Mission Statement:

Our mission is to help students attain literacy and aesthetic appreciation of literature in critical reading, critical thinking, research, writing, and revising. Students study literary texts and learn to apply critical frames to their reading; they master the strategies of rhetoric, voice, and style. English education majors are well equipped for middle and secondary school teaching; English majors achieve literacy skills for graduate study or professional life.

Student Learning Outcomes for all English students:

1. The student understands the research process and demonstrates the ability to use evidence from a variety of sources to communicate and/or persuade.
2. The student demonstrates growth in logical thinking, rhetorical strategies, and literary analysis.
3. The student demonstrates the ability to communicate in writing for a variety of purposes and audiences.
4. The student demonstrates mastery of grammar, usage, and conventions (both in writing and in speaking, as demonstrated in the portfolio texts and the oral defense.)
5. The student demonstrates an understanding of how readers create and discover meaning in a text (both in the written literary criticism and in answers to questions posed in the oral defense.)

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to empower students to create, deliver, and critically evaluate communication across multiple media and communicative modes. Courses equip students to create and deliver clear communication using sound writing, valid evidence, audience awareness, artistic performance, and the most effective medium for the message. Students also learn to critically evaluate messages they receive, while welcoming the power of diverse voices and perspectives. These tightrope skills of respect, understanding, and discernment are the foundations of interpersonal, intercultural, and mediated communication so vital for effective leaders and engaged citizens.

Concentrations are available in the following disciplines:

• Communication

Student Learning Outcomes for all Communication & Theatre students:

1. Students will use verbal communication both clearly and artistically.
2. Students communicate the spoken word clearly, with an awareness of the audience, rhetorical purpose, and the communicative nature of any discourse.
3. Students communicate the spoken word artistically in a way that can fulfill all three goals of classical rhetoric—to teach, to delight, to move.
4. Students will use written communication both clearly and artistically.
5. Students communicate clearly via the written word using American Standard English.
6. Students communicate artistically via the written word with power and conviction, with a sense of audience, and with an understanding of how to move, teach and delight an audience.
7. Students effectively compose using multiple communicative modes in multiple discourses.
8. Students can perform a rhetorical analysis of a communication event, either in writing or orally.

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to help students attain literacy and aesthetic appreciation of literature in critical reading, critical thinking, research, writing, and revising. Students study literary texts and learn to apply critical frames to their reading; they master the strategies of rhetoric, voice, and style. English minors achieve literacy skills for graduate study or professional life.

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Bethany College Communication and Theatre Program is firmly rooted in the mission of the college: to challenge students to perform the spoken word and compose the written word as a means of communication both clearly and artistically, to develop students’ skill using multiple communicative modes in multiple discourses, and to nurture in students a sense of confidence and responsibility in their communication art.