The English major at Humboldt State University offers students a solid foundation in the humanities with emphasis on the skills in reading, writing, and reasoning that can serve as a basis for graduate-level study, as well as for many careers. Our faculty can assure students of individual attention in the design and planning of their particular Pathways. Since the richness of historical knowledge, criticism, the study of language, close reading, and written expression can never be exhausted, the underlying goal of the major is to provide students with the flexible skills needed to approach fresh contexts rather than with a fixed body of knowledge. The core courses have been designed to give beginning students a breadth of literary experience, and then, as they attain more knowledge of the discipline, the Pathways provide a deeper understanding of language, literature, critical theory, and writing. This progression will be maintained through a series of courses with variable topics in these areas at the upper-division level.<br><br>The general goals of the University include providing opportunities for disciplined examination of past and present human experience. The English major achieves this goal by introducing students to great works of the creative imagination in which this experience is vividly revealed and recorded. Students are required to study the medium used to render this experience and to learn to use the English language more proficiently themselves to convey their developing knowledge. Thus the English major prepares students for advanced academic work, for a wide variety of career opportunities, and for positions of leadership in society.<br><br>The Writing Practices concentration offers study in digital texts, content production, rhetorical theory, writing for social change, editing and publishing, and creative writing (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction). Students in any concentration have the opportunity to join the editorial team for Toyon Literary Magazine by taking ENGL460. A second course associated with Toyon is ENGL461, a course that also provides an introduction to a range of skills a writer may need in their career pathway (grant-writing, fellowship applications, publicity concerns, audio and digital content creation, resume-writing and interviewing, etc.).