Department of English
and Communication Studies

Texas Lutheran University offers a unique perspective for studying both English and communications through its innovative joint department. Combining traditional literary inquiry with more recent exploration into media and technology, the department of English and communication studies offers the best of both worlds through an individual major in either English studies or communication studies, or through an increasingly marketable double major.

English Studies

The English studies major provides students with an understanding and appreciation of the English language and its most important texts. This understanding and appreciation is built on the foundation provided by survey courses in American (both ethnic and mainstream), British and world literatures. In these courses, students gain knowledge of literary forms and the cultural and historical circumstances that these forms and their interpretations shape and reflect.

Courses focusing on linguistic structures, rhetorical devices and composition (both technical and creative) ensure that all English studies majors complement their knowledge of literature with the equally important understanding of the language in general. Supporting course work in communication studies, other languages and philosophy links the knowledge students gain in their English studies courses with larger cultural concerns. Ultimately, TLU English studies majors graduate with a useful balance of broad literary and cultural knowledge and a more focused, in-depth concentration of a specific writer, period or genre.

Communication Studies

The communication studies major introduces students to the process of communicating, including the symbolic and informational nature of messages themselves and the cultural and experiential process by which people learn to share meaning in the communicative situation. The major encourages students to learn to think critically about communication in a variety of organizational, group, interpersonal and mediated contexts through coursework designed to move them toward practical engagement with real-world problems of culture, identity, conflict and technological change.

The communication studies major teaches students the oral, written and visual communication skills employers desire while emphasizing argument, theory, research and collaborative work. The major teaches students a variety of theories of communication and insists that the students be able to apply those theories to the analysis and practice of everyday communication situations from the family to the international arena, from the Internet to the silver screen and from the corporation to the classroom. A communication studies major will be able to not only understand, but also to skillfully adapt to these diverse communication environments.
 

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Career Opportunities
The department teaches students to be intelligent producers and consumers of messages. This approach gives students mental training and habits that will be beneficial to those wishing to enter the fields of:

• Journalism
• Media production
• Teaching
• Technological services
• Law
• Public relations
• Publishing

 
Further Education
Students who wish to pursue graduate studies will be prepared for most programs in the humanities, including:

• Communication
• Cultural studies
• Mass communication
• Justice studies
• Ethnic studies
• Gender studies
• Ministry