The Program Beloit's English department is one of the few in the country to offer majors in three separate programs. Each major begins with a core curriculum in the methods of literary study, traditions of English-language literature, and creative advanced expository writing. After these courses, each major becomes distinct. The Majors Along with a variety of literature courses, Creative Writing majors focus their studies on various forms of composition. Students begin composition in the two major modes of writing, poetry and fiction, then specialize by choosing from among several advanced courses in poetry writing, play writing, fiction writing, and non-fiction magazine writing.
Students receive extensive comments about their writing from their professor and their peers.
A public reading or a publication of one's writing is the capstone of the major. Literary Studies majors examine literature as a living part of the culture from which it springs. Students analyze contemporary rhetorical artifacts, print advertisements, political speech, literature, electronic images, etc., while they learn how to build their own arguments. The English department is also the principal sponsor of an interdisciplinary minor in Journalism with English courses in both newspaper and magazine writing. English department is home to the internationally renowned Beloit Fiction Journal .