These departments have provided innovative examples of adding majors, minors and concentrations that will help prospective students see where the major can take them, as well as how it can be combined with a variety of other majors or minors to tailor the student’s studies to their goals.

Today, the English major offers concentrations — something in itself unique among colleges like IC — in literature, writing, and editing and publishing. Minors are also available in those three areas, as well as a new minor in professional writing. The minors can be combined with any major — from biology to business — and will set students apart as “analytical readers and excellent writers” as they apply for jobs or advanced degrees, said Beth Widmaier Capo, Edward Capps Professor of Humanities and professor of English.

“We’ve added the editing and publishing major and minor and the professional writing minor to help students see a clear pathway to careers,” Capo said. “While English as a discipline has always stressed the ability to write well and to understand and analyze a diverse range of written texts and thus prepared students for careers, the professional writing and editing and publishing programs emphasize understanding current professions and the ways that skills in writing and editing, including document design, communication standards and industry practices, lead more directly to careers. They include internships and projects that develop professional work products and relationships.”

Capo said English majors graduate prepared for a variety of careers by developing marketable skills in reading, research, analysis, synthesis, writing and editing. The professional writing minor specifically covers a wide array of writing for professional settings and gives students a way to highlight those skills as they apply for jobs, regardless of the industry. The editing and publishing options develop editing and writing skills and introduce students to the publishing industry.

In addition to emphasizing hands-on experiences in coursework, internships and special projects, students also have the opportunity to work on the College’s undergraduate literary journal, Forte. Students submit written work to Forte and do all of the work to produce the publication — managing and editing submissions, design, and production — under the guidance of a faculty member.

A new major in communication and rhetorical studies also gives students an opportunity to focus in on certain skills in that field of study. The organizational and strategic communication major — just approved during the last academic year — hopes to capture students who are interested in communication and/or business, but are more interested in strategic messaging and management than they are in the technical side of business.

The new major takes the traditional communication discipline and focuses it on the workplace, said Anna Wright, assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies. It is also interdisciplinary, she added. Students in the organizational and strategic communication major will be required to take courses in marketing, as well as in English or art to hone writing or graphic design skills. This new communication major will prepare students for jobs in employee relations, public relations, human resources, recruiting, political communication, sales, customer service, social media management, training and development, project management, and more.

In every organization, Wright said, there are people looking at numbers to ensure goals are met in an economically sustainable way, but there are also people considering internal messaging to employees and external messaging that reaches the public.

“Many students come to college seeking to major in business because it is what they know. I was one of those students as an undergraduate,” Wright said. 

The name of the major alone will be useful to prospective students who want to understand where this specific area of study in communication can take them, Wright said: “The major combines components of organizational communication, which is the study of how communication creates and maintains organizations, and strategic communication, which is the focused communication an organization uses to advance its mission and reach its goals.” 

Curriculum will cover concepts such as how information moves through an organization, organizational decision making, managing crisis, listening to attitudes of customers and employees, creating organizational change, and how technology impacts organizational processes. 

Additionally, Wright said the major was designed so that students can graduate in four years with a double major in marketing and organizational and strategic communication — a marketable combination for students pursuing jobs in businesses in a variety of industries. Where the communication major focuses on messaging, Wright said the marketing major focuses more on economic trends and data analysis to reach marketing goals.

Beth Widmaier Capo is the Edward Capps Professor of Humanities and a professor of English. She holds master’s and doctorate degrees in English from Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include American literature and culture, women's studies and writing. She is the author of Textual Contraception: Birth Control and Modern American Fiction (2007), co-editor of Reproductive Rights Issues in Popular Media: International Perspectives (2017), and has published numerous scholarly articles. She has also co-edited The Palgrave Handbook of Reproductive Justice and Literature, which is expected to be published by Palgrave Macmillan later this year. As a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in American Studies, she taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in Japan.

Anna M. Wright is an assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies. She holds a Master of Science degree in communication studies and a Doctor of Education degree in communication teaching and learning from Illinois State University. Her research interests include instructional communication, communication pedagogy, and elementary and secondary communication education. She is a co-author of Communication for Teachers and Trainers (2019). She has been published in communication journals that include Communication Education, Communication Pedagogy and the Basic Communication Course Annual.