Courses also aim to develop students' abilities to express their ideas orally and in writing.
Courses numbered between 114 and 129 are introductory. Students planning to elect an introductory course in English should refer to the Freshman Handbook, which contains an explanation of the levels of placement and of the guidelines according to which courses should be chosen. The listings below contain a detailed description of each course. It is valuable for students majoring in English to have both a detailed understanding of major poets who have written in English and some acquaintance with the classics of European literature. Ideally, an English major should take both ENGL 125 and ENGL 129, in either order.