Department of English
Bachelor of Arts in English
Students on Summer 2025, Fall 2025, or Spring 2026 requirements ENGBA
The Bachelor of Arts in English provides majors with marketable skills in writing, text analysis, and critical thinking and allows them to explore the power of the English language in all its historical, persuasive, and expressive range. Requirements for the English major provide in-depth training in literary history and culture. Majors take courses in all periods of British and American literature, as well as more recent periods of ethnic and contemporary world literature.
In addition to core requirements, students choose from an array of elective options in genre (poetry, fiction, and drama), media studies, popular culture, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, rhetoric, creative writing, and public and professional writing. In the department, majors can work with novelists and lexicographers, biographers and poets, rhetoricians and bloggers, experts in everything from medievalism to modernity, from nature writing to digital gaming, from Jonathan Swift to Taylor Swift.
Requirements
The major requires at least 33 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.
- Introductory Course. One (1) course:
- ENG-L 260 Introduction to Advanced Study of Literature
- Introduction to Genre. One (1) course:
- ENG-L 203 Introduction to Drama (must be approved for CASE Intensive Writing)
- ENG-L 204 Introduction to Fiction (must be approved for CASE Intensive Writing)
- ENG-L 205 Introduction to Poetry (must be approved for CASE Intensive Writing)
- ENG-L 206 Introduction to Prose (Excluding Fiction) (must be approved for CASE Intensive Writing)
- Literary History.
- Beginnings Through the Seventeenth Century. One (1) course:
- ENG-L 305 Chaucer
- ENG-L 306 Middle English Literature
- ENG-L 307 Medieval and Tudor Drama
- ENG-L 308 Elizabethan and Seventeenth-Century Drama
- ENG-L 309 Elizabethan Poetry
- ENG-L 310
- ENG-L 313 Early Plays of Shakespeare
- ENG-L 314 Late Plays of Shakespeare
- ENG-L 317 English Poetry of the Early Seventeenth Century
- ENG-L 318 Milton
- ENG-L 350 Early American Writing and Culture to 1800
- ENG-L 367 Literature of the Bible
- Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. One (1) course:
- ENG-L 312 Literary History 2: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
- ENG-L 320 Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Literature
- ENG-L 327 Later Eighteenth-Century Literature
- ENG-L 328 Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama
- ENG-L 332 Romantic Literature
- ENG-L 335 Victorian Literature
- ENG-L 347 British Fiction to 1800
- ENG-L 348 Nineteenth-Century British Fiction
- ENG-L 351 American Literature 1800-1865
- ENG-L 352 American Literature 1865-1914
- ENG-L 355 American Fiction to 1900
- ENG-L 356 American Poetry to 1900
- Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries. One (1) course:
- ENG-L 316
- ENG-L 345 Twentieth-Century British Poetry
- ENG-L 346 20th and 21st Century British Fiction
- ENG-L 354 American Literature since 1914
- ENG-L 357 Twentieth-Century American Poetry
- ENG-L 358 American Literature, 1914-1960
- ENG-L 359
- ENG-L 360 American Prose (Excluding Fiction)
- ENG-L 363 American Drama
- ENG-L 365 Modern Drama: Continental
- ENG-L 366 Modern Drama: English, Irish, American, and Post-Colonial
- ENG-L 374
- ENG-L 375 Studies in Jewish Literature
- ENG-L 380
- ENG-L 381 Recent Writing
- ENG-L 396 Studies in African American Literature and Culture
- Beginnings Through the Seventeenth Century. One (1) course:
- Critical Practices. One (1) course:
- ENG-L 371 Critical Practices
- Concentration or Electives. One of the following options:
- Electives Option.
- 200–499 Electives. Two (2) courses:
- Any ENG-G 200–299
- Any ENG-G 300–399
- Any ENG-G 400–499
- Any ENG-L 200–299
- Any ENG-L 300–399
- Any ENG-L 400–499
- Any ENG-R 200–299
- Any ENG-R 300–399
- Any ENG-R 400–499
- Any ENG-W 200–299 except ENG-W 202; ENG-W 205
- Any ENG-W 300–399
- Any ENG-W 400–499
- ENG-X 373 Professional Practice in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 395 Global Experience in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 471 Teaching Internship in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 473 Internship in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 490 Individual Reading in English (Departmental consent required)
- 300–499 Elective. Two (2) courses:
- Any ENG-G 300–399
- Any ENG-G 400–499
- Any ENG-L 300–399
- Any ENG-L 400–499 except ENG-L 498
- Any ENG-R 300–399
- Any ENG-R 400–499
- Any ENG-W 300–399
- Any ENG-W 400–499
- ENG-X 373 Professional Practice in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 395 Global Experience in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 471 Teaching Internship in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 473 Internship in English (Departmental consent required)
- ENG-X 490 Individual Reading in English (Departmental consent required)
- 400–499 Elective. One (1) course:
- Any ENG-E 400–499
- Any ENG-G 400–499
- Any ENG-L 400–499 except ENG-L 498
- Any ENG-R 400–499
- Any ENG-W 400–499
- 200–499 Electives. Two (2) courses:
- Concentration Option. One (1) of the following concentrations (see requirements below):
- Creative Writing
- Cultural Studies
- Public and Professional Writing
- Electives Option.
- Major GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
- Major GPA. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the major—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
- Major Minimum Grade. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the major.
- Major Upper Division Credit Hours. At least 18 credit hours in the major must be completed at the 300–499 level.
- Major Residency. At least 18 credit hours in the major must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
- College Breadth. At least 58 credit hours must be completed in courses from College of Arts and Sciences disciplines outside of the major area.
Major Area Courses
-
Unless otherwise noted below, the following courses are considered in the academic program and will count toward academic program requirements as appropriate:
- Any course at the 100–499 level with the
ENGprefix—as well as any other subject areas that are deemed functionally equivalent - Any course contained on the course lists for the academic program requirements—as well as any other courses that are deemed functionally equivalent—except for those listed only under Addenda Requirements
- Any course directed to a non-Addenda requirement through an approved exception
- Any course, consistent with the policies herein, that is part of a concentration, track, and/or specialization being pursued as part of this academic program
- Any course at the 100–499 level with the
Exclusions
The following courses cannot be applied toward major requirements or the College Breadth requirement (unless otherwise noted) :
- Any ENG-E 100–199
- Any ENG-G 100–199
- Any ENG-L 100–199
- Any ENG-W 100–199
- ENG-W 131 Reading, Writing, and Inquiry I *
- ENG-W 170 Introduction to Argumentative Writing: Projects in Reading and Writing *
- ENG-W 202 English Grammar Review
- ENG-W 205 Vocabulary Acquisition
- ENG-X 101 Pre-Composition
Courses marked with an asterisk (*) will count toward the College Breadth requirement.
Restrictions
The following restrictions apply to the minimum credit hours required in the major:
- Only 3 credit hours from a combination of:
- ENG-X 373 Professional Practice in English
- ENG-X 471 Teaching Internship in English
- ENG-X 473 Internship in English
This program of study cannot be combined with the following:
- Bachelor of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies and English (AAADENGBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in English and African American and African Diaspora Studies (ENGAAADBA)
- Minor in Communication and Public Advocacy (COPUADVMIN)
- Minor in Creative Writing (CRWRTMIN)
- Minor in English (ENGMIN)
Exceptions to and substitutions for major requirements may be made with the approval of the unit's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Bachelor of Arts degree requires at least 120 credit hours, to include the following:
- College of Arts and Sciences Credit Hours. At least 100 credit hours must come from College of Arts and Sciences disciplines.
- Upper Division Courses. At least 42 credit hours (of the 120) must be at the 300–499 level.
- College Residency. Following completion of the 60th credit hour toward degree, at least 36 credit hours of College of Arts and Sciences coursework must be completed through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
- College GPA. A College grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.000 is required.
- CASE Requirements. The following College of Arts and Sciences Education (CASE) requirements must be completed:
- Major. Completion of the major as outlined in the Major Requirements section above.
Most students must also successfully complete the Indiana University Bloomington General Education program.