English Major/Text, Business Writing and Digital Studies Option (B.A.)

English Major/Text, Business Writing and Digital Studies Option (B.A.)
Students in digital writing class

What is the text, business writing and digital Studies degree option?

The text, business writing and digital studies option within the English degree program will give you the professional and critical skills to succeed in the modern workplace. You’ll have the opportunity to study areas including social media, business writing genres, digital storytelling and web design. You’ll also become skilled in critical thinking, analysis and communication.

Why study text, business writing and digital Studies at UNH?

This new UNH program helps meet employer demand for workers with wide-ranging and adaptable professional skills. You’ll gain valuable on-the-job experience through our internship requirement, and also compile a digital portfolio of your work. The English Department offers a number of institutes and programs that provide unique opportunities locally and abroad, as well as regular on-campus series featuring visiting writers, scholars and journalists.

Potential careers

  • Business administrator
  • Communications director
  • Manager
  • Marketing professional
  • Public relations specialist
  • Social media director
  • Videographer
  • Web content specialist
  • Writer
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Curriculum & Requirements

The modern workplace requires that employees be adaptable. The Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted a long-term study that showed people held 11.7 jobs between the ages of 18 and 48, and those numbers are increasing with people moving between jobs more frequently every year. It is crucial that we prepare our students not just for one industry, but rather arm them with the transferable skills of critical reading, writing, analysis, production, theory and aesthetics of new forms in digital media and business. Students will leave this major option with the skills that are in the highest demand in all fields today. 

This major option addresses the growing demand for graduates who are well-versed in a combination of humanistic and digital skills and able to work in a variety of professional environments. In particular, graduates of this option will be prepared for careers at cultural and historical institutions, as well as in emerging job markets of information management and online content delivery. This specialization complements areas requirements for the English major but it is not limited to English majors. Double majors are encouraged. Small classes, a great sense of community and a diversity of faculty specializations create an atmosphere that propels students toward success. Students will receive real-life work experience through our internship class, and they will also leave this major with a digital portfolio that contains a collection of professional projects that can be used on the job market. 

In this English major option, students are trained in the critical reading, analysis, production, theory and aesthetics of new forms in media and business. These forms include but are not limited to social media, business writing conventions, modes of digital storytelling (i.e. audio and video essays, podcasts and wikis), digital archives, web design, and online communities and interaction. Students are also trained in analysis through traditional humanistic literature and they are expected to fulfill the core learning objectives shared by all English major tracks. These include:

  • the ability to communicate and debate effectively with others, both orally and in writing,
  • the ability to closely examine a variety of texts (including modern digital artifacts and archival materials)
  • developing the ability to use a variety of media and communication platforms;
  • experience and practice in dynamic critical thinking and creativity

If you're interested in majoring in English: Text, Business Writing and Digital Studies please contact Carla Cannizzaro, Senior Academic Advisor, Department of English, 230F Hamilton Smith Hall, (603) 862-1313.

Degree Requirements

Minimum Credit Requirement: 128 credits
Minimum Residency Requirement: 32 credits must be taken at UNH
Minimum GPA: 2.0 required for conferral*
Core Curriculum Required: Discovery & Writing Program Requirements
Foreign Language Requirement: Yes

All Major, Option and Elective Requirements as indicated.
*Major GPA requirements as indicated.

Major Requirements

  • Eleven courses (44 credits) are required for the major.
  • Courses must be completed with a minimum grade of C- or better.
  • Majors may only count one online course towards their major requirements.
  • ENGL 403, ENGL 415 and ENGL 444 courses may not be used to satisfy major requirements.
  • English majors may use one major-required course to satisfy one Discovery category requirement.
  • Students must meet the following distribution requirements below. Note that any one course may satisfy more than one requirement.
Required Courses
ENGL 419How to Read Anything 14
One 500-level Introductory Course. Select from the following:4
ENGL 501
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction (Digital Essay version)
ENGL 502
Professional and Technical Writing
ENGL 503
Persuasive Writing (Text, Business Writing, Digital version)
ENGL 510
Introduction to the Digital Humanities
ENGL 602
Advanced Professional and Technical Writing
Select three ENGL courses numbered 600 or above 212
Select two pre-1800 literature courses (select from the list below)8
Select two post-1800 literature courses (select from the list below)8
Select one course that addresses race, the construction of race, and racial theories (select from the list below)4
Capstone 3
ENGL 796The Internship Experience4
Digital Portfolio
1

Must be completed with a minimum grade of “C" to count towards the major.

2

Students may include any advanced-level ENGL courses in which 20% of student assessment/work includes a digital humanities, digital research, or digital production component (even it taken to fulfill literature requirements). ENGL 602 may NOT be double counted for this requirement. Look for the 'DH' designation in the course descriptions during registration. 

3

The Internship Experience: Experiential learning course that allows students to apply all of the writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills into an on-the-job experience, enabling them first-hand practice with writing documents at work, peer collaboration, public speaking opportunities/presentations, and supervision and evaluation.  Students must have JR or SR status to enroll in this course. 

Digital Portfolio:  A minimum of six polished projects represented in a digital portfolio started in ENGL 602 and expanded over your career at UNH.  A reflective essay will accompany this portfolio. This is a non-credit degree requirement. The Digital Portfolio is completed during enrollment in ENGL 796 'The Internship Experience'.

Pre-1800 Literature Courses
ENGL 512
British Literature I Age of Heroes: Beowulf to Dr. Faustus
or ENGL 513W
British Literature II Age of Revolutions: Shakespeare to Austen
ENGL 595
Literary Topics (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL 657
Shakespeare
ENGL 693R
Special Topics in Literature (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL 751
Medieval Romance
ENGL #753
Old English
ENGL 756
Chaucer
ENGL 758
Advanced Shakespeare
ENGL #758R
Advanced Shakespeare
ENGL 759
Milton
ENGL #780
Drama of Shakespeare's Contemporaries: Will and Company
ENGL 787
English Major Seminar (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL #787R
English Major Seminar (if topic is appropriate)
Post-1800 Literature Courses
ENGL 514W
British Literature III: Revolts, Renewals, Migrations
or ENGL 516W
American Literature II Money, Migration, and Modernity: Huck Finn to Beloved
ENGL 595
Literary Topics (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL #609
Ethnicity in America: The African American Experience in the 20th Century
ENGL #636
Literature and the Environment
ENGL #650
I Hear America Singing: Studying American Literature and Culture
ENGL #681
Contemporary African Literature
ENGL #690
African American Literature
ENGL 693R
Special Topics in Literature (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL 738
Asian American Studies
ENGL #739
American Indian Literature
ENGL #743R
American Literature, 1865-1915: The Birth of the American Empire
ENGL #749R
Major American Authors
ENGL #773
Literary Modernisms: Return, Revolt, Recycle
ENGL #774R
Modern & Contemporary British Literature: New Departures
ENGL 775
Modern Irish Literature: A Changing Landscape
ENGL 777
The English Novel in the World
ENGL 782
Modern and Contemporary Drama
ENGL 784
English Novel of the 19th Century
ENGL 787
English Major Seminar (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL #787R
English Major Seminar (if topic is appropriate)
ENGL 797R
Special Studies in Literature (Race & Racial Theories) (if topic is appropriate)
Race, the Construction of Race, and Racial Theory Courses
ENGL 440A
On Race in Culture and Society
ENGL #549
In the Groove: African American Music as Literature
ENGL 550
Introduction to the Literature and Culture of Race
ENGL #560
Introduction to Latinx Literature and Culture
ENGL #585R
Introduction to Women in Literature
ENGL #609
Ethnicity in America: The African American Experience in the 20th Century
ENGL 650R
I Hear America Singing: Studying American Literature and Culture
ENGL #690
African American Literature
ENGL 693
Special Topics in Literature (subtopic R)
ENGL 693R
Special Topics in Literature
ENGL 738
Asian American Studies
ENGL #739
American Indian Literature
ENGL #743R
American Literature, 1865-1915: The Birth of the American Empire
ENGL #749R
Major American Authors
ENGL #758R
Advanced Shakespeare
ENGL #774R
Modern & Contemporary British Literature: New Departures
ENGL 778
Race and Gender in Film and Popular Culture
ENGL #787R
English Major Seminar
ENGL 797R
Special Studies in Literature (Race & Racial Theories)

Please see your advisor if you have questions about other courses that might fulfill these requirements.

All undergraduate English majors acquire the same core skills. These include:

  • Proficiency in analytical writing, critical thinking, and public-speaking.
  • Knowledge of important literary genres and subgenres
  • Fluency in literary terminology,
  • A broad understanding of British-and-American literature, from the medieval period in England and the moment of first contact in America to the present day.
  • Demonstrated proficiency in writing an analytical essay that offers a sophisticated close-reading or explication of a literary text. This essay will have a clear thesis and proceed in a logical fashion, with interpretive claims supported by evidence from the text.
  • Demonstrated proficiency in literary research and in writing an extended thesis-driven research paper in which sources are correctly and responsibly cited.
  • Demonstrated understanding of how to read across the color line in the US and /or how to analyze literary works written in English from outside the UK and the US--from India, Africa, and the Caribbean, for example.

 

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