Course Description

Program Description Algoma University’s English program is a unique program, different from other university programs found across the province. Our English faculty are committed to a hands-on learning experience where students are able to establish a personal relationship with their professors. This fosters a very intimate and interactive learning environment. In our classes, we invite and expect students to participate in seminar discussions and lectures by asking questions and sharing ideas. In this way, our students lead classroom discussion. Our program is highly personalized, since students are given the opportunity to pursue topics of interest on assignments, presentations, and essays in regards to works covered in courses. We ask students to become actively aware of historical and contemporary critical readings of the authors and texts we study and to synthesize ways of knowing. Our assignments require students to expand their knowledge by analyzing the readings, using ideas raised in discussions, writing effectively, and discovering their own thoughts and arguments. Our program educates students in modes of thought and methods of investigation that not only enrich the reading and understanding of language and literature, but are applicable to various disciplines outside the study of English. We teach students to be critical in their reading and thinking and clear in their writing and speaking. We encourage students to have a passion for reading, writing, and critically reflecting on the use of language wherever it is written or spoken. Our department offers literature courses in all genres – drama, fiction, poetry, and prose – including writers and thinkers from around the world and from the medieval world to the present period. We also offer courses in creative writing and film. Our faculty have expertise across a range of Canadian, British, American, and postcolonial literatures, and a long-standing commitment to the study of the writers who reflect and shape the cultural histories of the people of the English-speaking world.

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