regular contact with English Advising.

The Department of English is housed in the University of Washington's College of Arts and Sciences2nd window graphic. Undergraduate students pursuing one of the options in the English major must also fulfill University and College of Arts and Sciences General Education requirements2nd window graphic in order to graduate with the English BA degree. At least 90 of the 180 total credits required for graduation must be from departments other than English.


Requirement lists are available for download in Portable Document Format (PDF).  To view and print forms in PDF format, it is necessary to have Adobe Acrobat Reader Software.  If you do not have the software, it can be obtained free of charge from Adobe (or go directly to the Acrobat download page by clicking on the following image).  Please follow their instructions for installation on your computer.


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