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Experience Small Class Sizes at Every Level 

In first year, English, you are not one of hundreds: of your two 3.0-unit courses, one includes small-group tutorials, and the other is capped at 60 students. 

In second year, ENGL290 is a seminar focusing on a single text for a whole term: here you get a hands-on experience to build your skills in literary interpretation in a group you come to know well. 

Third-year courses range in size from 25 to 50, combining lecture, discussion, small-group, and collaborative work over the whole academic year to create deep knowledge and community. 

In fourth year, all courses are seminar format, and you will initiate your own research topics and presentations. 

Combine Creative and Analytical Work

All literary reading is creative: that is, we define texts as literary when they invite or demand a conversation between our own experience, imagination, or knowledge and what the author offers us. In academic courses, we are expected to defend our interpretive arguments with evidence from the text, but still, our personal response is key to generating interesting and compelling arguments. Most upper-year seminars offer options for creative assignments. And the Queen’s English Department also offers Creative Writing courses, in which you develop your own voice under the guidance of an expert writer and in dialogue with your peers. 

Find Your Passion

The English Department is small enough to foster a strong sense of community among students, but large enough to offer you a diverse array of courses. Our first-year courses have a range of focuses including the supernatural, the environment, songs and poems, romance, and mental health. The breadth continues into subsequent years. Our faculty have a wide range of expertise from contemporary Black literature to Old English, from Creative Writing to Literary Theory. From popular forms like children’s and YA literature to the classics, from Canadian literature to English-language texts from around the world, from medieval poetry to this year’s award winners, you will be able both to follow your interests and discover new ones. 

Choosing an English Plan

Interested in changing your Plan to one offered by the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing? Visit the Change of Plan page on the Arts and Sciences website to learn more. 

The Frequently Asked Questions page is a good resource to address any further queries about our undergraduate degrees. You may also contact the Undergraduate Program Assistant at englishdept@queensu.ca.