The Literature and Writing Studies Department is a scholarly community of students and faculty committed to innovative teaching and learning. Critical reading, writing, and thinking occur in and serve a range of communities: local, regional, global, and historical. Therefore, we value the following principles:

Cultural Studies and Diversity Studies: Cultural studies and diversity studies are central to our community. These two interdisciplinary approaches to the study of texts include consideration of perspectives such as gender, class, sexuality, disability, nationalism, ethnicity, and race. Cultural studies and diversity studies are fundamental to literary and writing studies and provide intellectual tools that enrich our analysis of texts within and across cultures.

Canon Formation: Cultures, local and international, contemporary and historical, create canons. Canons are a significant result of each culture’s literary community. Therefore, comprehending canons, canon formation, and non-canonical texts is essential to understanding and contributing to literary and writing traditions.

Theory and History: Theory and history serve as tools to help us explore and demonstrate our understanding of texts within and across cultures. A range of theoretical approaches and historical knowledge provide us with necessary thinking tools.

Reading: Meaningful analysis requires careful reading. Engaging in close reading makes it possible to takes account of rhetorical, prosodic, and other formal features. It also provides a careful grounding in the ideological, cultural, and institutional contexts in which meaning is produced and enriches our understanding of texts and the cultures from which they come.

Writing: Creating and presenting texts and related media in a variety of genres enriches our understanding of the constructed nature of literary materials. The ability to produce clear and compelling communication in writing is fundamental to literary and writing studies. Translations and Changing Meanings: Understanding that the translation of texts across languages changes the meanings of these texts is crucial to interpretive skill-building. A reading knowledge of at least one language other than English is desirable for an advanced understanding of literature and writing in a global context.

About the Major

The Literature and Writing Studies Department (formerly the English Department) provides three emphases:  literature, writing, and a  "waiver" option for students who wish to apply for a secondary teaching credential or who prefer a major that more equally balances literature and writing than the first two options.  In all major options, there is a "core curriculum" of courses requireed for the degree. Students are encouraged to begin enrolling in these core courses as soon as possible, preferably the semester they begin work on their major.  Three- and four-hundred level courses may be taken with junior standing (or with consent of the instructor) and in any order, although higher-numbered courses may presume more background than those with lower numbers. We also offer five-hundred level courses that may be taken by advanced undergraduates as well as graduate students.

Programs Offered:

• Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Writing Studies: (Lit Emphasis or Writing Emphasis)
• Single Subject Preparation Program Option ("waiver")
• Minor in Literature and Writing Studies
• Master of Arts in Literature and Writing Studies

LTWR BA: Literature Emphasis

In keeping with the multicultural and interdisciplinary philosophy of Cal State San Marcos' Mission Statement, the literature major provides students with a global literary experience, which may be best described under the general rubric of "cultural studies."  In its broadest sense, this term implies that literature and other cultural artifacts are studied as reflections and expressions of the cultures that value them.  Studied in this context, literature is viewed not only in terms of its form and style, its relation to previous traditions and genres, its rhetoric and language, but in terms of its use in constructing social and cultural identities.  Cultural studies may involve comparative approaches between "high" and "low" forms of expression; it may concern itself with new kinds of media (film, video, computers); it usually involves issues of social status, gender, ethnicity, and national demographics; it often examines relationships between various kinds of cultural documents (historical records, archives, newspapers, novels). 

From a pedagogical point of view, cultural studies stresses cross-cultural contexts of a given literature, exploring not only the dominant literary tradition of a culture, but also the indigenous, marginalized or unrecognized literatures within that tradition.  These "literatures" take multiple forms: oral tale, comic book, folk narrative, national epic, or avant garde poem.

The design of the literature emphasis reflects many recent movements in literary criticism and research. Our approach is not a method of teaching or scholarship so much as an attitude towards literariness such that writer, text, and audience are linked in a dynamic, on-going dialogue. Studying literature within cultural studies means going outside of the traditional canon, drawing upon research in related fields of history, sociology, visual arts, ethno-musicology, media theory and political science.  At the same time, the major encourages greater concern for the material and formal nature of artifacts that, until recently, were thought to be transparent vehicles for self-evident ideas.  To study a literary text implies that we address the "cultural text" as well.

LTWR BA: Writing Emphasis

The writing emphasis provides directed experience in writing expository prose, fiction, poetry for various media or professional audiences, as well as intensive work in practical criticism and rhetorical theory.  An integral feature of the program places emphasis on student interaction through peer-groups.  Students who are developing themselves as writers will find courses regularly offered in various genres to develop their own style and breadth of experience in composing and criticism. Those  interested in the teaching of writing will find the major a context both for writing extensively and for dealing critically with the act of written composition.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students in the Department of Literature and Writing Studies develop critical reading and writing skills and learn to recognize that effective thinking and writing about texts must be informed by knowledge about relevant local, global, and disciplinary contexts. We have designed our departmental curriculum to help students develop and demonstrate the following abilities:

1. Clear and compelling communication in writing, speech, and other media;
2. Close textual analysis informed by a range of critical and theoretical approaches;
3. Knowledge of canons, alternative traditions, and their formation; and
4. Interpretation of multicultural and international texts in their local and global contexts.

We recognize that good reading knowledge of at least one language other than English is necessary for an advanced understanding of literature and writing, especially since the translation of texts from other languages changes their meaning.

Assessment of these learning outcomes occurs in a variety of ways: students are asked in our classes to complete many different kinds of writing assignments, including short essay exams, in-class responses, reading journals, research papers, thesis-driven essays, oral reports, and collaborative writing projects.

Special Conditions for the Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Writing Studies:

1. Courses taken to satisfy General Education requirements may not be used to satisfy the requirements in the major.
2. Credit/No Credit grading may be counted toward the major only for LTWR 495 and 499.
3. Elective units in literature and writing studies may be used toward a minor in another discipline.  Consult the appropriate program coordinator or faculty advisor for further information.
4. Course substitutions must be approved by petition to the Literature and Writing Studies Curriculum Committee.
5. All courses taken for the major must be completed with a grade of C (2.0) or better.
6. All five-hundred level courses have the prerequisite of either LTWR 300A or LTWR 300B.