English at Marshall University

The short answer is almost anything you want to do.

According to FARK.com, English ranks seventh in popularity among all college majors nationally, so English majors must be doing pretty well out there in the world.

Contrary to the popular myth that an English degree means that you can do nothing other than teach to earn a living, teaching actually ranks third in terms of careers chosen by English majors. First on the list of what English majors become are these jobs: artists, broadcasters, writers, entertainers, and public relations specialists (see Colleen Dilenschneider, brazencareerist.com). Second?: Top and mid-level managers, executives, and administrators.

Of course, many English majors do want to teach at the secondary or college level, and that important work cannot be undertaken by any route other than an English degree (or degrees).

You might be interested to know that 48.4 percent of Humanities majors (which includes English) who apply to medical school are accepted, the highest percentage of acceptance of any course of study applicants have completed. Humanities majors also average the highest scores on the MCAT of all majors represented in the testing population.

Law schools, too, love to admit English majors because, according to lawschoollabyrinth.com, “The biggest payback law school prep activities you can engage in are, generally speaking, reading comprehension, effective writing and analytical reasoning,” which happen to be the precise activities that define the study of English at the university level.

What do all these highly successful people have in common?

• Dr. Seuss
• Julia Stiles (actress, the Bourne movies)
• Mario Cuomo (Former Governor of New York)
• David Duchovny (Star of The X-Files)
• Kathryn Fuller (CEO, World Wildlife Fund)
• Sally Ride (First female astronaut)
• Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court Justice)
• Matt Damon (Actor and Academy-Award winning screenwriter)
• James Cameron (Creator of Titanic)
• Harold Varmus (Nobel laureate in medicine and former director, National Institutes of Health)
• Emma Thompson (Academy-Award winning actress and writer)

They were English majors! With an English degree, you can follow in their footsteps toward success in almost any field.

General-education requirements at Marshall ask all students to complete a six- hour composition sequence. Some students, for whom composition is not a strong point, may need to ENG 099—Skills for Composition before they begin the sequence that will fulfill that requirement. Other students may exempt one or both of the courses in that sequence based on their ACT or SAT verbal scores or get credit for one or both based on AP or IB courses taken prior to enrolling at Marshall. In addition, a number of students complete one or both of the required composition courses through dual-enrollment classes in high school. But however the requirement is satisfied, all students must complete this sequence.

All MU students must also fulfill a 3-credit hour requirement in Humanities as part of their general education. A number of 200-level ENG classes will fulfill this requirement, but students may also satisfy the Humanities portion of the general-education requirements in disciplines other than English: these include Religion, Philosophy, Modern Languages, and Classics.

All students seeking a degree from the College of Liberal Arts at Marshall are required to complete two 3-credit hour literature courses. English has a number of courses that will satisfy this requirement, but Modern Languages and Classics also offer courses that do so.

Other than the composition sequence (and ENG 204, required for Lewis College of Business students), all ENG classes taken by MU students who are not English majors are taken by choice of the students.

Students seeking an overload into any English course must contact the instructor directly to obtain permission for the overload. The instructor will notify the Chair if that permission is granted, and the Chair will add you to the class. No one except the instructor will be able to grant you an overload into an English class.

Contact Dr. Householder (householder@marshall.edu) if you are an undergraduate student. Graduate students should contact Dr. White (whitebe@marshall.edu). If you have tried to contact your advisor and been unsuccessful, please notify the Department office by emailing Ms. Sharp at (sharp24@marshall.edu). If you need to meet with your advisor, it is a good idea to schedule an appointment for that meeting using email. (See email links to all instructors in the Faculty Directory on this website.)

All differences or disagreements between faculty and students are best resolved between those individuals. But if you have tried to reach resolution by talking with your instructor and been unsuccessful, contact the following individuals:

• for ENG 099, 101, or 102: Dr. Douglas (douglaswh@marshall.edu)
• for any 200-, 300-, or 400-level ENG class, Dr. Householder (householder@marshall.edu)
• for any graduate-level course, Dr. White (whitebe@marshall.edu).

None of these individuals will be able to help you unless they have a written summary of your efforts to resolve the situation with your professor before they become involved in the situation.

All instructors should have their office hours on the syllabus that you receive at the beginning of each term. In addition, office hours are posted on or near the door of each instructor’s office and kept on file in the Department office. Finally, your syllabus will be posted electronically using MU Online and/or MyMU. If you got to the instructor’s office at the posted time for office hours and the instructor is not there and there is no explanatory note on the door for students, please contact Ms. Sharp in CH 345 so that she can help you get in touch with your instructor.

All English faculty have offices in Corbly Hall. Those offices can be on the second, third, or fourth floor. Your syllabus will include your instructor’s office number as well as the phone number by which you can reach him or her. In addition, the Department office in CH 346 will have all office assignments on file and can provide you the specific location of your instructor if you don’t have that information with you.

At the beginning of the semester, familiarize yourself with both your instructor’s office location and the location of your classroom. Most, but not all, English classes are on these same floors in Corbly Hall, but your instructor’s office and your classroom will often be on different floors. If you class is in a building other than Corbly Hall, you will need to come to Corbly to meet with your instructor during office hours or by appointment.

All faculty post final grades for their courses as soon as these grades are calculated (and always by the announced University deadline for posting grades each semester). These grades are available through MyMU. Faculty cannot post grades outside their office due to privacy concerns. At the end of the semester, faculty are very busy grading exams and portfolios and calculating students’ final averages. They will post the grades as soon as they can, and they will always be able to do that sooner if they aren’t also trying to respond to questions about when they grades will be ready. If your grade is not posted by the announced deadline, contact the English Department by emailing Ms. Sharp (sharp24@marshall.edu).

Different instructors have different policies about how they want students to submit their work. Many ask for electronic submissions; others prefer hard copies of all work. Still others want hard copies with an electronic submission as back-up. If your instructor states on the syllabus for your course that you may turn in hard copies of your work to her or his office or to his or her mailbox in the Department office, you should submit that work exactly as the syllabus states. The Department staff cannot accept work that will not fit into the instructor’s mailbox. Nor can turning in work to the Department office “count” unless the instructor’s syllabus establishes that turning the work in to her or his mailbox is acceptable. Faculty mailboxes are located in Corbly Hall 346. A student worker or a staff person will be glad to assist you in placing the work in the correct mailbox. But that assistance cannot include advocating for the submission’s meeting requirements established by the instructor.

All students majoring in a COLA discipline (which includes English) should schedule both a junior and a senior transcript evaluation through the Associate Dean in the COLA office (OM 107). You need to make an appointment for these evaluations by contacting her (bean@marshall.edu).