Undergraduate study
English
Welcome to the part of the website that gives details of the full-time Honours degree programme in English. If you are interested in the Part-Time English programme, click here: English Part-Time
The Single Honours English programme is organized on a basis of core and optional modules. Nearly all modules have a credit weighting of 10 or 20. If you are taking English full-time, you need to register for 120 credit units each year. This usually means modules totalling 60 credit units in each of a year's semesters.
In Year 1 (known as Part A), you take the following core modules:'Critical Studies 1 and 2', 'Introduction to Poetry 1 and 2', 'An Introduction to Language', and 'Writing in History'. You also take optional modules up to a total of 20 credit units in both semesters. The range of modules available includes 'Introduction to Film Studies', 'Introduction to the Short Story', 'Oral Communication', 'Reading the American Novel', and 'Writing Women', and also modules from other Departments. These could include modules in business studies, computing, languages, politics and sports science among other subjects.
In Year 2 (known as Part B), you take only two core modules, both rated at 20 credit units: 'British Drama 1576-1737' and 'Victorian Literature'. A wide range of optional modules is available, including in American literature and film, drama, creative writing and linguistics, as well as in mainstream English topics such as Renaissance, eighteenth-century, Romantic and nineteenth-century literature, and nineteenth-century French fiction in translation. As in Year 1, you can take modules amounting to up to 20 credit units from other Departments.
In Year 3 (known as Part C), you take a further two core modules. One, 'Modernism', is taken in Semester 1 and is rated at 20 credit units; the other, 'Dissertation', is a year-long module rated at 30 credit units. As in Year 2, your remaining credit units are made up from a similar range of optional modules, some in the same subject areas as in Year 2, others of a more specialized nature such as 'Aphra Behn and her Contemporaries' or 'Contemporary Irish Texts'. The modules offered cover a wide range of subject areas, and there is considerable freedom to choose the particular module that suits an individual preference. There is also wide freedom of choice for the subject of the 'Dissertation'.
Exchanges
The Department offers numerous exchange opportunities in the second year. These include the following institutions: Acadia University (Canada), the National University of Singapore, Shumen (Bulgaria), Ustinad (Czech Republic), Nicosia (Cyprus), Salerno (Italy), Almeria, Cadiz and Madrid (Spain), Stockholm (Sweden), the University of Technology (Sydney).
Teaching and assessment
The teaching on this programme is predominantly seminar-based. Group sizes vary but are typically between 12 and 20. Most assessment is in the form of essays of various lengths (from 1000 to 4000 words), the submission deadlines for which are spread throughout the year. Additional assessment takes the form of project folders, individual and small group presentations, and timed essays.