Students in the English department at Charleston Southern University learn written and oral communication, textual analyses, literary appreciation and research skills that make learning a lifelong experience. You may choose from a general English or writing emphasis, and we also offer an English education degree in coordination with the College of Education.
Students are prepared for a variety of careers in teaching, writing, publishing and other fields.
Sefer, the English department’s literary magazine, publishes the creative writing and artwork of students at CSU every spring. The journal is edited and prepared by students in the English department.
Students should send poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork as attachments to: csu.sefer@gmail.com
Gilmore Creative Writing Award: By submitting your poetry or prose, you will automatically enter your writing in this contest named in honor of the late Margaret T. Gilmore, a long-time employee of CSU and poet.
Cover Art Contest: The staff chooses the cover artwork from the pieces submitted by student artists. Send us your artwork!
Interested in joining the staff?
Contact the faculty advisors: Dr. Celeste McMaster or Prof. Danielle Walters
Charleston Southern University’s accreditation can be found here.
Assistant Professor of English and Interim Department Chair
Norris Hall
P843-863-7281
Embusch@csuniv.edu
CSU has an extremely active chapter of the international English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta. Our Writing Center helps students become better writers. It is a place to talk through your writing and receive feedback from other writers in one-on-one sessions. Through these tutoring sessions, we help students learn to analyze assignments, address audiences appropriately, improve composition processes, strengthen the focus and organization of writing and improve basic grammar, usage and mechanics.
An English major learns to think critically and expansively to understand the links between the humanities and technologies. If you are looking for broad knowledge of literary and cultural studies, plus skills in writing and critical analysis, this degree is for you.
Students interested in a career focused on writing get the opportunity to take classes such as Advanced Creative Writing, Theories and Applications of Grammar and Composition and Workplace and Technical Writing. This emphasis helps hone students’ writing skills for a career after graduation. The emphasis consists of 40 hours and requires a minor. Students will choose classes from a list of writing emphasis electives to complete along with their English degree classes.
Interested in teaching English at the high school level? Click here to learn more.
With every passing year that I am in the business world, I grow increasingly more thankful for the time I spent at CSU. I came to CSU as a second year transfer student from a highly selective, academically rigorous state school. I say this only because that transfer experience gave me valuable insight into CSU that I may not have had otherwise. In that first semester after my transfer, I was required to repeat several class equivalents because the credits did not transfer. This proved to be a valuable endeavor. The professors in the CSU English department covered the same literary works, led rich, thought-provoking discussions in the same ways I was accustomed, assigned challenging topics of research and did it all in classes one quarter the size of what I’d experienced before. The academic rigor and the challenge to hone my skills in critical thinking, research, writing and beyond were all present; yet, the individualized attention and focus on truly personal relationships was like nothing I’d yet experienced, and it changed my life. Every day in work and in life, I use the skills and knowledge of English and self that I gleaned while at CSU. I am forever grateful for the time I spent there.
Katie Lee DePoppe / English, ’11Director of Culture & Brand Relations, Chick-fil-A franchise
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