Study English at PLU

Whether you choose a concentration in Writing or Literature, an English major will help you understand and practice the creative, critical, and persuasive uses of the written word. Writing and literature are powerful means of understanding the diversity of human experience, critically analyzing society, imagining better worlds, and inspiring others to action.

The Creative Writing Concentration allows students to hone their craft in a variety of genres through intensive writing workshop courses.

The Professional, Public, and Digital Literacies Concentration teaches students skills of effective writing and storytelling for a variety of practical situations – including an emphasis on digital media.

The Literature Concentration allows students to explore the diverse range of literatures written in English – American, British, and Global – to understand how writers have used the creative power of literary expression to understand and engage the world.

The Power of Storytelling…

Human beings are linguistic and storytelling animals. Whatever concentration you pursue, an English major helps you understand and use the imaginative, persuasive, and ethical powers of the written word.

  • to illuminate human experience
  • to move audiences and inspire them to action
  • to complicate our understanding of human nature
  • to communicate across social differences
  • to bear witness to what has happened
  • to recover and honor what has been lost
  • to speak truth to power and erasure
  • to critique existing institutions and imagine different futures
  • and, not least, to give pleasure: through the aesthetic possibilities of language, and
  • through the power of artful writing to express the meaning and beauty of experience.

Meet Our Students!

Marina Foster (’24)

Double major: English Literature and Sociology

“If you come to PLU you’ll have the chance to take some amazing classes with
other engaged students and compelling professors, about topics that foster thinking about the world in new ways — while reading some great books.”

Daniel Bensen (’24)

Double major: English Writing and Biology

I have absolutely loved my time here at PLU. I truly believe in the power of the
Humanities. The English Department has been incredibly flexible with me, and all of my professors have been absolutely fantastic. The chance to develop my skills as a poet and writer has been wonderful. If there’s a place that allows you to take on all the different parts of yourself, it’s PLU.